Gabriel Garcia Mrquez

"Magical realism expands the categorizes of the real so as to encompass myth, magic and other extraordinary phenomena in Nature or experience which European realism excluded."
~Gabriel Garca Mrquez, eds. Bernard
McGuirk and Richard Cardwell, 45

Short Biography
Born in Aracataca, Colombia, on March 6, 1928oldest of 12 children Studied journalism at the National University of Colombia in Bogota and at the University of Cartagena Worked as a screenwriter, journalist, and a publicist. In 1954 returned to Bogota, as a reporter for El Espectador In 1958 married Mercedes Barcha. (claimed that she was 13 when he first proposed.) First child, Rodrigo, born August 24, 1959 In 1973, founded a left-wing magazine, Alternativa, in Bogota and participated in the Russell Tribunal to publicize human rights abuses in Latin America. Currently lives and travels both in Columbia and Mexico

Dominant Themes
Myth/legend/fantasy vs reality Man/woman relationships War Violence Injustice Love Poverty vs wealth Family Religion

Major Works
(in translation)

No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories. Tr. J. S. Bernstein. New York: Harper, 1968. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1970. Leaf Storm and Other Stories. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1972. The Autumn of the Patriarch. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1976. Innocent Erndira and Other Stories. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1978. In Evil Hour. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1979. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Tr. Gregory Rabassa. New York: Harper, 1983. Collected Stories. Tr. Gregory Rabassa and J. S. Bernstein. New York: Harper, 1984. The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor (nonfiction). Tr. Randolph Hogan. New York: Knopf, 1986. Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littn (nonfiction). Tr. Asa Zatz. New York: Holt, 1987. Love in the Time of Cholera. Tr. Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 1988. The General in His Labyrinth. Tr. Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 1990. Strange Pilgrims: Stories. Tr. Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 1993. Of Love and Other Demons. Tr. Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 1995. News of a Kidnapping (nonfiction). Tr. Edith Grossman. New York: Knopf, 1997. 2001, Vivir para contarla, or To Live to Tell It (first volume of his autobiography

Awards and Recognition

1961 he won the Esso Literary Prize in Colombia for

In Evil Hour
Garcia Marquez has also condemned the use of the death penalty

1969, won the Chianchiano Prize in Italy for One

Hundred Years of Solitude

1971, Rmulo Gallegos Prize and the Neustadt Prize 1981 awarded the French Legion dHonneur 1982 Nobel Laureate in Literature