1. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Background on Colombia
Biography
Magical Realism

2. History of Colombia Spanish colony until 1810
General Murillo reconquers country
reliberated by Simon Bolivar, who became Colombia’s first president
beginning of feud between two political factions: Liberals and Conservatives

3. History of Colombia
1800s - Country nearly always in a state of civil war
Unrest between regional groups
Coast = Liberals
Mountains = Conservatives

4. History of Colombia Imperialism
American-run United Fruit Company comes to Colombia (Aracataca) in 1910
Banana Strike Massacre
American United Fruit Company took economic control and exploited Colombian people
Conservative government killed unarmed workers holding a demonstration
Denied by government and removed from history books

5. GGM Photos

6. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Early Life
Born in 1928 (some say 1927) in Aracataca, a small town near the Caribbean coast of Colombia
Parents were poor and had 12 children
Gabriel (aka Gabito or Gabo) was the oldest child

7. GGM: Early Life Lived with his mother’s parents until the age of 8
Grandparents against parents’ marriage for political and military reasons
Influenced by grandparents
Began writing stories as a child

8. GGM: Early Life Grandfather Grandmother
Military career - led Aracataca to become a Liberal town
Storyteller
GGM’s closest bond
Represented in some of GGM’s characters
Told GGM there’s no greater burden than to kill a man
Grandmother
Storyteller - Superstitious - blurred lines between living and dead

9. GGM: Early Life
At age 8, moved back with parents to river port of Sucre
Town in Chronicle is modeled after Sucre
Attended boarding school

10. GGM: University
One of his professors would later become president of Colombia
Classmates with Camilo Torres - active in guerilla movement later in life
Studied law, but dropped out of law school in 1950

11. History of Colombia La Violencia - 150,000 Colombians killed by 1953
Liberal Jorge Gaitan investigated Banana Massacre
Conservatives terrorized Liberal voters, murdering them
Gaitan became party leader
Gaitan assassinated
3 days of deadly riots
Guerilla soldiers killed 2500
Peasants fled to Venezuela

12. World Events
tyrant ruler Fulgencio Batista fled Cuba and Fidel Castro took power
Colombian dictatorship in full force- curfews, news blackouts - dictator fled
Cuban Revolution

13. GGM: Middle Years Lived in a brothel
Friends with and taken care of by prostitutes
Portrays prostitutes favorably in his novels
Lived in and worked in many countries
France
Cuba
Mexico
England
United States

14. GGM: Middle Years - Marriage
Married Mercedes Barcha
Childhood sweetheart
Known as “the sacred crocodile” due to Egyptian origin
He first proposed when he was only 13

15. GGM: Middle Years After Cuban Revolution, returned to Central America
Worked as a journalist and a screenwriter
First newspaper jobs - wrote about various topics: astrology, twins, the length of women’s skirts
As a journalist, worked for magazines and newspapers, some of which had political overtones

16. GGM: Political Conflict
returned to Colombia only to be accused by the government of funding a guerilla group
Promptly fled to Mexico

17. Covers of Chronicle

18. GGM: Writing Known for Magical Realism
Has said his stories came from an image and not an idea
Published Chronicle of a Death Foretold in 1981
Supposedly, Fidel Castro helped him edit it!
Won Nobel Prize for literature in 1982
Known for Magical Realism
Most famous novels:
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Love in the Time of Cholera

19. GGM: Writing Major literary influence: Read works of:
Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (we’re reading this!)
Taught him that narrative didn’t have to unfold by a traditional plot
Read works of:
Faulkner
Hemingway
Joyce
Virginia Woolf

20. Magical Realism
Originally used in 1920s by German art critic Franz Roh to describe a style of painting
Mixes realism with fantasy, supernatural, and dreamlike elements or references to myths and fairy tales

21. Magical Realism Setting is “normal,” not fantasy
Time seems timeless - not chronological - shifts
Narrative sounds reliable despite fantasy elements
Challenges polar opposites like life and death by linking them
Ordinary events and descriptions

22. Magical Realism Horror The inexplicable
Strong narrative drive - contains a message
Fantasy elements never explained

23. Another example of Magical Realism

24. Amelie A French film from 2001 Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Delicatessen (1991)
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Classified as Magical Realism

25. Amelie Audrey Tautou Plays Amelie
You know her from The Da Vinci Code (Sophie Neveu)
Originally Emily Watson was supposed to play Amelie
Couldn’t speak French
Another commitment in London

26. Amelie Mathieu Kassovitz Dominique Pinon Jamel Debbouze Plays Nino
You may recognize him from Munich
Dominique Pinon
Plays Joseph
Also starred in Delicatessen
Jamel Debbouze
Plays Lucien
Made a rap featuring Snoop Dogg