Gabriel García Márquez: The Architect of Magical Realism

By: Maria Blanco Marroig

Only one of the greatest minds in Spanish literature can present the strange and peculiar occurrences in life as something ordinary. Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most influential writers in Spanish literature and is known as the founding father of Magical Realism. He was born on March 6th, 1927, in Aracataca Colombia and passed away on April 17th, 2014, in Mexico City. He was a novelist and short story writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and many other awards. Márquez originally studied journalism and worked as a writer for Colombian newspaper “El Espectador” in Bogota. Eventually, he would immerse himself in the world of literature by accident, as he started writing simply to prove that his generation was capable of great writers. Curiously, he fell in love with writing to the point where writing became a time-consuming obsession. He would go on to carefully craft a special way of writing that made him recognizable.

During an interview for “The New Yorker” Marquéz speaks about the massive impact that the works of Franz Kafka’s had on him, especially “The Metamorphosis”. He found himself intrigued and obsessed with creating something that would replicate what in his eyes was a literary masterpiece. This passion and curiosity that Marquéz developed for the mystery he discovered in Kafka’s works are what shaped what we call Magical Realism. Before he knew it in 18 months, he had been able to achieve something greater than Kafka, something bigger than literature as we know it. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is the book that would not only change his life forever but perfectly demonstrate the essence of his magic. The book explored the phenomenon of semantic dementia where a plague of insomnia affects the city of Macondo. People slowly begin to lose their minds, due to their sleepless nights. They would begin to forget the words for things and concepts. To plain sight his writing seems surreal and most importantly extraordinary. His novel is described by many as magical, yet Márquez didn’t believe it was anything close to that at all. He describes his work as a collection of “Lived experiences” and that all his work is based on reality. Demonstrating that Márquez had a mind of his own; magical yet mundane.

You would find Gabriel García Márquez between cups of coffee and a passion to explain the inexplicable. Put simply, he described something that was not there yet felt so real and palpable in every sentence he wrote, the magic that we know him today for. He would continue to write fundamental books in his career like “Relato de un Naufrago” and the timeless “Amor en Tiempos de Cólera”. His days as a journalist shaped greatly his perspective on his work. He often explained that when you read the newspaper you realize how many extraordinary things happen right in front of you. He was a man who saw in black and white and wrote in colors that shone through every page of his books. The world around him was his muse and his gift was not his ability to write but instead the way he can intertwine fantasy and reality so close together yet never crossing the bounds.

In the same interview with “The New Yorker” he talks about how fantasy and reality go hand in hand. He explains that it is not necessary to demonstrate facts for something to be true; it is only necessary for the author to have written it, the only proof being the power of their ability to narrate it. Márquez was able to do what no other writer had been able to do, narrate things in a way that had not been done before and provoke a feeling that no one knew was possible. Between the lines of every single book, he has written lies a simple reality that constantly contradicts itself in the mind of readers as it travels through the thin border between what is fantasy and reality.