Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
Page 79
2. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 35–6. See also GGM, “Memoria feliz de Caracas,” El Espectador, 7 March 1982.
3. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 89.
4. GGM, “No se me ocurre ningún título,” Casa de las Américas (Havana), 100, January-February 1977, pp. 85–9.
5. See the conclusion of The Autumn of the Patriarch, which was undoubtedly inspired by these celebrations in Caracas.
6. See Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 40–41; GGM returns to this episode in “Los idus de marzo,” El Espectador, 1 November 1981, and relates it to both The Autumn of the Patriarch and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
7. Then as later, he would ignore Miguel Angel Asturias’s The President, based on Guatemala’s tyrant Manuel Estrada Cabrera, a novel which had been a sensation when it was published in Buenos Aires in 1948—by Losada, the publisher who had turned down Leaf Storm—and had won the same international book award when it appeared in French in 1952 that OHYS would receive eighteen years later.
8. See Mendoza, The Fragrance of Guava, pp. 80–90; and Ernesto González Bermejo, “García Márquez: ahora doscientos años de soledad,” Triunfo (Madrid), 44, 14 November 1970 (see Rentería, pp. 49–64).
9. See Gilard, ed., De Europa y América 1, pp. 50–51.
10. GGM, “El clero en la lucha,” Momento, 7 February 1958.
11. José Font Castro, interview, Madrid, 1997.
12. Eligio Garcia, Tras las claves de Melquíades, p. 232.
13. Rita GM, in ibid., p. 243.
14. Fiorillo, La Cueva, p. 266.
15. Mercedes Barcha, interview, Cartagena, 1991. Cf. Beatriz López de Barcha, “‘Gabito esperó a que yo creciera,’” Carrusel, Revista de El Tempo (Bogotá), 10 December 1982: “In 1958 Gabito came from Paris to Caracas and ‘one day he just turned up at the house.’ Two days later they were married.”
16. See Castro Caycedo, “Gabo cuenta la novela de su vida”: includes brief exchange with Mercedes.
17. See Alfonso Fuenmayor, “El día en que se casó Gabito,” Fin de Semana del Caribe, n.d. (see Fiorillo, La Cueva, pp. 265–7).
18. Rita GM, in Galvis, Los GM, pp. 46–47.
19. Eligio García, “Gabriel José visto por Eligio Gabriel, el benjamín,” Cromos (Bogotá), 26 October 1982, pp. 20–21.
20. Germán Castro Caycedo, “‘Gabo’ cuenta la novela de su vida. 3,” El Especta-dor, 23 March 1977.
21. Consuelo Mendoza de Riaño, “La Gaba,” Revista Diners (Bogotá), November 1980.
22. Domingo Miliani, “Diálogo mexicano con GGM,” Papel Literario, El National (Caracas), 31 October 1965.
23. Mario Vargas Llosa, conversation, Stratford, England, 1990.
24. Mercedes Barcha, conversation, Mexico City, October 1993.
25. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 46.
26. Mercedes Barcha, interview, Cartagena, 1991.
27. María Esther Gilio, “Escribir bien es un deber revolucionario,” Triunfo (Madrid), 1977 (see Rentería, pp. 141–5).
28. Eligio García, Tras las claves de Melqutades, p. 424.
29. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 44.
30. Domingo Miliani, “Diálogo mexicano con GGM,” Papel Literario, El National (Caracas), 31 October 1965.
31. See Consuelo Mendoza, “La Gaba,” Revista Diners (Bogotá), November 1980; Beatriz López de Barcha, “‘Gabito esperó a que yo creciera,’” Carrusel, Revista de El Tiempo (Bogotá), 10 December 1982; and Claudia Dreifus, “Gabriel García Márquez,” Playboy 30:2, February 1983, p. 178.
32. Sorela, Elotro GM, p. 185.
33. Eligio García, Tras las claves de Melqutades, p. 366.
34. GGM, “Mi hermano Fidel,” Momento (Caracas), 18 April 1958.
35. Núñez Jiménez, “GM y la perla de las Antillas.”
36. GGM, “No se me ocurre ningún título,” Casa de las Américas (Havana), 100, January-February 1977.
37. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 60.
