Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2017) was Colombia’s most famous writer. He’s commonly referred to as Gabo.
Nobel Prize Winner
In 1982, Gabo was awarded the Nobel Literature prize. Not the only award he received during his long, productive career characterized by his “magical realism” style.
Magical Realism
Magical realism as the expression implies, injects magical events in an otherwise realistic depiction of life.
His Body of Work
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad) is considered his masterpiece, but most are more familiar with his other major novel, Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en los tiempos del cólera) which was turned into a movie. Even though he spent a large part of his latter days living elsewhere (he died in Mexico), Colombia was frequently the setting of his novels. Overall, he wrote 10 novels but he also authored works of non-fiction, short stories, and was a prolific journalist.
Controversy
Gabo was an intimate friend of Fidel Castro, frequently visiting him in Cuba, and wrote for a newspaper sponsored by the Cuban regime. Gabo’s left leaning politics were frequently present in his works. Nevertheless he is recognized as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
You can read more about Gabo here: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gabriel-Garcia-Marquez
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Photo of Gabo obtained under Creative Commons license.
