It is not true that people start pursuing dreams when they grow old. They grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.Gabriel García Márquez
Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez, one of 20th Century’s most celebrated authors, would have turned 91 today. Described as the most popular Spanish-language writers, Marquez was a path breaking Colombian novelist best known for his use of magical realism.
Google decided to commemorate Marquez’ 91st birth anniversary with a doodle that depicts the magical city of Macondo, brought to life by the Colombian author, in his book, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Here’s an excerpt from the book describing the city:
Deep in the Amazonian jungle, through the lush green canopy and multi-hued vibrance of the hot and humid rainforest, look carefully and you might catch a glimpse of a city of mirrors; a city separated from the world by an expanse of water and yet reflecting everything in and about it; a city that is home to the Buendia family and the site of strange otherworldly happenings. Here, little fish made of pure gold dazzle the eye; large yellow butterflies flit through the flowers; a train chugs along once in a blue moon; and the only visitors are the all-knowing, mysterious gypsies who come bearing strange tales.
Born in Aracataca, Colombia on 6 March 1927, Marquez was raised by his maternal grandparents. He attributed his gift for storytelling to his grandfather, and his fascination with the supernatural to his grandmother’s belief in ghosts, omens and portents.
In December 1982, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent's life and conflicts”.
Marquez’ novels have the unique ability to combine mundane with the magical.
He said he was inspired by the unbelievability of Latin American history – an illusory El Dorado, plagued by conquistadors, despots and revolutions.
“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”, he said in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
After fighting a long battle against lymphatic cancer, which he contracted in 1999, Márquez was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease when he was 85. Two years later, in April 2014, he died in Mexico.
His words, however, continue to give us warmth even in the cold of his absence. Here’s something to remember him by:
What matters in life is not what happens to you, but what you remember, and how you remember it.The great, Marquez
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