Part 5 (1/2)

For the longer term, this short story has another aspect It is a pointer to the future, away from Macondo-Aracataca and El Pueblo-Sucre, that is, away from Colombia and towards not only Latin A Mama's Funeral” had finally fused the two s them for liquidation as the writer searched for a way to paint on a larger canvas One Hundred Years of Solitude would still be set in Macondo but it would be obvious to the inforory of Latin America as a whole: Macondo had made the leap from national to continental syreatness for a Latin American novelist at this tih Latin Ah a continental vision He was still a Colombian Writers in other countries with, ironically, a much less developed political consciousness than his, were nevertheless already entinian Julio Cortazar, the Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa and, above all, the Mexican Carlos Fuentes, riters ere becoht then co Joycean, ”Ulyssean” books precisely about their own change of consciousness, their own reconquest of the continent, just as that earlier writer from a colonized country, James Joyce himself, had written about his own conquest of Europe forty years before (reethe uncreated conscience of my race”) Now Garcia Marquez had to redefine his obsessions-his grandfather, his mother, his father, Colombia-and place them within a Latin American perspective Other Latin American writers-Asturias, Carpentier, Arturo Uslar Pietri-had become Latin Americans in their early twenties; it took Garcia Marquez until he was thirty-eight, and it ht never have happened at all without the Booreat creator and propagandist, the Mexican Carlos Fuentes Fortunately for Garcia Marquez he would soon bewould be decisive in his life

Again e see is the extraordinary, perhaps unparalleled restraint of a writer who, long before he was fareat pressure or great teuish that this solitary story, ”The Sea of Lost Time,” was narrated froiven him yet he was not in touch with Cuba-on the contrary, it seemed to have spurned him So in Mexico, blind as he ithout a political soul, as Mao Zedong an to wonder, not for the first tiood andfilm scripts He had a family now and he could not in conscience sacrifice Mercedes, Rodrigo and the unborn child to his still largely unfulfilled literary vocation: if he had failed to le, why should they suffer while he tried again and again to succeed? Filed to do in any case, ical aspiration for a man in his situation and it was in that direction that he turned his endeavours After all, it was still a forest filinning nothing ot home after a fruitless search for work-and Garcia Marquez was never very good at asking for anything-Mercedes told hiive Rodrigo his usual drink of milk before bedtime Garcia Marquez sat his two-year-old son down, explained the position and swore to hiain The child ”understood,” went to sleep without co, sufficiently desperate to ask for another favour, Garcia Marquez called Mutis, who seeht finally face up to being a beggar rather than a chooser He used his own business contacts to arrange a couple of interviews The first ith Gustavo Alatriste, an entrepreneur who had spent the previous years diversifying miraculously from thecine ot home after a fruitless search for work-and Garcia Marquez was never very good at asking for anything-Mercedes told hiive Rodrigo his usual drink of milk before bedtime Garcia Marquez sat his two-year-old son down, explained the position and swore to hiain The child ”understood,” went to sleep without co, sufficiently desperate to ask for another favour, Garcia Marquez called Mutis, who seeht finally face up to being a beggar rather than a chooser He used his own business contacts to arrange a couple of interviews The first ith Gustavo Alatriste, an entrepreneur who had spent the previous years diversifying miraculously from thecineed to meet him in the bar of the Hotel Presidente on 26 September 1961, exactly three months after his arrival in Mexico Garcia Marquez would recall that the sole of one of his shoes was hanging and so he turned up early for the interview and waited for Alatriste to leave before he himself padded away15 Alatriste had produced some of Luis Bunuel's best films and was la lady in three of Bunuel's movies Alatriste had produced some of Luis Bunuel's best films and was la lady in three of Bunuel's et ih Alatriste But Alatriste had recently bought several popular publications including Obviously Garcia Marquez was hoping that he would get ih Alatriste But Alatriste had recently bought several popular publications including The Family (La Faazine, and Stories for Everyone (Sucesos para Todos) Stories for Everyone (Sucesos para Todos), a very Mexican criazines hat Alatriste decided to offer the disenchanted supplicant, though he was doubtful even about that Mutis hadAlatriste some of Garcia Marquez's previous journalism as part of his recoood,” he growled But Mutis assured hi After some hesitation Garcia Marquez took the job-the two jobs-and went hoo what he would like ht the biggest one he could find

