El Dorado, "The Wizard of Oz", and "One Hundred Years of Solitude"

During our class presentation, we described the myth of "El Dorado" and its influence on exploration and conquest in Colombia. The myth described a city made of gold and emeralds; the idea of endless riches drove many foreign explorers to search the land, leaving destruction and colonies in their wake. Thinking about the myth, I was reminded of a familiar on-screen city; this was the famed Emerald City of "The Wizard of Oz." Emerald City attracted the characters based on their deepest desires; they thought that the city would hold all their answers. This is like how the explorers searched for El Dorado in hopes of finding a perfect utopia and all the gold they could ever want. The explorers impacted the native people and the land as they went along their journey. This may seem to be a bit of a stretch, but the characters in the "The Wizard of Oz" did also; new characters were encouraged to join along and fighting between the good and bad witch ensued. In "One Hundred Years of Solitude", Macondo was portrayed, in the beginning, as a little utopia, but problems soon arose. Emerald City too was supposed to be perfect, but the wizard turned out to be fake. Both stories involve characters' fascination with the unknown world around them and magical elements. In "One Hundred Years of Solitude", magic is blended in with ordinary occurrences. In "The Wizard of Oz", the magical elements are far less subtle, but there still is the question of what is real and what isn't real since Dorothy's adventure begins with a storm and passing out, and ends with waking up. Lastly, Dorothy's visit to Oz ends with the repetition of the phrase "there's no place like home." "One Hundred Years of Solitude" revolves around family and one household. On a larger scale, Marquez was making commentary about his home nation, about which he felt very strongly. He comments on the politics, history, family life, and the society of Colombia because he cares deeply about it; "there's no place like home" and his feelings about his nation and memories of his grandma, his family, heavily influenced his novel.

The attack of the Geurilla movements and their origin

The National Front, as we know from presentations, was an experimental time for the Columbian government. The Liberals and Conservatives attempted at sharing power by rotating presidential power every 4 years. However, during this period, the Geurilla movements began to emerge. These movements had a distinct goal: political reform. Due to this, the movements caused much suffering and violence. The Geurilla movements started in the 1960s and continue to thrive to this day.

Some of the first Geurilla movement to be established was the ELN in the early 1960s and the FARC in 1966. The ELN group was made entirely of students inspired by revolutions in Cuba. The FARC was formed in reaction to the National Front. The M-19 movement soon came into existence afterwards due to claimed fraud during the presidential election of 1970. These movements during the 1970s and 1980s caused havoc in Columbia by doing things like kidnapping people for ransom, stealing weapons, and causing riots. For a long time, the Columbian army was in battle with the Geurilla supporters. At one point, in 1984, president Belisario Betancur tried to make peace with them by signing a ceasefire. However, it only lasted a year before the movements began to start up again.

The FARC in the late 1980s and 1990s began to dominate, growing from 10,000 combatants to more than 15,000. The fought all over the country in 30 different locations. It wasn't until the presidency of Andres Pastrana did the government truly try to negotiate with these movements. To this day, they still fight these movements but are trying the best way possible to negotiate peace. In fact, in 2012, president Juan Manuel Santos and leader of  FARC Timoleon Jiminez started peace negations in Havana. On September 26, 2016, there was a peace treaty that was signed by both the government and the FARC leader at a ceremony in Cartagena, signifying that Columbia is going with the right direction with dealing with Guerilla movements. 

Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel

I was very intrigued by Jessie’s presentation describing Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel when she said that they raked in up to $60 million per day in profits. As a result, I researched the topic and stumbled across a YouTube video (https://youtu.be/hAQJ9bNENyA) made by one of my favorite channels, RealLifeLore. This video was an eye opener because it revealed to me how powerful the cartel really was. In 1989, at the cartel’s height, Forbes estimated Pablo Escobar to be the seventh richest man in the entire world and his net worth was higher than the GDP of an entire Latin American country, Paraguay. The cartel in the late 1980s made more money than Southwest Airlines, Facebook, or Starbucks in recent years without accounting for inflation! This made me realize that there must have been thousands of workers involved in this drug trade. Unlike large American companies, the cartels had no wages, unions, or any form of labor rights. In an industry much larger than Starbucks, every single person from the lowliest planter to Pablo Escobar worked everyday with the fear that it could be their last because of the drug trade’s brutality and uncertainty. On December 2nd, 1993, Escobar’s last day finally came as he was killed, which brought down his cartel and everyone that worked for it.

