New documentary retraces life of Gabriel García Márquez; Film mixes the political with the personal
A new documentary by Justin Webster journeys through the life of Nobel-Prize winning novelist, Gabriel García Márquez. ‘Gabo: The creation of Gabriel García Márquez’ explores the life of the late Colombian author, whose literary genius and personality won over the hearts of many, from Bill Clinton to Fidel Castro.
Gabo’s roots were integral to his work, and the documentary begins by reflecting on the writer’s early life in Aracataca, in the north of Colombia. Throughout his life, the novelist maintained a strong sense of Caribbean identity, dressing in colorful clothes and maintaining the region’s customs. Gabo’s childhood was marked by the magical stories fed to him by his superstitious grandmother, and tales of afterlife from his death-obsessed grandfather, two key themes which would strongly influence his novels.
After being reunited with his parents at the age of 9, Gabo lived in Barranquilla, and then Sucre and Zipaquirá. After finishing school, he moved to Bogotá where he embarked on law studies. This period was marked by a profound solitude and he quickly became disillusioned with his chosen career path. García Márquez threw himself into writing and his talent as a fiction writer was recognized early on when his short story was published in a renowned Sunday literary supplement. But a number of years of struggle ensued, as publishing houses turned down his work. He focused his energy on journalism, working with a number of newspapers including Cartagena’s El Universal, and El Espectador.
His work as a journalist took him to Paris, Mexico and Cuba, where he began to dedicate more time to writing novels and struggled to make ends meet. During his stay in Mexico, he met Carlos Fuentes, whose literary success seemed like an unrealisable dream. But overnight, the publication of One Hundreds Years of Solitude in 1967 catapulted García Márquez into the spotlight. The book was an instant hit, and gave a new prominence to Hispanic literature around the globe. The magic realism boom was in full swing and Gabo was at the forefront of it. His fame reached new heights in 1982 on receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Gabriel García Márquez. Source: Flickr, available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/21690983@N05/2119552717
The documentary is filled with amusing anecdotes and tender reflections on the life of the Colombian author. Readings from his texts abound, as do testimonies by friends, novelists, colleagues and politicians to mix the personal with political. García Márquez did not simply live in a world of magical fiction, however, and the documentary shows Gabo’s strong engagement in journalism and left-wing politics. García Márquez never sought to pursue a political career, but he was nevertheless there in the background, exerting political influence through his works, both fiction and non-fiction.
The film dispels the myth of Gabo as a staunch Communist. His friendship with Fidel Castro is undeniable- the documentary shows little known footage of Gabo’s holidays to Cuba- but these journeys were motivated more by the writer’s personal bond with Fidel rather than by his desire to export communist ideology to Latin America.
One of the lesser-known facts to emerge from the film is the role that García Márquez played as an emissary for Fidel Castro over the US-Cuban embargo. The film shows García Márquez meeting an all-time fan of his, Bill Clinton, to try to come to an agreement on the lifting of the embargo. Although both parties were keen to lift the economic blockade, Clinton would never be able to surmount opposition in Congress.
So engaging is the portrayal of Gabo that the documentary makes you want to read, or re-read, the works of one of the greatest Latin American novelists of all time. A better understanding of Gabo’s own life can no doubt lead to an even greater appreciation of his work, since his literary genius was not only fuelled by an extraordinary imagination, but also his eventful personal history.