So Garcia Marquez bade farewell for the moment to his dreaazines, on the extraordinary condition that his name should not appear anywhere on the staff lists and that he would not have to sign any pieces He was in charge of The Family and Stories for Everyone-The Hoht This was not only a hu retreat back into journalism, but the lowest level of journalisentes Sur without a typewriter, and directed affairs there as if with gloves and tongs It was almost too much for him to bear The last time he had been forced to sacrifice his vocation in quite this as during the crisis after his parents ena in 1951; and even then he had found ti Leaf Storm in the cracks between his commitments But now there was a wife and child and they had to eat even if he was used to doing without food He gritted his teeth and prepared to say goodbye not only to the cineazines, called Snob Snob, had successfully lived up to its na almost no copies up to that point but was now able to survive parasitically on the backs of Garcia Marquez's populist mouthpieces Snob Snob was run in those days by two avant-garde writers, Salvador Elizondo and Juan Garcia Ponce, and Garcia Marquez complained bitterly that they were literary aristocrats exploiting his labour-little knowing that one day his still-unborn son would hter was run in those days by two avant-garde writers, Salvador Elizondo and Juan Garcia Ponce, and Garcia Marquez complained bitterly that they were literary aristocrats exploiting his labour-little knowing that one day his still-unborn son would hter17 Froet to pay his long-suffering employee Once he fell three months behind and Garcia Marquez had to pursue him everywhere In the end he pursued hiive hi stea had run and he had to scurry back in and pursue Alatriste all over again into the changing roo insult to injury, Alatriste would forget to pay his long-suffering employee Once he fell three months behind and Garcia Marquez had to pursue him everywhere In the end he pursued hiive hi stea had run and he had to scurry back in and pursue Alatriste all over again into the changing roo to rese to resemble Cantinflas, the Mexican comedian

Within weeks, despite his distaste for the work, he had iazines In a patterns of La Fae continental readershi+p, and the blood-curdling stories and gruesoreat novels in condensed foreneral interest features on other cultures and any other quality padding he could think of He had done it all before both for Cronica in Barranquilla and for Venezuela Grafica in Caracas Much of it was achieved by ransacking otherscissors and paste and egged on by a dash of desperation, a large dose of boredoen of cynicism19 By the early months of 1962 Sucesos had increased its circulation by around a thousand copies each issue and still rising By April a cooler Garcia Marquez was able to report to Plinio Mendoza that he had ”an office with carpets and two secretaries, a hoarden, and a boss who is either a rare genius or stark raving h I'veof buying a Mercedes Benz in July It would not be surprising if I anize the counter-revolutionWe're expecting Alejandra within ten days and Mercedes is in that interminable period in which women become unbearable not only as wives but also as spectacles Nevertheless she is preparing her revenge: she's going to buy loads of dresses and shoes and other things when she goes back down to her normal size” By the early months of 1962 Sucesos had increased its circulation by around a thousand copies each issue and still rising By April a cooler Garcia Marquez was able to report to Plinio Mendoza that he had ”an office with carpets and two secretaries, a hoarden, and a boss who is either a rare genius or stark raving h I'veof buying a Mercedes Benz in July It would not be surprising if I anize the counter-revolutionWe're expecting Alejandra within ten days and Mercedes is in that interminable period in which women become unbearable not only as wives but also as spectacles Nevertheless she is preparing her revenge: she's going to buy loads of dresses and shoes and other things when she goes back down to her norested in September 1961 that Garcia Marquez should put his unpublished manuscript, In Evil Hour In Evil Hour, in for the Esso-sponsored 1961 Colombian Literary Prize, which would be awarded retrospectively in 196221 Alvaro Mutis also put pressure on him It was said that Esso had received 173 subestion that Garcia Marquez should send in a last-minute entry The ain at his orous revision Alvaro Mutis also put pressure on him It was said that Esso had received 173 subestion that Garcia Marquez should send in a last-minute entry The ain at his orous revision22 Unloved by its author, Unloved by its author, In Evil Hour In Evil Hour has never been a favourite with critics either The plot is somewhat over-fussy; the characters a little undeveloped Yet it has a lucid, cineraphic quality and a cool hands-off technique that cannot fail to impress themselves on the reader, even if the sombre subject matter is unrelieved by humour or local colour has never been a favourite with critics either The plot is somewhat over-fussy; the characters a little undeveloped Yet it has a lucid, cineraphic quality and a cool hands-off technique that cannot fail to impress themselves on the reader, even if the sombre subject matter is unrelieved by humour or local colour

