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GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: The Colombian author won a Nobel prize in Literature
Gabriel García Márquez, known affectionately as Gabo in Latin America, is a Colombian author, journalist and Nobel laureate.
The Google Doodle itself depicts the magical city of Macondo – which was brought to life by Márquez in his book One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The imagined city lies deep within the Amazonian jungle – which is separated from the world by huge amounts of water.
The town is associated with magical realism, where illogical things happen in real life.
Gabo was once called “the greatest Colombian who ever lived” – and today would have been his 91st birthday.
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Google Google celebrated the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez's 91st birthday
“I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of a journalist. What I didn’t like about journalism before were the working conditions”
Gabriel García Márquez
Who is Gabriel García Márquez?
The Colombian novelist was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 6, 1927 and is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century.
The talented writer was raised by his maternal grandparents Doña Tranquilina Iguarán and Colonel Nicolás Ricardo Márquez Mejía.
Shortly after he was born, his father Gabriel became a pharmacist and moved with his wife to Barranquilla.
Because his parents were more or less strangers to him for the first years of his life – his grandparents became strong influencers on his life.
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GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: One of the most significant authors of the 20th century
His gift for storytelling he attributed to his grandfather, who was a hero of the Thousand Days War – when Liberal generals revolted against the ruling Conservatives.
Gabriel believed his fascination with the suprnatural came from his grandmother’s belief in ghosts and omen.
He went on to study law at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota to please his father – where his passion for writing grew.
He told the Paris Review in 1981: “I’ve always been convinced that my true profession is that of a journalist. What I didn’t like about journalism before were the working conditions.”
His interest lay in storytelling like his grandfather, who "inserted extraordinary events and anomalies as if they were simply an aspect of everyday life".
The description under the Google Doodle reads: “In his long literary career, he penned over 25 books, transporting readers into a world of magical realism where they find themselves in the lush, humid tropics – soldering into solitude or being slowly consumed by the throes of passion.
The literary genius married Mercedes Barcha in March 1958 – and had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.
Gabo worked for more than a decade as a reporter, columnist, foreign correspondent and editor.
He then moved to Mexico City with his family to launch a career as a novelist.
His first novel In Evil Hour was published in 1962.
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GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: He married Mercedes Barcha in 1958
In 1967 he penned his most famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, which catapulted him to worldwide fame.
The book which gave him international fame sold 30 million copies.
In 1972 he was awarded the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.
Not only that, but in 1982 he won a 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".
In his acceptance speech for his honourable prize, he said: “We have had to ask but little of imagination, for our crucial problem has been lack of conventional means to render our lives believable.”
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GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: He became close friends with Fidel Castro
He went on to publish four more novels, including The Autumn of the Patriarch and Love in the Time of Cholera.
Márquez was also a political activist, “a committed Leftist” and a writer of the revolution – and had a close friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
He died of pneumonia in his home in Mexico on April 17, 2014 at the age of 87.
After his death the President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, called Gabriel “the greatest Colombian who ever lived”.
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