38. Antonio Núñez Jiménez, En marcha con Fidel (Havana, Letras Cubanas, 1982), reproduces this speech.
39. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 67.
40. See Gilard, ed., De Europa y América 1, p. 53; and Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 67–8.
41. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 75–7.
42. Mendoza’s account differs from GGM’s; in the former it was all Mendoza’s doing, in Bogotá not Caracas, and GGM was not in the picture. Mendoza agreed “on condition that the resourcing was right and that they also hire a friend of his in Caracas on the same salary.” GGM gives a quite different account in Núñez, “GM y la perla de las Antillas.”
43. Núñez Jiménez, “GM y la perla de las Antillas.”
44. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 71.
45. Interview, José Stevenson, Cartagena, March 2007. I also talked to Eduardo Barcha Pardo, Mercedes’s brother, in Arjona, in 2008. He was a student in Bogotá at the time, was drafted in to Prensa Latina, and stayed with his sister and her husband in their Bogotá apartment.
46. GGM, “Colombia: al fin hablan los votos,” Momento (Caracas), 21 March 1958.
47. José Luis Díaz Granados, interview, Bogotá, 1991; see also Consuelo Men-doza, “La Gaba,” Revista Diners, November 1980.
48. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 72.
49. GGM, “°Nagy, héroe o traidor?,” Elite (Caracas), 28 June 1958.
50. See Mendoza, “Entrevista con Gabriel García Márquez,” Libre, 3, March-May 1972, pp. 13–14, where Mendoza and GGM reminisce about Torres.
51. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 74.
52. Ibid., p. 71.
53. GGM, Collected Stories, p. 184.
54. Ibid., p. 200.
55. See Hernán Díaz’s portrait of GGM at the time he was working for Prensa Latina. The change of demeanour is evident and striking.
56. See Gilard, ed., De Europa y América 1, pp. 60–63.
57. Ibid., pp. 53–4. See also Gilard, “García Márquez: un projet d’école de cinéma (1960),” Cinémas d’Amérique latine (Toulouse), 3, 1995, pp. 24–38, and “‘Un carnaval para toda la vida,’ de Cepeda Samudio, ou quand García Márquez faisait du montage,” Cinémas d’Amérique latine (Toulouse), no. 3, 1995, pp. 39–44.
58. See Daniel Samper, “GGM se dedicará a la música,” El Tiempo, December 1968, in Rentería, p.24; and Saldívar, GM: elviaje a la semilla, pp. 389–90.
13 / The Cuban Revolution and the USA (1959–1961)
1. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 87–8.
2. See E. González Bermejo, “Ahora doscientos años de soledad …,” Triunfo, November 1971 (in Rentería, ed., García Márquez habla de García Márquez en 33 grandes reportajes, p. 50); also Angel Augier, “GM en La Habana,” Mensajes (UNEAC, Havana), I:17, 10 September 1970. Aroldo Wall would later be an important link between Julio Cortázar and the Cuban Revolution.
3. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 88.
4. Sixteen years later the indomitable Walsh would be tortured and murdered in Buenos Aires by the Argentine military for his courageous opposition during the so-called dirty war. Cf. GGM, “Rodolfo Walsh, el escritor que se le adelantó a la CIA,” Alternativa, 124, 25 July-i August 1977. See also GGM, “Recuerdos de periodista,” El Espectador, 14 December 1981.
5. Núñez Jiménez, “GM y la perla de las Antillas.” See also GGM, “Recuerdos de periodista,” El Espectador, 14 December 1981, for different details.
6. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 84–6.
7. Ibid., p. 81.
8. Arango, Un ramo de nomeolvides, p. 179.
9. See Eligio García, Tras las claves de Melquíades, pp. 474–9.
10. See Orlando Castellanos, interview with García Márquez in Formalmente Informal, Radio Havana, reprinted in Prisma delmeridíano (Havana), 80, 1–15 October 1976.
11. GGM, “Regreso a México,” El Espectador, 23 January 1983.
12. Kennedy, “The Yellow Trolley Car in Barcelona,” p. 258.
13. GGM, “Nueva
York 1961: el drama de las dos Cubas,” Areíto, 21, June 1979, pp. 31–3.