Sing, Unburied, Sing Connections

I ended up loving the other novel we read this summer (Sing, Unburied, Sing), and after class discussion/reflection, I have noticed similar themes in the two stories despite their obvious differences. They both address the concept of the living past as well as ideas revolving around human nature. Both examine the repercussions of inherited beliefs while demonstrating the reliability of constant change. In this way, both families and their dynamics (though one is far more complex than the other) make statements about the progression of time.
The theme of death in particular is prevalent in both novels. To focus on one aspect of this all encompassing idea, I noticed that Givens death could relate to the banana plantation massacre as both are a result of an unacceptable and blatant disrespect for human life to due a class system. The workers were considered disposable and almost machine-like, meaning that their demands to receive fairer treatment resulted in the unimaginable. Similarly, Givens death was a result of someones feeling of superiority as when Given was the best hunter, the kid acted out of rage and shot him (he was embarrassed to be losing to a colored boy). Though this is just scratching the surface of possible connections between the two novels, it's interesting to see the reoccurring and almost inevitable facts of history that are addressed.

Ignorance is not always bliss

As the class briefly discussed, a new wave of drug lords is on the horizon. A wave of trafficking no less great as the cartels of the twentieth century, but a wave that goes unseen to the public. The men are known as the "Invisibles." 

The cartels of the past protected themselves through bullets. The cartels of today protect themselves with briefcases. The time of armies and automatic weapons is no more. These men hide their unlawful practices behind the screen of lawful business portfolios. Not to say that violence is not still a commonplace among traffickers, but it gets pushed so far down the ranks that tracing violence to a leader of the drug organization is next to impossible. 

Along with stealthy ways of doing business, the Invisibles have found new tracts of land to distribute. The US has and still does hold the most customers in the cocaine trade. But the advanced DEA and the security of the borders have proved the US to be too high of a risk for too little of a reward. Instead of the short trips to the states, the Invisibles have opted for the longer, safer, and more lucrative trips to countries such as Australia or India, where the price of cocaine is significantly higher. The new supplier of the substance in Mexico. The Invisibles, however, have no problem stepping out of the US for a little more piece of mind. 

The drug lords of today are some of the most brilliant and dangerous smugglers the world has ever seen. Not only have they never seen the precious powder, but they have no trace of drug enforcement breathing down their neck. As the law searches like chickens with their heads cut off the Invisibles stake more and more of a claim on the Columbian economy. It appears to be difficult to catch something you can't see.  

"The Paperhanger"- An Uncanny Similarity

We recently read a story in Creative Writing entitled "The Paperhanger" by William Gay. The story is a fictional account about the disappearance of a four year old girl. The story begins with a paperhanger (a paperhanger is a person who decorates with wallpaper) working at the house of a wealthy doctor and his wife. The wife scolds the paperhanger for doing a poor job on the walls. The wife proceeds to leave the house, but not before calling her four year old daughter, Zeineb, to join her. Her shout elicits no response, and the wife quickly realizes that her daughter is no where to be found. She notifies the authorities and an investigation and search party immediately ensue. Much like any mystery/crime story, there are a number of initial suspects: the paperhanger himself, the father of the girl, etc. Gay crafts the story in such a manner that points to the paper hanger from the very beginning, being so blunt as to even have another character refer to the paperhanger as "creepy." Accordingly, the main question becomes how the girl was taken, rather than who, in fact, took the girl. At the end, Gay verifies readers' suspicions when he reveals the culprit in an episode where the paperhanger is standing over the girl's mother, reminiscing over his crime; the paperhanger nostalgically recalls snatching the girl from the house, stuffing her in his toolbox, leaving the scene, murdering the innocent toddler, and then burying her corpse in a graveyard.

