The Solitude of Latin America

About the author

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of the most significant authors of last century and among the two most important literary figure of Latin America with Pablo Neruda. His famous works include One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the time of Cholera, Autumn of a patriarch, Chronicle of a death foretold, A very old man with enormous wings, etc. His writings generally present a concurring theme of Solitude and his stories show an extensive usage of Magical Realism. He won Nobel Prize for literature in 1982 and gave the famous speech, ‘The Solitude of Latin America.

One Hundred Years of Solitude as a Historical Saga

The novel should be considered as an epic majorly because of two reasons

1.      1. The length of timescale which is evident in the title itself.

2.      2. The story is built on the grounds of true historical events.

To illustrate the second point, we need to see the novel in the light of true historical events. The author spent first eight years of his life at his grandparents in Aracataca which was a "steamy banana town not far from the Columbian coast." This description of Aracataca by Gabriel Garcia Marquez reminds us of Macondo. A lot of events like The Civil war, Treaty of Neerlandia (The one after which Colonel Aurelino Buendia ceased his revolutionary activities) and characters like Colonel Aureliano Buendia resemble real life events and characters. Especially the episode of United Fruit Company which had actually taken over a major portion between 1900 and 1928 and their rule was ended with the strike of 32000 workers on October 7, 1928 to be followed by a massacre on December 5, 1928. One thing to note is that in the novel, the official history about the massacre changes the legend but in reality the exact opposite takes place as Gabo in one of his interviews had said that in the actual massacre maybe 3 to 5 people died. Another interesting point is that the novel was written in Spanish where the word ‘historia’ has dual meaning, history and tale.

The Speech

Marquez starts with a factual account of by Antonia Pigafetta, a navigator with Magellan which takes us to a world which resembles fantasy. He goes on to describe the horrifying conditions of Latin America and how creativity is interwoven in it. Caught between modernity and pre-industrialization; torn by civil war, and ravaged by imperialism stands Latin America. He describes how these conditions are different and yet similar from that Europe saw a few centuries back. He goes on to express that the inability to express their situation, the lack of any true means of communication to present their actual situation is what the reason of their solitude. Gabo ends on a surprisingly optimistic note and presents to us a future where hope may be possible.

Similarities with the novel

Gabo uses facts to present an exaggerated looking picture to evoke emotions in the speech, the same way he did in the novel. The theme of Solitude is evident in the title itself while the usage of Magical Realism defines the tone of the speech as well as the distinctive lines between reality and fiction are no more distinctive but quite blurred. A very graphical description is the forte of Marquez and that involves the reader completely. The abandonment of the Latin America by Europe and North America reminds us of the abandonment of the people of Macondo by government.

Dissimilarities with the novel

The exaggeration in the speech is quite different from the way it is used in the novel. Marquez provokes people by the larger than reality picture of facts, a reality in which people don’t care about these facts. Marquez, the story teller, presents history of Latin America to us in the form of a tale while he had told us a tale in the novel, setup between historical events. The gloomy tone of the novel though continues in the story but the end in the speech gives us a hope and prays to bring about a change in the situation.

The Solitude of Latin America

Once the land of gold, Latin America has now been reduced to a continent of crime, disease and poverty. The plundering and oppression has hidden the creative talents. The life of a Latin American is haunted by myths, drudgery and disease but at the same time decorated by a creativity which goes unseen. The fact that what seems magical and outsized to us forms the crux of their day to day life and that is the reason of their solitude.The cyclic nature of time has rendered no progress in Latin America. All these factors are causes of the aloofness and loneliness of its people but Gabo specifically says that there is a lack of means of communicating the real plight of the people. People of the civilised world think from their perspective and looking from a different lens is quite impossible. This impossibility is the root cause of the solitude of the Latin Americans.

Magical Realism

Marquez felt that Caribbean showed him life in a way where supernatural elements are embedded in reality and that is the only place where he never felt like a stranger. Marquez once said that the way in which he writes stories is the same in which his grandmother used to tell him. He explains how the horrific past and present of Latin America lends itself to what seems to be magical to the outsiders but is the tragic reality of Latin American people. Magical realism is seen in the way Marquez uses to describe the distinctiveness of the cultures of the two continents by using the elements on factual reality which is so scary that it almost sounds exaggerated.

Conclusions

Numbers and not fiction form the tools for Marquez in the speech to bring out the real image of third world countries in front of the so called ‘civilized’ nations on a platform where everyone hears. The exchange of culture in the form of arts and literature across the two American continents leads us to believe that the efforts in the direction of social and economic exchange have been half hearted. A visionary rises in the last paragraph who does not just see the problem, but also finds the solution.