Read Online Gabriel García Márquez by Ilan Stavans - Free Book Online
Authors: Ilan Stavans
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Renowitsky, who would later become a prominent journalist and editor of
El Heraldo.
In 1941, GarcÃa Márquez went home to Sucre because of health problems. Upon his return to the Colegio San José, he wrote his first narrative exercises for the school magazine,
Juventud,
a modest endeavor promoted by Jesuits to help students develop their talents.
The middle-class status of the GarcÃa Márquezes, however, were at peril. The family was by that time in a deep financial crisis. Gabriel Eligio was barely able to make ends meet. This prompted GarcÃa Márquez to return home once again in January 1943. He had two options: stay home with his six siblings or find a way to complete his high school education. He decided to travel to Bogotá with some letters of recommendation in hand to seek a scholarship from the Ministerio de Educación. He wanted to do his
liceo,
known elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world as
bachillerato,
the equivalent of high school, in the countryâs capital. He felt he needed more space for himself and a chance to see the world from a broader perspective.
Bogotá, located almost at the geographic center of Colombia, generated in him both nervousness and anticipation. While there he received a scholarship to the prestigious all-boys schoolLiceo Nacional de Varones de Zipaquirá; it marked his rising status as a student.
Zipaquiráâin the Cundinamarca Department, some twenty to thirty miles from Bogotá but now considered part of the metropolitan areaâwas known for its salt reservoirs and grand cathedral. (The name Zipaquirá means in Chibcha, the language of the Muisca Indians, âThe Land of the Zipa,â Zipa being the territoryâs king.) It was there, in high school where GarcÃa Márquez first reflected on political issues. Years later, he recalled that âthe place was full of teachers whoâd been taught by a Marxist in the Teachers Training College under President Alfonso Lópezâs leftist government in the thirties. The algebra teacher would give us classes on historical materialism during break, the chemistry teacher would lend us books by Lenin and the history teacher would tell us about the class struggle. When I left that icy prison I had no idea where north and south were but I did have two very strong convictions. One was that good novels must be a poetic transposition of reality, and the other was that mankindâs immediate future lay in socialism.â 4
During that period, GarcÃa Márquez discovered the writers of the Spanish Golden Age, including Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, Luis de Góngora y Argote, Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Henao, and Tirso de Molina. For centuries this literary constellation had exercised enormous influence on the Spanish Americas, establishing the way poetry was written, in a baroque, self-conscious style. He discovered their sonnets, villancicos, and redondillas and tried his hand at poetry. None of those early literary efforts survive.
Just as he was finishing high school (GarcÃa Márquez graduated from the
liceo
at the age of nineteen on December 12, 1946), 5 love struck during a ball in Sucre, where he met thirteen-year-old Mercedes Barcha Prado. Born in Maganguéon November 6, 1932, Mercedes was the eldest daughter of a family of Mediterranean immigrants. Her great-grandfather was Syrian, and her grandfather was from Alexandria, Egypt. Her father was an Arab businessman who ran pharmacies and grocery stores. GarcÃa Márquez asked Mercedes to marry him immediately after the ball, although the marriage would not take place until more than a decade later, after he had lived not only in other Colombian cities but in Rome, Paris, and London and had traveled extensively throughout Europe. Years later he told his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, âLooking back, I think the proposal was the metaphorical way of getting around all the
El Heraldo.
In 1941, GarcÃa Márquez went home to Sucre because of health problems. Upon his return to the Colegio San José, he wrote his first narrative exercises for the school magazine,
Juventud,
a modest endeavor promoted by Jesuits to help students develop their talents.
The middle-class status of the GarcÃa Márquezes, however, were at peril. The family was by that time in a deep financial crisis. Gabriel Eligio was barely able to make ends meet. This prompted GarcÃa Márquez to return home once again in January 1943. He had two options: stay home with his six siblings or find a way to complete his high school education. He decided to travel to Bogotá with some letters of recommendation in hand to seek a scholarship from the Ministerio de Educación. He wanted to do his
liceo,
known elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world as
bachillerato,
the equivalent of high school, in the countryâs capital. He felt he needed more space for himself and a chance to see the world from a broader perspective.
Bogotá, located almost at the geographic center of Colombia, generated in him both nervousness and anticipation. While there he received a scholarship to the prestigious all-boys schoolLiceo Nacional de Varones de Zipaquirá; it marked his rising status as a student.
Zipaquiráâin the Cundinamarca Department, some twenty to thirty miles from Bogotá but now considered part of the metropolitan areaâwas known for its salt reservoirs and grand cathedral. (The name Zipaquirá means in Chibcha, the language of the Muisca Indians, âThe Land of the Zipa,â Zipa being the territoryâs king.) It was there, in high school where GarcÃa Márquez first reflected on political issues. Years later, he recalled that âthe place was full of teachers whoâd been taught by a Marxist in the Teachers Training College under President Alfonso Lópezâs leftist government in the thirties. The algebra teacher would give us classes on historical materialism during break, the chemistry teacher would lend us books by Lenin and the history teacher would tell us about the class struggle. When I left that icy prison I had no idea where north and south were but I did have two very strong convictions. One was that good novels must be a poetic transposition of reality, and the other was that mankindâs immediate future lay in socialism.â 4
During that period, GarcÃa Márquez discovered the writers of the Spanish Golden Age, including Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio, Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, Luis de Góngora y Argote, Pedro Calderón de la Barca y Henao, and Tirso de Molina. For centuries this literary constellation had exercised enormous influence on the Spanish Americas, establishing the way poetry was written, in a baroque, self-conscious style. He discovered their sonnets, villancicos, and redondillas and tried his hand at poetry. None of those early literary efforts survive.
Just as he was finishing high school (GarcÃa Márquez graduated from the
liceo
at the age of nineteen on December 12, 1946), 5 love struck during a ball in Sucre, where he met thirteen-year-old Mercedes Barcha Prado. Born in Maganguéon November 6, 1932, Mercedes was the eldest daughter of a family of Mediterranean immigrants. Her great-grandfather was Syrian, and her grandfather was from Alexandria, Egypt. Her father was an Arab businessman who ran pharmacies and grocery stores. GarcÃa Márquez asked Mercedes to marry him immediately after the ball, although the marriage would not take place until more than a decade later, after he had lived not only in other Colombian cities but in Rome, Paris, and London and had traveled extensively throughout Europe. Years later he told his friend Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, âLooking back, I think the proposal was the metaphorical way of getting around all the
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