World leaders pay tribute to Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Colombian author praised as a literary giant who changed Latin Americans' thinking, after his death at the age of 87
Tributes flooded in yesterday from the great and the good and the humble for the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, following his death at the age of 87. Considered perhaps the most popular Spanish-language writer since Miguel de Cervantes in the 17th century, the Colombian-born Nobel laureate achieved literary celebrity that spawned comparisons to Mark Twain and Charles Dickens.
Echoing the title of the novelist’s best known work, A Hundred Years of Solitude, Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, said: “A thousand years of loneliness and sadness for the death of the greatest Colombian of all time!”
President Barack Obama said: “With the passing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the world has lost one of its greatest visionary writers - and one of my favourites from the time I was young. I offer my thoughts to his family and friends, whom I hope take solace in the fact that Gabo’s work will live on for generations to come.”
Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, who had once famously feuded with Garcia Marquez. reflected: “A great man has died, one whose works gave the literature of our language great reach and prestige.”
In Mexico City, where Gabriel Garcia Marquez had lived for more than four decades, thousands went to pay their respects outside his house in the south of the capital following the announcement of his death on Thursday, leaving yellow roses, a flower favoured by the writer.
His body was taken to a nearby funeral home where family members said it would be cremated in a private ceremony. An event to pay homage to him was announced for Monday in Mexico City’s imperious Palace of Fine Arts.
Mourners told stories of how the writer had reached them personally with his popular touch, melancholy romanticism and surreal telling of Latin America’s deep problems.
“When I first read a Hundred Years of Solitude it changed the whole way I thought about everything, about families, about war, about power,” said Gregorio Hernandez, a 42 year old teacher who came to pay his respects. “When I heard he died I wanted to be close to him, to wish him the best for the next life.”
“Garcia Marquez was a writer who helped us forge a unique Latin American identity through literature,” said Ana Maria Saavedra, 51, a jewellery maker from Mexico City who brought flowers. “Before then, we always looked to European ideas. He changed that.” Many of Garcia Marquez’s stories were set in Macondo, a fictional town populated by passionate extended families. While resembling his native town in Colombia, it shared many aspects with communities across the continent. Mourner Tenorio Quiros, 60, said he grew up in a small village in Michoacan, Mexico, which resembled Macondo in many ways.
“Just like in the Garcia Marquez novels, my village had these extended families, where five generations all had the same first names. There were feuds and romances and murders just like in the novels,” said Quiros, a shopkeeper.
Macondo even became the title of a popular song by Mexican singer Oscar Chavez, which talks about the imaginary world.
As if to underline the strong emotion felt about Garcia Marquez, a powerful earthquake shuddered through Mexico City on Friday morning, making people run from their homes, although not causing major damage.
Leading intellectuals, artists and politicians including current and former presidents in Mexico also all lamented Garcia Marquez’s death.
“His work explains the anomalies of our region…he was our best revolutionary,” wrote Mexican author Jorge Volpi on Garcia Marquez’s death. “More than any triumph of guerrillas, “A Hundred Years of Solitude was, and is, the best triumph of Latin America.