The decision was made on Esso's behalf by the Coloed the winner He had been asked to provide a title and he set aside ”This shi+tty Town” and came up with In Evil Hour It transpired however that the President of the Colouardian both of the Spanish language and of the morals of his flock, had been troubled by the inclusion of words such as ”contraceptive” and ”masturbation” Father Restrepo asked the Coloo Velez, to take a letter to Garcia Marquez and to have a discreet and delicate conversation with him in the course of which he should be asked to cut those two offending words Garcia Marquez decided, Soloh with the 3,000 dollars prize money already safely in his custody), to allow the ambassador to cut one He chose ”masturbation”

As fate would have it, the jury's favourable decision was made on the day that the second Garcia Barcha child, Gonzalo, was born, 16 April 1962 Garcia Marquez would later tell Plinio Mendoza that the baby was delivered ”in six ht be born in the car on the way to the clinic” After winning the prize he was temporarily, relatively, rich He used part of the money to pay for Mercedes's stay in the clinic23 But since he felt the money was ”stolen”-he would later say, perhaps hypocritically, that entering the novel for the prize was the worst decision he had ever taken in his life-he then decided, superstitiously, not to spend it on routine housekeeping and instead purchased a car, a white Opel 62 saloon with red upholstery, to transport his family about the vast metropolis He told Plinio Mendoza: ”It's the et up in the ht to see if it's still there” But since he felt the money was ”stolen”-he would later say, perhaps hypocritically, that entering the novel for the prize was the worst decision he had ever taken in his life-he then decided, superstitiously, not to spend it on routine housekeeping and instead purchased a car, a white Opel 62 saloon with red upholstery, to transport his family about the vast metropolis He told Plinio Mendoza: ”It's the et up in the ht to see if it's still there”24 But none of this was enough He had won a literary prize but he was no longer a writer He went on fretting He found hih hopes, and his strategy of seducing Alatriste through his devotion to duty, nothing came25 Indeed, thethe tnazines, the less Alatriste was likely to allow him to move Indeed, thethe tnazines, the less Alatriste was likely to allow hier sure whether he would be able to write even under the right conditions Since he had been married he had only written a few short stories and even the despised In Evil Hour In Evil Hour see book to him The truth is that his mind was filled with nonsense at work, family matters at home, and movie talk with his friends It is ironic to think that he had embarked, without conviction, on the next book after see book to him The truth is that his mind was filled with nonsense at work, family matters at home, and movie talk with his friends It is ironic to think that he had embarked, without conviction, on the next book after One Hundred Years of Solitude-Erendira and Other Stories One Hundred Years of Solitude-Erendira and Other Stories-but could not get to the novel he had been waiting to write, in one sense, for the whole of his life So after a few months he went back to it; in other words, back to ”The House,” in his spare tiain he got nowhere So back he went to another idea that he felt deep doas a winner, a novel entitled The Autumn of the Patriarch The Autumn of the Patriarch26 One Hundred Years of Solitude One Hundred Years of Solitude did not even exist as a title, but this other, once aborted novel even had its eventual name By the time the stories of did not even exist as a title, but this other, once aborted novel even had its eventual na Mama's Funeral were published in April 1962, the month he won the prize for were published in April 1962, the month he won the prize for In Evil Hour In Evil Hour, and soon after he received the first copies of No One Writes to the Colonel No One Writes to the Colonel, he had put together three hundred pages of The Autumn of the Patriarch The Autu track In the end he abandoned it again; later he would say that only the names of the characters survived and he still felt that he was on the wrong track In the end he abandoned it again; later he would say that only the names of the characters survived27 Perhaps that dictator novel-partly about himself, in the present-could never have been written before the problem of ”The House”-about his faed, distraught, he put the ain and, for the first time, contemplated a future without literature Perhaps that dictator novel-partly about himself, in the present-could never have been written before the problem of ”The House”-about his faed, distraught, he put the ain and, for the first time, contemplated a future without literature

