We are grateful to Gabriel García Márquez and his wife, Mercedes Barcha, for their continuing hospitality and generosity during the working sessions that allowed us to finish this book. And to their sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, for their passionate, long-distance interest in discovering a forgotten speech or sharing their opinions regarding titles or book jackets. Finally, my thanks to Professor Anibal González-Pérez, of Yale University, for joining me in the editing of this book and for finding the speech that opens it.
Cristóbal Pera
NOTES ON THE SPEECHES
The Academy of Duty
Zipaquirá, Colombia, November 17, 1944
At the farewell to the class of 1944, a year ahead of García Márquez’s, which graduated with the bachillerato from the Liceo Nacional de Varones de Zipaquirá (National Secondary School for Boys of Zipaquirá). Thanks to a scholarship, Gabriel García Márquez was able to continue his studies as a boarder at the Liceo Nacional de Varones de Zipaquirá.
How I Began to Write
Caracas, Venezuela, May 3, 1970
At the Athenaeum of Caracas. Published afterwards in El Espectador of Bogotá. According to Juan Carlos Zapata in his article ‘Gabo nació en Caracas, no en Aracataca’ (‘Gabo was Born in Caracas, not Aracataca’), Nicolás Trincado, the journalist, went to the forum as soon as he learned that Gabriel García Márquez would take part, and there he found him, ‘skinny, thickly moustached, with a lit cigarette’.
Because of You
Caracas, Venezuela, August 2, 1972
Upon receiving the Second International Rómulo Gallegos Novel Prize for One Hundred Years of Solitude
In the Paris Theatre. The members of the jury were Mario Vargas Llosa, Antonia Palacios, Emir Rodríguez Monegal, José Luis Cano, and Domingo Miliani. García Márquez gave the prize money ($22,000) to the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS; Movement towards Socialism). The money was used to found the newspaper Punto. In addition to the winner, the press mentioned the following novels as finalists: A Meditation, by Juan Benet; Three Sad Tigers, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante; and When I Want to Cry I Don’t Cry, by Miguel Otero Silva.
Another, Different Homeland
Mexico City, October 22, 1982
After receiving the Orden del Águila Azteca (Order of the Aztec Eagle) Insignia Rank
In the Salón Venustiano Carranza of Los Pinos, before the President of the Republic, José López Portillo y Pacheco, and the Chancellor of Colombia, Ramiro Lloreda. According to protocol, the Chancellor of Mexico, Jorge Castañeda, bestowed the order on García Márquez. This is the highest award the Mexican government can grantto a foreigner.
The Solitude of Latin America
Stockholm, Sweden, December 8, 1982
Ceremony awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Gabriel García Márquez
In the Stockholm Concert Hall. The novelist and six scientists — Kenneth G. Wilson (Physics), Aaron Klug (Chemistry), Sune K. Bergström, Bengt Samuelsson, and John R. Vane (Medicine), and George J. Stigler (Economics) — received the prestigious award from the hands of the Swedish king, Carl XVI Gustaf, and his wife, Silvia. In addition to being the central figure of the ceremony, Gabriel García Márquez broke with a tradition in the history of the Nobel Prizes by appearing in typical Caribbean clothing, known as a liquiliqui, instead of the formal white tie and tails.
A Toast to Poetry
Stockholm, Sweden, December 10, 1982
During the royal banquet offered by the king and queen of Sweden in honour of those who had received the Nobel Prizes
The gala supper was held in the Blue Room of the Stockholm City Hall. In his article entitled ‘La suerte de no hacer colas’ (‘The Luck of Not Standing in Line’), published May 4, 1983, and collected in Press Notes, Journalistic Work 5, 1961—84, García Márquez recalls: ‘They asked me to sign a printed form ceding to the Nobel Foundation the author’s rights to my acceptance speech and my toast to poetry — which in a last-minute rush I had improvised for four hands with the poet Álvaro Mutis — and then I signed copies of my books in Swedish for employees of the foundation…’
Words for a New Millennium
Havana, Cuba, November 29, 1985
Second Meeting of Intellectuals for the Sovereignty of the Peoples of Our America
The main address of the opening session of the meeting, at the headquarters of Casa de las Américas. Present were Frei Betto, Ernesto Cardenal, Juan Bosch, Daniel Viglietti, and Osvaldo Soriano, among three hundred other intellectuals from the continent.
