Dorothee Koch

20th Century Latin American History

07-03-07

Gabriel Garcia Márquez′ One Hundred Years of Solitude as critique on

Latin Americans?

Garcia Marquez′ novel

One Hundred Years of Solitude

records the rise and fall of a

fictional town called Macondo. Although this town is invented by the author, its foundation,

its development and its fall show social and political realities we know from Latin America′s

past and Colombia′s history in particular. The Buendìa family, who founded the town and

lives in it for six generations throughout the novel, mirrors Colombian reality post Spanish

imperialism e.g. the Civil War, the take over of the United Fruit Company of Boston, the

massacre of Cienaga etc. All these events can be found in the book and can be related to Latin

American history. Since the novel is amazingly rich and breaks narrative linearity through

flashbacks and flashforwards, the similarities and the obvious connection between reality and

fiction is used as a framework for this paper and lead to the question of whether there is a

political message in the book, or not. Using the history of Latin America and the events in the

book referring to it, I will prove that there is more that just a critique on the current behaviour

of Latin Americans. The use of magical realism concerning time shows that history is

circular, it repeats itself if you do not learn through your experiences, if you refuse to progress

but stick to the progress of others. This is the mistake, the Buendias commit and this mistake

should be conferred to Latin America in order to finally "combat a plague of amnesia."

(Conniff, 167)

Macondo is founded initially. Its settlers left their hometown Riohachaso without

itinerary. They had no clue where to go. "They simply tried to go in a direction opposite to the

road to Riohachaso that they would not leave any trace or meet any people they knew."

(Marquez, 24). This shows that they want to cut off any contact with the civilization they had

lived in before and it also shows that they want to cut off with their history. Colombia has

been a Spanish colony until 1824, when it, as a part of la gran Colombia, gained its

independence. The novel depicts some colonial leftovers one can find in Latin America. Jose

Arcadio who just got to know a magnet the gypsies brought, tries to find gold with this

magnet. All he finds is "a suit of fifteenth-century armour" (Garcia 2). That′s all we get to

know about it. This fact shows us that Jose does not consider the armour valuable enough to

think of its history. The magnet and other inventions that come from outside Macondo is/are

what occupies his mind from now on. For the founding of Macondo he had made sure that all

houses were placed in a way that no one had more sun than the other, everyone had the same

way to the water - all in all he wanted to start a socially equal life in their newly found town.

Yet, his "spirit of social initiative disappeared in a short time pulled away by the fever of

magnets [...] and the urge to discover the wonders of the world. (Conniff, 172)

Besides the magnet the gypsies bring more discoveries to Macondo for example a

magnifying glass. This time Jose pays with colonial coins, another left-over of the Spanish

Imperialists, not noticing that "his currency is being debased" (Conniff, 171) The reader sees

here how much he can be exploited by his wish for progressive inventions.

Every time the gypsies bring new discoveries to Macondo, Jose and the others are

mystified or amazed by what happens. Yet, those discoveries of science not only amaze but

also exploit the inhabitants of Macondo, especially Jose Arcadio Buendia. He tells Ursula

"right across the river there are all kinds of magical instruments while we keep on living like

donkeys" (Marquez, 8). This shows his belief that science comes from elsewhere, not out of

their society. The conviction that the outside world is better than Macondo can be found

throughout the whole text: The gypsies′ inventions are excessively foreign, Italian music is

superior and so are French sexual techniques. ( cp. Conniff, 174) And gypsies are not the only

ones who bring news. "Government officials, priests, various military forces, the ubiquitous

lawyers, the railway, the American capitalists, the European with the bicycle- everything is

brought to Macondo by strangers. Those outsiders show up immediately and the town has no

control and therefore no immediate sense of how to react. So we see here what Ian Johnstan

had pointed out earlier as "the powerlessness of the people to take charge of the invasions

which arrive from outside." (Johnston, 4) There is no patriotism in their feelings, no pride in

what they, the people of Macondo, have achieved after their independence from Riohachaso,

no power to react toward outside invasions.

Further on, we learn about the whole town′s fear of insomnia, one which causes the loss

of memory. Aureliano is the only one who finds a solution against the problem, "but the

system demanded so much vigiliance and moral strength that many succumbed to the spell of

an imaginary reality, one invented by themselves, which was less practical for them but more

comforting" (Marquez, 49) This passage points out that it can be uncomfortable to remember,

although it is only spoken about the names of certain basic commodities this can be referred

to a people′s history. History sometimes is uncomfortable to remember, yet it is important to

learn from history about the future. This idea is shown through Pinar Ternera, who due to

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insomnia now can read the past in cards as she had read the future in them before. She reacts

towards her neighbours′ fears and gets profit out of it. Her idea stands in opposite to Jose

Arcadio Buendias, who wants to build a memory machine. Nice idea- yet he wants to do it

only to remember the "marvellous inventions of the gypsies."(Marquez 49) He does not want

to remember his roots, where he comes from, what his live was etc.- the only thing worth to

remember for him are the inventions or discoveries of somebody else. This short passage

again is very rich. If you read it with the premise that we not only hear about the people of

Macondo but also about the people of Colombia, we can find critique as well as ideas about

how one should see the relation between past and future. This passage alone gives three

different ways to deal with memory. There is Jose Arcadio, who only wants to remember the

inventions of the Gypsies. Then there is Pinar Ternera who could read the future in cards as

well as the past, which gives us the idea that her card reading should be seen as a symbol for

the fact that history repeats itself and that there is a connection between past and future. She

and Aureliano are the only ones who think about ideas of how to keep the past. Further there

are the people of Macondo, who feel a certain discomfort in memory and therefore prefer to

live in an imaginary reality.

Combining those ideas with the ideas we got from the initial pages of

One Hundred Years

of Solitude,

one

can figure out several problems the people of Macondo have: They deny their

roots, had no idea where to settle but away from past, inventions to them are mystifying,

rather exploit them than benefit them and they have no control of them nor do they think of

inventions of their own, because they think that everything that comes from outside is better

than what they have. Furthermore they prefer to live in an imaginary world, because it is more

comfortable not to remember.

After the description of the founding and development of Macondo we get to know about

a war between Liberals and Conservatives, an event in the book that can again be related to

the history of Colombia. After gaining independence from Spain in1824, Colombia was ruled

by a Liberal Government from 1848- 1885. This Government passed laws against traditional

interests of the Conservatives or the Catholic Church. Those years are shadowed by four

nationwide civil wars and by local revolutions between Liberals and Conservatives.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez outlines the conflict between those political parties through a

lesson Don Apolinar Moscote gives Aureliano, who at that time only had "confused notions

about the difference between Conservatives and Liberals". (Marquez, 98) This schematic

lesson of course is shaped by Moscote′s personal opinion. To him Liberals are bad people

who want to hang priests, while the Conservatives are those who had received their power

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