The Fidel Castro I know

The Nobel Prize for Literature winner offers his observations of a good friend

by Gabriel García Márquez

Granma | August 30, 2019

Photo: Granma Archives

His devotion to words. His power of seduction. He looks for problems wherever they may be. The impetus of inspiration is characteristic of his style. Books reflect very well the breadth of his tastes. He quit smoking to have the moral authority to fight smoking. He likes to prepare cooking recipes with a kind of scientific fervor. He stays in excellent physical condition with several hours of daily workouts and frequent swimming. Invincible patience. Iron discipline. The power of his imagination prepares him for the unexpected. Learning to rest is as important as learning to work.

Gabriel García Márquez, your word is life

by Madeleine Sautié Rodríguez

Granma | April 23, 2019

Fidel and García Márquez, two men who will never leave us. Photo: Granma Archives

At the Concert Hall in Stockholm, where he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez, who left the real world five years ago, to live eternally in the hearts of his millions of readers, expressed to a mostly European audience: “… Solidarity with our dreams does not make us feel less alone, as long as it is not concretized with acts of legitimate support for the peoples that assume the illusion of having a life of our own in the world’s making.”And later he questioned: “Why is the originality that is admitted without reserve in literature denied us, with all kinds of suspicions, in our difficult attempts at social change? … Nonetheless, in the face of oppression, plunder, and abandonment, our response is life.”

Gabriel García Márquez: The Man Who Unravelled Solitude

by Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee

The Wire | March 06, 2019

Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Credit: Reuters

Note: This piece was originally published on March 6, 2018 and is being republished on March 6, 2019, on Márquez’s 92nd birth anniversary.

Gabriel García Márquez is a beautiful name. It resonates with such a feeling more so because the name immediately reminds us of the man’s imagination, the crushing beauty of his stories that mesmerised audiences reeling from the brilliant but dismal literature travelling from post-war Europe. The novel was Europe, and little bit America, with most readers oblivious to the couple of geniuses from Japan. Until suddenly, the name Márquez dropped from another planet and took everyone’s attention by storm. It was like discovering a Beethoven in Latin America, where a writer’s prose seemed like it was set to music.