Student Sample: Gabriel García Márquez            By Marlene Barboza

Student Sample I am creating a student sample for my students in my Spanish class . I will build a presentation step by step to explain to the students how it’s done. They will be placed in groups of four and each group will be assigned an author from Latin America. They will have to research and create a presentation on the author’s life and some of his or her work, including relevant history from the author’s country.

Gabriel García Márquez He was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 6, 1928. He was raised by his maternal grandparents and his grandfather was a coronel, which becames a character in his novel. Márquez was sent to Rome for a newspaper assignment and since then he has lived in exile in New York, Barcelona, Mexico, and Paris. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982

Colombia’s Political History Colombia became independent from Spain in the year 1810. In 1849, the country's two main political parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, began a power struggle. This power struggle exists still today. Marquez concentrated on these two political parties in some of his novels. The Liberals and the Conservatives parties are known for being corrupt and greed overtakes their civil responsibilities.

The Banana Strike of 1928 The Banana Strike was another important date that changed the author’s philosophy on life. The United Fruit Company was involved with the export bananas and exploiting the Colombian workers. One of the main places where this happened was in Marquez’ home town of Aracataca. In October 1928, over 32,000 native workers went on strike. They were demands included hygienic working conditions, medical treatment, functioning toilets, and payment in cash rather than inflated company scrip.

La Violencia La Violencia, or the Violence episode, was a moment in Marquez life that changed the way Colombia is seen today. This episode in Colombia’s history is full of drug trafficking, exploiting the government, and kidnapping of rich and poor citizens.

García Márquez Literature He won the Novel Prize in Literature for his short stories and novels. His novels and short stories are full of fantasies and reality. He is known as a short-story writer, screen writer, novelist, and a journalist. Two of his most popular novels are One Hundred Years of Solitude, (1967), and Love in the Time of Cholera, (1985). His work is filled of fantasy and solitude. Another theme that is presented in several novels and stories is the corruption that exists in Colombia.                           

García Márquez Literature Corruption and the drug cartels from Colombia are presented in several plays and stories. For this reason he had to leave Colombia for speaking about the corruptness of his country. Although, García Márquez does portray the corrupt nature and the injustices of times like la violencia, he refuses to use his work as a platform for political propaganda. In News of Kidnapping,(1996) he tells the story of a group of people that have power in the Colombian government that were kidnapped. They were taken by the Medellin Cartel operated by Pablo Escobar.                            

Bibliography "Gabriel Garcia Marquez Macondo." The Modern World. 2003. The Omphalo. 24 Mar 2009 <http://www.themodernword.com/gabo/gabo_biography.html>. "Gabriel García Márquez." Nobel Prize org. 2009. Nobel Prize org. 24 Mar 2009 <http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-bio.html>. "Gabriel Garcia Marquez." Nobel Prize Internet Archive. 2003. Nobel Prize Internet Archive. 24 Mar 2009 <http://almaz.com/nobel/literature/1982a.html>.