14. Miguel Fernández-Braso, Gabriel Gárcia Márquez (Una conversación infinita) (Madrid, Azur, 1969), p. 31.
15. GGM, “El fantasma para el progreso,” El Espectador, 28 February 1982.
16. Núñez Jiménez, “García Márquez y la perla de las Antillas.”
17. GGM, “Nueva York 1961: el drama de las dos Cubas,” Areíto, 21, June 1979, p. 33.
18. CGM, New York, to Alvaro Cepeda, Barranquilla, 26 April 1961, mentions the “invasions” only at the very end of the letter.
19. Of course the counter-revolutionaries would accuse him anyway. See Guillermo Cabrera Infante, “Nuestro prohombre en La Habana,” El Tiempo, 6 March 1983. He claims to be one of “those who know his true biography” and then inadvertently demonstrates that this is false (or else himself deliberately misleads) when he claims that GGM fled New York as soon as he heard about the Bay of Pigs invasion, fearing that it would be successful. This story has been circulated by other influential anti-revolutionary writers such as Carlos Franqui and Carlos Alberto Montaner and is demonstrably untrue.
20. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 104.
21. Núñez Jiménez, “GM y la perla de las Antillas.”
22. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, pp. 75–106.
23. GGM, New York, to Alvaro Cepeda, Barranquilla, 23 May 1961.
24. GGM, New York, to Plinio Mendoza, 29 May 1961.
25. Ibid.
26. Mendoza, La llama y el hielo, p. 106.
27. Ernesto Schóo, “Los viajes de Simbad,” Primera Plana (Buenos Aires), 234, 20–26 June 1967.
28. GGM, “Regreso a México,” El Espectador, 23 January 1983.
29. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 30 June 1961.
14 / Escape to Mexico (1961–1964)
1. See GGM, “Regreso a México,” El Espectador, 23 January 1983, in which he declares that he will never forget his date of arrival (2 July 1961!), because a friend called him next day to tell him about Hemingway’s death. However, a letter from GGM to Plinio Mendoza in Bogotá on 30 June 1961 disproves one of the best-loved legends about García Márquez, namely, that he arrived in Mexico City on the day Hemingway died. Not so. See also “Breves nostalgias sobre Juan Rulfo,” El Espectador, 7 December 1980, in which again he gets most of his dates and calculations about his time in Mexico wrong. Even the best memories are fallible.
2. This chapter and the two following draw on interviews with Plinio Mendoza (Bogotá, 1991), Alvaro Mutis (Mexico City, 1992, 1994), María Luisa Elío (Mexico City, 1992), Carlos Monsiváis (Mexico City, 1992), Francisco (“Paco”) Porrúa (Barcelona, 1992), Carmen Balcells (Barcelona, 1991, 1992, 2000), Berta Navarro (Mexico City, 1992), María Luisa (“La China”) Mendoza (Mexico City, 1994), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico City, 1992), James Papworth (Mexico City, 1992), Gonzalo García Barcha (Mexico City, 1992, 1994, Paris, 2004), Berta (“La Chaneca”) Hernández (Mexico City, 1993), Aline Mackissack Maldonado (Mexico City, 1993), Tulio Aguilera Garramuño (Pittsburgh, 1993), Manuel Barbachano (Mexico City, 1994), Margo Glantz (Mexico City, 1994), Augusto (“Tito”) Monterroso and Barbara Jacobs (Mexico City, 1994), Elena Poniatowska (Mexico City, 1994), Jorge Sánchez (Mexico City, 1994), Juan and Virginia Reinoso (Mexico City, 1994), Luis Coudurier (Mexico City, 1994), Vicente and Albita Rojo (Mexico City, 1994), Nancy Vicens (Mexico City, 1994), Ignacio (“Nacho”) Durán (Mexico City, 1994, London, 2005), Guillermo Sheridan (Guadalajara and Mexico City, 1997), among many others.
3. GGM, “Regreso a México,” El Espectador, 23 January 1983.
4. GGM, “Un hombre ha muerto de muerte natural,” México en la Cultura, Novedades (Mexico City), 9 July 1961; in the Núñez Jiménez conversation GGM says it was the Novedades people who told him Hemingway was dead, which is what he tells Plinio Mendoza in his letter of 10 July 1961.