The Cataclysm of Damocles
Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Mexico, August 6, 1986
Second Summit Meeting of the Group of Six
The opening speech of the meeting of the Group of Six — Argentina, Mexico, Tanzania, Greece, India, and Sweden — on peace and disarmament in the face of the nuclear threat, with the presence of member-country presidents Raúl Alfonsín of Argentina and Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado of Mexico, and prime ministers Andreas Papandreou of Greece, Ingvar Carlsson of Sweden, Rajiv Gandhi of India, and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania.
An Indestructible Idea
Havana, Cuba, December 4, 1986
At the opening ceremony of the headquarters of the Foundation for a New Latin American Cinema
At the foundation, located on the former country estate of Santa Bárbara, in an old mansion in the Marianao district, the Escuela Internacional de Cine, Televisión, y Video (EICTV; International School of Cinema, Television, and Video) of San Antonio de los Baños, also known as the ‘Escuela de Tres Mundos’ (‘Three Worlds School’). Gabriel García Márquez spoke in his capacity as foundation president.
Preface to a New Millennium
Caracas, Venezuela, March 4, 1990
Opening of the exhibition Figuration and Fabulation: Seventy-five years of Painting in Latin America, 1914—89
The exhibition was shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, curated by the Venezuelan critic Roberto Guevara and coordinated by Milagros Maldonado. The speech was used as the prologue to the exhibition catalogue.
Artists taking part were Antonio Barrera and Álvaro Barrios, Colombia; José Bedia, Cuba; Sirón Franco, Brazil; Julio Galán, Mexico; Guillermo Kuitca, Argentina; Ana Mendieta, Cuba; Juan Vicente Hernández (Pájaro), Venezuela; Pancho Quilici, Venezuela; Arnaldo Roche, Puerto Rico; Antônio José de Mello Mourão (Tunga), Brazil; and Carlos Zerpa, Venezuela.
I’m Not Here
Havana, Cuba, December 8, 1992
Inauguration of the screening room of the Foundation for the New Latin American Cinema
The Glauber Rocha screening room forms part of the cultural centre at the headquarters of the Foundation for the New Latin American Cinema. In this room, a cultural centre in itself, not only are films shown but national and international seminars and conferences held, theatrical works produced, and dance recitals and chamber music concerts presented.
In Honour of Belisario Betancur on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia, February 18, 1993
The celebration took place in José Asunción Silva Poetry House. The convocation to the celebration of the seventieth birthday of the former president of Colombia, born on February 4, was signed, among others, by Gabriel García Márquez, Álvaro Mutis, Alfonso López Michelsen, Germán Arciniegas, Germán Espinosa, Abelardo Forero Benavides, Hernando Valencia Goelkel, Rafael Gutiérrez Girardot, Antonio Caballero, Darío Jaramillo Agudelo, and María Mercedes Carranza, director of the José Asunción Silva Poetry House.
My Friend Mutis
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia, August 25, 1993
On the occasion of the seventieth birthday of Álvaro Mutis
Read by Gabriel García Márquez to his friend Álvaro Mutis at the gala dinner held on the occasion of his seventieth birthday at Nariño House, Bogotá, seat of the presidency of Colomb
ia, where the government of President César Gaviria awarded Mutis the Cruz de Boyacá (Order of Boyacá). On November 26, 2007, within the framework of the Twenty-second Guadalajara Book Fair, dedicated to Colombia, tribute was paid to Álvaro Mutis, and former president Belisario Betancur read this text ‘with the permission of García Márquez’, who was sitting beside him.
