Colombian town of Aracataca woke up last Tuesday to 80 cannon shots. They celebrated the 80th birthday of its most famous citizen, Nobel prizewinner Gabriel Garcia Marquez, author of classics like One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera.
Thousands of paper and metal yellow butterflies made by local students decorated Aracataca, hometown of Garcia Marquez, ‘Gabo’. Folkloric and cultural events, serenades and parades were part of the celebration.
Apart from Garcia Marquez’s 80th birthday, 2007 also marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Gabo’s first short story, the 40th anniversary of One Hundred Years of Solitude and 25th anniversary of the Nobel Prize award.
People across Colombia, Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries also marked the occasion with different events like a marathon reading of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.
The novel chronicles a family’s life and the history of their fictional town, Macondo, for one hundred years. Considered Garcia Marquez’s masterpiece, the book is a metaphor of Colombia’s history.
