"One Hundred Years of Solitude" and the Colombian Flag

In "One Hundred Years of Solitude", Macondo is a microcosm. The citizens are fascinated by the inventions of the outside world and are isolated from it. A reason for writing the town this way was so that Marquez was able to use the town to refer to Colombia itself and comment on larger subjects. Time seems to vary in speed so that Marquez is able to manipulate his timeline in accordance with commentary he wants to make. Ursula, for example, lives much longer than a normal lifespan, but is necessary to have until the end in order to show how she has held together the family and kept their history alive. He also is able to include many historical references, such as the banana worker massacre, the war, and conquests and colonization. I remembered the picture of the Colombian flag from one group's presentation in class and I wondered what the colors stood for; flags often also reflect values and history of the nation, just as Marquez tried to capture and comment on in his novel. The Colombian flag is striped yellow, blue, and red. Though there are some different interpretations, the yellow is said to possibly stand for the gold and rich land of Colombia. The blue is for the ocean barrier that keeps Spain from Colombia. The red is for the blood spilled in fighting for independence. It represents the peoples' refusal to give up or to be conquered. The ideas behind the yellow and the red, are particularly evident in the novel. Gold is what drove many explorers, it's what was behind the founding of many towns. The red is shown in the war and in the massacre, its in much of Marquez's commentary on not forgetting about the past or sweeping things under the rug. The people fought hard for their nation and the history shouldn't be forgotten. Lastly, the Condor, a large bird, is another symbol of Colombia; it represents freedom and independence.

source: https://colombia-sa.com/simbolos/simbolos-otros-in.html#condor