The Argentine who Endeared Himself to Everybody
Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City, February 12, 1994
The speech — first published as an article on February 22, 1984, a few days after the death of Julio Cortázar — was a tribute to the author ten years after that date. The same text would be read at the opening round table of the colloquium ‘Julio Cortázar Revisited’, February 14, 2004, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in the tribute by the Julio Cortázar Chair at the University of Guadalajara, presided over by Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes, twenty years after the death of the Argentine writer.
Latin America Exists
Contadora, Panama, March 28, 1995
‘Laboratory’ of the Contadora Group on the topic ‘Does Latin America Exist?’
Present were the former president of Uruguay, Luis Alberto Lacalle, as moderator, and, as participants, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Gabriel García Márquez (who was the last speaker at the meeting), Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado (former president of Mexico), Sergio Ramírez (former vice-president of Nicaragua), Francisco Weffort (Minister of Culture of Brazil), and Augusto Ramírez Ocampo (former Chancellor of Colombia).
Within the context of the crisis buffeting Central America, the Contadora Group was born on January 9, 1983, to contribute to peace and democracy in the region; its first members were Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. The group took its name from the Panamanian island where the chancellors of these four countries met to found the group.
A Different Nature in a World Different from Ours
Santafé de Bogotá, Colombia, April 12, 1996
Chair of Colombia
The Colombian armed forces officially inaugurated the programme called the Chair of Colombia with the conference ‘A Government of Laws and Public Force’, under the direction of then Colombian minister of national defence, Juan Carlos Esguerra Portocarrero.
Before an audience composed of military personnel, the speakers included Gabriel García Márquez, Rodrigo Pardo García, the public prosecutor Alfonso Valdivieso Sarmiento, the historian Germán Arciniegas, the former ministers Juan Manuel Santos and Rudolf Hommes Rodríguez, the former assembly member Orlando Fals Borda, and the writer Gustavo Álvarez Gardeazábal.
Journalism: The Best Job in the World
Los Angeles, United States, October 7, 1996
Fifty-second Assembly of the Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP; Inter-American Press Society), with headquarters in Miami, Florida
Opening speech given by Gabriel García Márquez in his capacity as president of the Foundation for a New IberoAmerican Journalism.
A Bottle in the Ocean for the God of Words
Zacatecas, Mexico, April 7, 1997
First International Congress on the Spanish Language
The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, to whom the congress was paying tribute, spoke at the opening of the congress and provoked a considerable polemic when he challenged adherence to orthography.
Dreams for the Twenty-first Century
Paris, France, March 8, 1999
Seminar: ‘Latin America and the Caribbean Facing the New Millennium’
The Inter-American Bank for Development and UNESCO organized in Paris, on March 8 and 9, the seminar ‘Latin America and the Caribbean Facing the New Millennium’. Gabriel García Márquez, a special guest of the meeting, gave this brief inaugural address.
The Beloved Though Distant Homeland
Medellín, Colombia, May 18, 2003
International symposium: ‘Towards a New Social Contract in Science and Technology for Equitable Development’
At the ceremony commemorating the two hundredth anniversary of the University of Antioquia, this text was recorded with the voice of Gabriel García Márquez and a copy of it was sent to Medellín, where it was broadcast at 6 p.m. on the opening day of the symposium, in the Teatro Camilo Torres.
A Soul Open to be Filled with Messages in Spanish
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, March 26, 2007
Before the Academies of the Language and the king and queen of Spain
In the Convention Centre of Cartagena, during the opening of the Fourth International Congress of the Language, in a tribute to Gabriel García Márquez. The author had turned eighty on March 6, the fortieth anniversary of the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude was being celebrated with a commemorative edition, and it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of his Nobel Prize.
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I'm Not Here to Give a Speech Page 9