Any crime so heinous entails psychological complexities on the part of the perpetrator. It wasn't difficult to draw some clear connections between the paperhanger's twisted self and many of the characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Over the entirety of the story, Gay presents the paperhanger as a completely isolated character-- cut off from society and out of touch with his emotions. This aspect of the paperhanger reminded me of several of the characters in the book-- Jose Arcadio Buendia and Colonel Aureliano Buendia, most notably. For much of their lives, both of these characters confine themselves to the Buendia family office, cutting themselves off from the rest of the world and entirely absorbing themselves in their work. Though neither of these characters ever go to measures as extreme as the paperhanger, they both have rather tragic endings. Jose Arcadio Buendia, inspired by Melquiades, devotes much of his life to discovery. He becomes so obsessed over science and exploration that he eventually spirals into insanity and lives out his elderly years tied to the family's chestnut tree. The Colonel leads most of his life as a man unable to feel emotions; the war and deaths of several of his close friends and family members worsen his admitted inability to feel. Upon returning home to Macondo after fighting, the Colonel, instead of socializing and attempting to recover from the scars left by the War, encloses himself in his office. He burns all of his previous poetry and collapses into a pattern of crafting his famous metal fish, burning the batch, rebuilding them, and repeating this vicious cycle over and over again. The Colonel goes as far as to commit suicide.

"The Paper Hanger," a 21st century short story by a relatively unknown American author, and One Hundred Years of Solitude, perhaps the most famous 20th century South American work by the world renowned Gabriel Garcia Marquez, are about as different in origin as two stories can be. Despite these apparent differences, both stories are testaments to the dangers of isolation and both offer a keen insight into how susceptible people are to a collapse into insanity.

"Because of His Grandma, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Knew Magic was Real"

I'm very fortunate that I had the chance to build strong relationships with many of my grandparents. They taught me valuable life lessons and shaped my view of the world. For the rest of my life, I'll carry their stories in my mind and their personalities in my heart.

I recently read an article detailing Marquez's relationship with his grandparents, with whom he lived for the first eight years of his life. After our class discussions, I'd learned that his grandparents shaped his writings, specifically One Hundred Years of Solitude, but I was unsure exactly how they did so.

HIS GRANDFATHER: Nicolas Marquez
At one point, he was an army colonel! (Colonel Aureliano Buendia, perhaps?)
He also was a jeweler and a tax collector.
According to author Gentile, "Nicolás taught Gabo about history, war, and the banana plantation that dominated the town." Marquez focuses on all three of these topics in One Hundred Years of Solitude.

HIS GRANDMOTHER: Tranquilina Iguarán
First of all, her name was Iguarán. Ursula's last name is the same.
Secondly, she helped the family financially by selling vegetables and homemade sweets. Ursula also sold homemade candy.
Apparently, Tranquilina anticipated doom quite frequently and took many steps to avoid it. Like Ursula, her superstitions often got the best of her.

In his memoir, Marquez implies that without his grandfather, he likely would've become lost in Tranquilina's magical view of the world. Still, Marquez points out that although he remained grounded in the realistic world, "his grandmother's world" was hard to resist.

In a sense, Marquez's style of magical realism was an attempt to blend Nicolas's and Tranquilina's outlooks into one, to reconcile them. Although Marquez only lived with his grandparents for eight years, their unique perspectives left a mark on Marquez--one that manifests itself in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Grandparents possess a special power; in Marquez's case, their influence lives on in a novel read and respected by millions.

Source:

"Because of His Grandma, Gabriel Garcia Marquez Knew Magic Was Real" by Olivia Gentile
http://grandparenteffect.com/because-of-his-grandma-garcia-marquez-knew-magic-was-real/