But that was intolerable He became azines and now complained to his co I' tranquilizers spread on my bread like butter and I still can't sleep et ine, I' It's two months since I opened the typewriter I don't knohere to start, I' and I won't get rich either NothingI' tranquilizers spread on my bread like butter and I still can't sleep et ine, I' It's two months since I opened the typewriter I don't knohere to start, I' and I won't get rich either Nothing ood situation”28 Politically, the question of his own relationshi+p with Cuba was grating on hi; as far as the Cubans were concerned, it was closed Despite the problems he had experienced in New York, Garcia Marquez still felt that his difficulties ith the sectarians, not the Cuban regi on longer His ad as he watched the young Cuban leader and the steely Guevara defying the power of the United States and the serried ranks of bourgeois liberal Latin American countries In April 1962, as Castro confronted both the entire capitalist world and the dogmatists in the Cuban Communist Party, Garcia Marquez, ould always love to boast of having inside information, wrote to Plinio Mendoza: ”I know the whole story about Fidel's 'purge' of Anibal Escalante and I was sure that Masetti would be quickly rehabilitated Fidel said such tough things to the comrades-'Don't think you won this Revolution in a raffle'-that for a while I was afraid the crisis would be a grave one It's incredible how Cuba is racing through phases that take ten or twenty years in other countries I have the impression the comrades bowed their heads to Fidel but I do not rule out the possibility-and I know exactly what I'ht kill hihted for Masetti and all of us and, of course, for our beautiful little Cuba which is proving to be an incredible education for everyone”29 The letter is illu: here is Garcia Marquez, two years after his separation from Prensa Latina and his disillusion to invest his political faith and dreams for the future in Cuba and his confidence in its leader, for whom his admiration is unlimited Here we see hoo different approaches to Castro coincide: first, a way of talking that suggests that, like so many socialists at the time, Garcia Marquez feels he knows ”Fidel” personally, almost as a friend or elder brother, in the way that we know someone well but still from the outside; second, more unusually, the novelist's sense that he has an inside vision of the Cuban leader, as if Castro is a character in one of his books, acting and talking more or less in fulfilh, Cuba was closed to hi under his own control: his literature He was beginning to lose hope

