Mexico City - At 2:00 PM, a loving crowd began to gather outside the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Palace of Fine Arts, to deliver yellow flowers in tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, author of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
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| Gabriel García Márquez, 1989 (Photo: Eugenia Arenas) |
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| Crowds at Palacio de Bellas Artes, Palace of Fine Arts, Waiting to Bid Farewell |
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| Honor Guard from Mexico and Colombia Before Urn Containing Ashes of Gabriel García Márquez (Photo: Cristina Rodríguez) |
The official funeral began with the arrival of the two presidents, who expressed their condolences to Mercedes Barcha, widow of García Márquez, and his sons, Gonzalo and Rodrigo Garcia, "and their family members" who included Jaime García Márquez, brother of Gabo, and his wife.
The Colombian President decreed three days of national mourning for the death of the writer. President Santos Calderón, accompanied by his wife María Clemencia Rodríguez, made the trip from Colombia to be present at the tribute and to express in his speech that he came to "the quintessential home of the culture of Mexico" to bid farewell:
"on behalf of more than 47 million compatriots to the greatest Colombian of all time."Santos then added:
"What an impressive place for his farewell. The murals of Rivera, Siqueiros, Tamayo and Orozco are the appropriate setting for a man who, far more than merely being a Colombian, incorporated in his works the very essence of being Latin American and especially of being from the Caribbean region."Santos recalled that in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, given in "frozen Stockholm," Sweden, in December 1982, García Márquez spoke of the loneliness of Latin America, and he stressed that it is never too late to believe in utopia:
"In Gabo's words: 'A new and embracing utopia of life where no one can decide for others how they die, where love is certain and true, and happiness is possible'.
"This same Gabo who bequeathes to humanity the legacy of his works ... But first that none of us might give up hope, the task, the determination to unite for the good of our people."Peña Nieto, who attended the tribute accompanied by his wife, Angélica Rivera, expressed in his sober speech a biographical sketch of Gabriel García Márquez, whom he described as
"the greatest Latin American novelist of all time."Next, the Mexican President repeated that García Márquez's death represents "a great loss, not only for literature but for all of humanity," because
"several generations have dreamed, have delighted and have found answers to the questions about life in his works.
"In his work, he brought magical realism to its highest expression. He believed that fiction and reality are inseparable in human beings and especially in our Latin America for which he fought with ideas and work."Peña Nieto stressed that Gabo, as he is affectionately called [Gabo, nickname for Gabriel], placed Latin American literature at the forefront of world literature, unraveling the essence and identity of the region and projected it to the world:
"If we want to personify Latin America as a symbol of emotion, generosity and greatness, Gabriel García Márquez would be an ideal figure."Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, president of the National Council for Culture and the Arts [Conaculta], also took part in the ceremony by relating an anecdote: when speaking with Mercedes Barcha about how the content of his official speech tonight should be shaped to pay tribute to Gabo, the writer's widow asked him to talk about music and the happy things that surrounded him.
Rafael Tovar then said that the music played by two ensembles—heard from the arrival of the ashes of García Márquez at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, a few minutes after four in the afternoon, until the arrival of the presidents of Mexico and Colombia—was personally selected by his sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, because they are some of their father's favorites.
For Conaculta's president, Latin American literature became universal in the twentieth century
"thanks to a generation of writers led by Gabriel García Márquez."It is worth mentioning that thousands of people of all ages, but mostly young people, made a long line that stretched from the entrance to the Palacio de Bellas Artes to a little beyond the Central Alameda [about three long city blocks] in order to be able to say goodbye to the writer.
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| People Waited for Hours in Both Strong Sun and Rain to Say Goodbye |
His readers carried yellow flowers, the same color arranged in the lobby of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, in order to lay them down on the stairs as fast as they could, because they were not allowed to linger more than a few seconds.
The doors to the Palacio were closed to the public shortly before the arrival of the presidents, which meant that many people were left with the desire to enter the lobby. [Such that, the hours for viewing were extended.] At the conclusion of the official ceremony, hundreds of people were still waiting their turn in order to place their flowers and bid farewell to the writer.
