Gabriel Garca Márquez is a Great Colombian Novelist

Gabriel García Márquez was well-known as a Colombian novelist and short story writer, but he started out as a journalist. Born on March 6, 1927, in Aracataca, Colombia, he lived to become "a giant of 20th-century literature" for his works being based on magical realism (Kandell). García Márquez was rewarded for his work with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. His family influenced certain characters in his writings as well as some experiences when growing up played a role in what his stories were based on.

When García Márquez moved to Bogota when he was a teenager, he witnessed a period of the civil strike. It took place during the late 1940s-50s in Colombia, and it was known as La Violencia. "La Violencia would become the background for several of his novels" many other political figures or ideas, the history of Latin America, and his own personal experiences became some of the few topics that García Márquez wrote about (Kandell). "Like many Latin America intellectuals and artists, Mr. García Márquez felt impelled to speak out on the political issues of his day," and because of this, "Magic realism, he said, sprang from Latin America's history of vicious dictators and romantic revolutionaries of long years of hunger, illness and violence" (Kendall). His experiences growing up and traveling around Latin America helped shape the different topics that he decided to write about, which is why different novels and short stories are called El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (No One Writes to the Colonel).

The General in His Labyrinth, and One Hundred Years of Solitude. He didn't want to overwhelm people with the idea of politics, so he used imagination and fiction with reality to create some stories that everyone could imagine and vision but also bring attention to real topics. When García Márquez was a journalist, and he reported on the Cuban Revolution, he talked about politics, and this topic was something that his novels and short stories were based on, but especially as a journalist, "The problem of our societies are mainly political, and the commitment of a writer is with the reality of all of society, not just with a small part of it," he wanted to talk about the problems that Latin American societies face, but he could only do it by getting involved in politics (McRobbie).

Historical events weren't the only thing that influenced García Márquez. Some personal figures, and even political ones, were important when writing his stories. In "The General of His Labyrinth, a chronicle of Simón Bolívar's last days," he made a story up by using real events and people, but he put a twist to it (Echevarría). "It combined imagination with historical fact to conjure up the last days of Simón Bolívar, the father of South America's independence from Spain," and "his depiction has been drawn from a careful perusal of Simón Bolívar's personal letters," he made up certain things to exaggerate the story, but he made sure the concept, events, and people were realistic which helped create magical realism (Kandell). "His grandfather, grandmother, parents, siblings, assorted aunts and uncles-even the prostitute- all make appearances in his work.

His hometown of Aracataca would famously become the Macondo of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Leaf Storm, and his parents' troubled courtship was thinly veiled as the centerpiece of the Love in the Time of Cholera" (McRobbie). He mixed reality and fiction, and he used his family and even his hometown to create something fictional yet realistic that people could relate to. Even though he based most of his writing on magical realism, once he was diagnosed with cancer, he began to focus on his life when he was 30. He wrote his memoir Vivir para contrary, but "he returned to fiction with Memoria de mis putas tristes, a novel about a lonely man who finally discovered the meaning of lonely who finally discovered the meaning of love" (McRobbie).

García Márquez went to Bogota to study law, but he never received a degree, so instead, he became a journalist. As a journalist, he had to talk about various topics that he saw in society. Some of these topics were his influence on his short stories and novels. "With daily reports of rape, murder, and the government's repressive sanctions on the press, it was a challenging time to be a journalist" he was exposed to all these ideas and problems that many Latin American countries were facing, and as a writer, he wanted to bring these problems to light, "García Márquez novels are firmly grounded in the politics of Latin America. He addressed guerrilla warfare, drug trafficking, the failure of communism, the evil of capitalism, and the dangerous meddling of the CIA". (McRobbie).

He was very involved in politics and Latin America, and because of his work as a journalist, he talked to some political figures, and he became close to some, which pushed him away from some as well. His exposure to all these political views, ideas, corruption, and the government, influenced the way he wrote things. He wanted to make people aware of the situation, and not many people wanted to hear about it, so he used fiction could get more people intrigued by the idea. Not only did it make more people enjoy magical realism it also brought the problems that he saw in society to light, and he made people aware of it.

García Márquez was a great journalist and author, he tried to bring up very important ideas or topics in his stories, but as a journalist, these ideas caused trouble and outrage at times. He wanted people to be aware of the government's corruption, but it ended up having him escape from his own country. "The news story directly contradicted a government report of the incident [where some Colombian sailors were shipwrecked" and revealed that corruption in the navy had led to the sailors' death" and because of this, he "became so unpopular with the government that the newspaper sent him abroad for his own safety" (McRobbie). The government didn't want to handle to truth, and with society's problems, the government won't want to confront them either. He was also involved with controversial political figures like Fidel Castro.

García Márquez and Castro became close to the point where García Márquez let him read some of his unpublished work, and García Márquez would also describe Castro as an overall decent person. He called out America for being "almost pornographic [obsessed] with Castro" (Kendall). He was so involved in politics and social problems, and we wanted people to be aware of the point. He didn't write badly about Castro because he wanted to be close to the government and find out what it was all about, but at the same time, he judged his own government for what it was doing. Even though he supported a very controversial person, he wanted to get the point out there that there are problems that some countries face which is where magical realism came about.

Gabriel García Márquez contributed to the literary world by popularizing magical realism. He was recognized as a Nobel Prize winner, and he will be remembered for his amazing novels and short stories. "Poets are beggars, musicians, prophets, warriors, and scoundrels, all creatures of that unbridled reality. We have had to ask but little of imagination. For our crucial problem has been a lack of conventional means to render our lives believable" (Kendall). He felt like it was important to talk about issues going on, and he did this by not only making people aware of the problem but also getting people intrigued in reading about it. He would use fiction to exaggerate and make up certain things, but he made sure the true reality and concept were made aware through the story. He made so many stories come to life and made them so realistic but as well as letting people use their imagination.

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