NINETEEN SIXTY-TWO DRAGGED ON The Cuban missile crisis came and went and the world, shaken and stirred, survived it But still there was no light at the end of Garcia Marquez's endless tunnel Then: Hallelujah! In April 1963 he finally escaped from The Family and Stories for Everyone The Family and Stories for Everyone and became, as he wrote jubilantly to Plinio Mendoza, a ”professional writer” and became, as he wrote jubilantly to Plinio Mendoza, a ”professional writer”30 Heparaphrase After discussing his predicament with Mercedes, he had taken a chance on a desperate piece of private enterprise by writing a screenplay, on his own initiative, in five days, over the Easter holiday The script was for a fil paraphrase After discussing his predicament with Mercedes, he had taken a chance on a desperate piece of private enterprise by writing a screenplay, on his own initiative, in five days, over the Easter holiday The script was for a film to be called El Charro (The Cowboy) El Charro (The Cowboy), and Garcia Marquez had the great Mexican actor Pedro Aronist When Alatriste heard about the project he wanted to take it over with the idea of that most Mexican of fil the film When he discovered that Garcia Marquez had already pro director Jose Luis Gonzalez de Leon in exchange for complete control of the screenplay and when he became convinced that Garcia Marquez would not break his ith the other director, Alatriste suddenly changed his previous tune and told Garcia Marquez that he would pay hiazines to stay at home for a year and write two hted that his gaamble had paid off

Unfortunately the unpredictable Alatriste ran out of money over the summer and asked Garcia Marquez to release hi to continue to provide hi co film producers, Garcia Marquez contacted another of Alvaro Mutis's friends: Manuel Barbachano, the producer, as only too happy to take hi as it was on a freelance basis One of Barbachano's obsessions was the work of Juan Rulfo and he planned to carry the story ”The Golden cock” (”El gallo de oro”) to the screen It is the tale of a poorcock and discovers he has found a chareat wealth and to the local belle, the mistress of a richthey have fought for In several respects it was the world of No One Writes to the Colonel No One Writes to the Colonel and Mutis had recommended his excited friend as the very man for the job No better opportunity could have come Garcia Marquez's way The director, Roberto Gavaldon, was one of the best-known, and politically best-placed of the country's filueroa, was probably the most brilliant cameraman in all of Latin America Garcia Marquez would finally meet the tortured alcoholic author of the story, Juan Rulfo, at a wedding in late November 1963-on the day Lee Harvey Oswald died shortly after being accused of assassinating President John F Kennedy-and they became as friendly as Rulfo's condition and Garcia Marquez's state of anxiety and depression would allow and Mutis had recommended his excited friend as the very man for the job No better opportunity could have come Garcia Marquez's way The director, Roberto Gavaldon, was one of the best-known, and politically best-placed of the country's filueroa, was probably the most brilliant cameraman in all of Latin America Garcia Marquez would finally meet the tortured alcoholic author of the story, Juan Rulfo, at a wedding in late November 1963-on the day Lee Harvey Oswald died shortly after being accused of assassinating President John F Kennedy-and they became as friendly as Rulfo's condition and Garcia Marquez's state of anxiety and depression would allow