In addition to the concert music, a trio of musicians, Los Jilgueros [The Goldfinches], playing vallenato and cumbia [Colombian folk music] could also be heard. The trio entered the Palacio and were received by the writer's sons, for whom they sang two vallenatos, the text of one recalls:
The doors to the Palacio were closed to the public shortly before the arrival of the presidents, which meant that many people were left with the desire to enter the lobby. [Such that, the hours for viewing were extended.] At the conclusion of the official ceremony, hundreds of people were still waiting their turn in order to place their flowers and bid farewell to the writer.
In addition to the concert music, a trio of musicians, Los Jilgueros [The Goldfinches], playing vallenato and cumbia [Colombian folk music] could also be heard. The trio entered the Palacio and were received by the writer's sons, for whom they sang two vallenatos, the text of one recalls:
"His name is García Márquez , but we call him Gabo ... "Finally, yellow butterflies were set free ... with passion they flew for Tania Libertad, the beautiful Peruvian who, like García Márquez, decided to live in Mexico. ... Tania said,
"It is one of the saddest days of my life."
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| Yellow Butterflies from Colombia Released in Lobby of Palacio de Bellas Artes |
Huge posters displayed on the steps of the entrance to the theater, with the black and white image of "García Márquez (1927-2014)" affirmed:
Garza Barrios boasted of having been among the few who could make Gabo say a few words [García Márquez famously declined to be interviewed, explaining that he'd written in his novels everything he had to say]. It happened when the mayor converted a train station into a library and named it "Word Station."
Moreover, in honor of the creator of La Cándida Eréndida, he ordered construction of a yellow train:
Also seen were José Luis Martínez, Saúl Juárez, Héctor Aguilar Camín, Jorge F. Hernández, Jacobo Zabludovsky (who once asked García Márquez how much pot he had smoked in order to write Cien años de soledad) and comedian Sergio Corona, who said:
Related translation:
Life is not what one livedAmong the special guests were Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Manuel Camacho Solís and former Colombian President César Gaviría. The storyteller Felipe Garrido said:
But what one remembers
and how to relate the memory.
"This tribute reminds the world about García Márquez for his color yellow. It's like a funeral that he may well have written or Federico Fellini might have filmed.
"I have the impression that at any moment, the yellow flowers can rise swirling around Bellas Artes. A lovely combination for the end of a life."Ramón Garza Barrios, former mayor of the municipality of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, who on September 4, 2008, brought García Márquez to revisit that frontier city, where he originally entered Mexico [with his family in 1961].
Garza Barrios boasted of having been among the few who could make Gabo say a few words [García Márquez famously declined to be interviewed, explaining that he'd written in his novels everything he had to say]. It happened when the mayor converted a train station into a library and named it "Word Station."
Moreover, in honor of the creator of La Cándida Eréndida, he ordered construction of a yellow train:
"Word Station has left me speechless," said García Márquez, then in few words, he confided:
"Not even in my country have they built me a yellow train like you all have done ... ."There were floral arrangements everywhere: from the INBA [National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature], UNAM [National Autonomous University of Mexico], the Economic Culture Fund ... yellow roses and sunflowers stood out.
Also seen were José Luis Martínez, Saúl Juárez, Héctor Aguilar Camín, Jorge F. Hernández, Jacobo Zabludovsky (who once asked García Márquez how much pot he had smoked in order to write Cien años de soledad) and comedian Sergio Corona, who said:
"I came to say goodbye to my friend who will forever have a place in our hearts. Writers like García Márquez are not born every day, and they are eternal."Spanish original
Related translation:
- Gabriel García Márquez: Taxi Driver (Ariel Dorfman, La Jornada, 4/23/2014).
- Gabriel García Márquez: Only the Bible sold more copies than his book (Times of India) gives an excellent review of García Márquez's literary work and the cultural (namely, his childhood) and political influences that informed it;
- Mexico Honors a Colombian Writer Whom Many Considered One of Their Own (New York Times);
- Magic in Service of Truth: Gabriel García's Magic Was Rooted in the Real (Salmon Rushdie, New York Times).
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