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Posted: Thursday 1 May, 2014 at 9:57 AM
Press Release

    April 30th 2014 - The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today held a special meeting to pay posthumous tribute to the Colombian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez, who died in Mexico on April 17.

     

    The meeting was opened by the Vice Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Uruguay, Milton Romani, who said Gabriel García Márquez "is gone, and is not; because he gave us magical worlds, that he brilliantly created" and said that thanks to the literary work of this writer the lives of those who have read him "have become more bearable; are filled with poetry and are now charged of dream projects and hopes with yellow butterflies flying freely."

    "The man who we evoke today was a relentless writer, and was a man of the left, a revolutionary who took risks and challenges to change the ominous injustice in which our people live," said Ambassador Romani on the political life of García Márquez and added that "we will never know if the magic realism has not been, simply and eloquently a chronicle of our reality; or if the beautiful writing that he left us, is in fact a seed to germinate dignity in our peoples."

    For his part, the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the OAS, Andrés González, recalled several passages of the most recognized works of the precursor of magic realism, saying "one of the conditions for a people to be a people, for a nation to be a nation, is to have soul; culture is the inner soul of the people that distinguishes us from one another, and we appreciate Gabriel García Márquez’ contribution to the greatness of the soul of our people and our continet,” he said, and noted that in the reality of America "there are countless Macondos, magical places here and there."

    After quoting some significant passages from the books published by the Colombian writer throughout his 87 years of life, Ambassador Gonzalez recalled the commitment and determination of García Márquez to help achieve peace in Colombia. "He was obsessive and permanent craftsman of peace, I can attest that the phrase 'I have been plotting for peace in Colombia almost since I was born," was not the product of his magical realism; that commitment was in his soul and he never ceased in his efforts to support various governments and make prudent efforts to bring to the armed groups the yearning of a whole country wearied by death and destruction: the end of the armed struggle," said the diplomat. He noted that if positive progress is achieved in the peace process, the Colombian government "will have made an enormous tribute to the memory of a great man who taught us to dream, that through his imagination did not allow us to be affected by the pernicious plague of forgetfulness."

    On behalf of the Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, his Chief of Staff, Ambassador Hugo De Zela gave a speech in which he stressed that García Márquez was a man intensely committed to the realities of society and the times in which he lived. "In remembering him at this OAS headquarters, home of meeting and debate among Americans, we cannot forget that the political struggle that marked the region for many decades was not absent from his narrative; and that it made even bigger, because he defended the most just causes, identified with our democratic aspirations and was shown as a man who did not fear power."

    Ambassador De Zela recalled in his words that the literature of Latin America was transformed by the Colombian writer and journalist; "he gave a timeless style to the new Latin American literature and became universal; his captivating stories, born out of our reality, gave a deep content to the everyday and conferred importance to our sense of identity," he said and closed by expressing his message of condolences to Colombia and Mexico on the passing of the writer, as expressed by the Secretary General Insulza in the statement issued the day of his death.

    The Permanent Representative of Mexico to the OAS, Emilio Rabasa, recalled the life and work of García Márquez and said "Colombia and Mexico will always feel proud, Colombia because it had seen the birth and growth of García Márquez and Mexico for having been for many years the home to this genius, who with only one paper and 28 letters of the alphabet, could make us travel to worlds so close and yet so far away as Macondo," said and added that the literary and Colombian journalist "belongs to all of us a bit." He also assured that the life of García Márquez "will not have limits, as he will live in each of his works and each of his thoughts."

    Ambassador Rabasa highlighted the impact of One Hundred Years of Solitude, for which García Márquez received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1984, and which has been translated into 37 languages and has sold 30 million copies worldwide. "This book was released without any publicity campaign, sold out in its first edition of 8000 copies in two weeks and today, if everyone who has purchased a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude were put together in the same territory, this would be one of the twenty most populous countries in the world. That is the level of universality of García Márquez" he said.

    The meeting also included the words of Jaime Abello Banfi, Director of the Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano created by Gabriel García Márquez, who explained through a videoconference from Cartagena that the Colombian writer "belongs to the Americas and is a heritage for the Hemisphere,"and said during his life Garcia Marquez traveled to each and every one of the Caribbean islands, visited, lived in and wrote about several countries in Latin America and today has part of his family and milestones from his life in several cities of the region.

    "In addition to the literature, his memory will also be perpetuated by his commitment to Latin American cinema, and his commitment to education in journalism, in which he had more than 50 years of journalistic experience, founded and provided training for professionals in this field because he believed that journalism was a way to exercise citizenship." The Director of the FNPI recalled that the Foundation has trained more than 33,000 journalists through 331 workshops and seminars in Latin America and Spain, "all of whom now share the heritage and passion instilled by Gabo who emphasized the importance of journalistic ethics."

    After a collective reading of excerpts from the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by the ambassadors in different languages, several permanent representatives took the floor to join the tribute with messages that highlighted the legacy, influence and contribution of Gabriel García Marquez to world literature. The representatives of Bolivia, Canada, Venezuela, Haiti, Guyana on behalf of CARICOM, Honduras, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, the United States, Costa Rica and Argentina took the floor. The permanent observers from Italy, Spain and France also took the floor.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
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