Barbachano was not offering Garcia Marquez the same security as Alatriste and the bills still had to be paid, so Garcia Marquez called the Walter Thoency in Septeh far fro suited his temperament better and left hiazines At least in this new situation he was in a better position to do what he had always done: attend to his day job efficiently and responsibly while still retaining the energy and so the time to work on what really interested him32 He was destined to spend late 1963, all of 1964 andsiencies-first Walter Thompson, and then Stanton, Pritchard and Wood, which was part of another global giant, McCann Erickson Walter Tho agencies in the world and so for a ti for the standard-bearers of UShe has ever been keen to highlight Mutis had preceded hi worked at Stanton early in his stay in Mexico, from the moment it was established He was destined to spend late 1963, all of 1964 andsiencies-first Walter Thompson, and then Stanton, Pritchard and Wood, which was part of another global giant, McCann Erickson Walter Tho agencies in the world and so for a ti for the standard-bearers of UShe has ever been keen to highlight Mutis had preceded hi worked at Stanton early in his stay in Mexico, from the ained during this somewhat bizarre interlude prepared Garcia Marquez, ironically enough, to negotiate his own future celebrity-to understand fame, to think about self-presentation, to produce a personal brand-ie it Stilland public relations would allow him to live out his political contradictions in public without hostile US coer on him in the decades to come He had the knack, and whenever Garcia Marquez was inspired his ht hand and punch the air like a prize fighter He also had help at ho up with memorable phrases about products-”You can't live without a Kleenex” was one of them-and he turned several of her off-the-cuff reans33 Garcia Marquez now became fully installed in the Mexican cultural milieu at one of its most influential and effervescentLondon's Carnaby Street and King's Road, would really get going in 1964 Era, the recently funded left-wing publishi+ng house, had just brought out the second edition of No One Writes to the Colonel No One Writes to the Colonel in Septeh still with a print run of only 1,000 copies He began to live quite a social whirl alasses of the city's fashi+onable writers, painters, ers and journalists The couple were now prosperous and well dressed Rodrigo and Gonzalo would go to private English schools, first the Colegio Williael in Septeh still with a print run of only 1,000 copies He began to live quite a social whirl alasses of the city's fashi+onable writers, painters, ers and journalists The couple were now prosperous and well dressed Rodrigo and Gonzalo would go to private English schools, first the Colegio Williael34 The fa around for a house witharound for a house withas a freelance movie writer Garcia Marquez had produced the script for Rulfo's ”The Golden cock”35 Barbachano considered it excellent, with just one reservation-he said it ritten in Colombian, not Mexican It was at this moment that Garcia Marquez's luck improved stillyoung writer, eighteen months Garcia Marquez's junior, returned to Mexico late in 1963 after a longish stay in Europe Barbachano considered it excellent, with just one reservation-he said it ritten in Colombian, not Mexican It was at this moment that Garcia Marquez's luck improved stillyoung writer, eighteen months Garcia Marquez's junior, returned to Mexico late in 1963 after a longish stay in Europe36 He and the Colombian had a plethora of friends in common Whoever introduced them, it helped when they first met that Fuentes kneho Garcia Marquez was and already admired his work As the Mexican would recall, ”I'd first heard about Gabriel through Alvaro Mutis, who in the late 1950s gave me a copy of He and the Colombian had a plethora of friends in common Whoever introduced them, it helped when they first met that Fuentes kneho Garcia Marquez was and already admired his work As the Mexican would recall, ”I'd first heard about Gabriel through Alvaro Mutis, who in the late 1950s gavethat's co to specify either ti that's co to specify either time or place”37 As a result of this reco Ma It Rain in Macondo” in the As a result of this reco Ma It Rain in Macondo” in the Revista Mexicana de Literatura Revista Mexicana de Literatura He had even written an enthusiastic review of He had even written an enthusiastic review of No One Writes to the Colonel in La Cultura en Mexico (Siempre!) No One Writes to the Colonel in La Cultura en Mexico (Siempre!) in January 1963 in January 1963

Still, Fuentes was enough to worsen anyone's inferiority co, which he had lish and French superbly, in the virile but modulated tones of the classic Mexican tenor He was handsola actress Rita Macedo; later he would have a dra when she was filo And in 1958 he had published what can fairly be considered the hich announced the io And in 1958 he had published what can fairly be considered the hich announced the imminent Booion ion mas transparente) Like Garcia Marquez, Fuentes had travelled to Cuba immediately after the revolution but was always politically independent: he would eventuallybanned from communist Cuba, fascist Spain and the liberal United States In 1962 he had published two othic novella Like Garcia Marquez, Fuentes had travelled to Cuba immediately after the revolution but was always politically independent: he would eventuallybanned from communist Cuba, fascist Spain and the liberal United States In 1962 he had published two othic novella Aura Aura and and The Death of Artemio Cruz (La muerte de Artemio Cruz) The Death of Artereat Mexican novels of the century and perhaps the greatest of all novels about the Mexican Revolution-a hich he completed in Havana, where he had viewed his own country's fading revolutionary process from the perspective of Cuba's new one At thirty-five, then, Carlos Fuentes ithout question the leading young writer in Mexico and a rising international star