5. On his feelings towards Hemingway see GGM’s comments in Alejandro Cueva Ramírez, “García Márquez: ‘El gallo no es más que un gallo,’” Pluma 52 (Colombia), March-April 1985. See also “Mi Hemingway personal,” El Espectador, 26 July 1981.
6. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 9 August 1961. See “Breves nostalgias sobre Juan Rulfo,” El Espectador, 7 December 1980, which gives a similar picture of the elevatorless building and apartment.
7. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 13 August 1961.
8. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 26 September 1961. GGM, Mexico City, to Alvaro Cepeda, Barranquilla, 4 December 1961, writes: “In May you have to come and baptize Alejandra, who will be born at the end of April. Don’t miss the opportunity because this is the last godchild we can offer you. After this we’re shutting up shop.”
9. GGM, “Mi otro yo,” El Espectador, 14 February 1982.
10. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 9 August 1961.
11. See GGM, “Breves nostalgias sobre Juan Rulfo,” on Rulfo; also Eligio García, Tras las claves de Melquíades, pp. 592–9.
12. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 13 August 1961.
13. “The Sea of Lost Time,” GGM, Collected Stories, p. 220.
14. GGM had recently been working in New York, mostly late at night, on Alvaro Cepeda’s film about Barranquilla’s annual carnival, financed by the Santo Domingo Aguila Beer firm.
15. See Darío Arizmendi Posada, “El mundo de Gabo. 4: Cuando Gabo era pobre,” El Mundo (Medellín), 29 October 1982.
16. Fiorillo, La Cueva, p. 105.
17. And Juan García Ponce would later live with Elizondo’s ex-wife, the mother of the daughter that García Márquez’s son would one day marry.
18. Eduardo García Aguilar, “Entrevista a Emilio García Riera,” Gaceta (Bogotá, Colcultura), no. 39, 1983.
19. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, early December 1961.
20. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Barranquilla, April 1962.
21. See especially “La desgracia de ser escritor joven,” El Espectador, 6 September 1981, in which he says that having accepted this prize and the earlier one for “One Day After Saturday” in 1954 are his only regrets from his career as a writer.
22. GGM, Living to Teil the Tale, p. 231.
23. See Bernardo Marques, “Reportaje desde Cuba (I). Gabriel García Márquez: pasado y presente de una obra,” Alternativa (Bogotá), 93, 9–16 August 1976.
24. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Barranquilla, 16 June 1962. In a letter GGM, México City, to Alvaro Cepeda, Barranquilla, spring 1963, he confesses to having crashed the car while blind drunk.
25. GGM, Mexico City, to Alvaro Cepeda, Barranquilla, 20 March 1962.
26. In Saldívar, GM: el viaje a la semilla, p. 429, Mutis is quoted as suggesting that GGM never worked on The Autumn of the Patriarch in Mexico; but GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Barranquilla, 1 July 1964, puts the issue beyond doubt.
27. José Font Castro, “Anecdotario de una Semana Santa con Gabriel García Márquez en Caracas,” Momento (Caracas), 771, April 1971, pp. 34–7, says that GGM read him the first part of The Autumn of the Patriarch in 1963 (p. 37).
28. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Barranquilla, late September 1962.
29. GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Bogotá, 4 April 1962.
30. Not September 1963, as everyone, including Saldívar, recounts. See GGM, Mexico City, to Plinio Mendoza, Barranquilla, 17 April 1963.
31. Antonio Andrade, “Cuando Macondo era una redacción,” Excelsior (Mexico City), 11 October 1970, gives a different view, saying that Alatriste sacked GGM and in response to desperate pleas paid him some money for El Charro.
32. Raúl Renán, “Raúl 21,” in José Francisco Conde Ortega et al., eds, Gabriel García Márquez: celebración. 25° aniversario de “Cien anós de soledad” (Mexico, Universi-dad Autónoma Metropolitana, 1992), p. 96.
33. Ibid., p. 95.
34. Rodrigo García Barcha told me: “We always went to English-speaking schools. It’s
one of Dad’s obsessions, he has a great complex about not being able to speak English and he was determined that we would be able to.”