Gone on Gabo

Spanish is Greek to Malayalis. But Latin American author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who wrote in Spanish, is a household name in Kerala. Marquez’s Nobel-winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude , whose Malayalam translation appeared three decades ago, enjoys a cult status in Kerala. Most of his works are available in Malayalam. ‘Magical realism’ has influenced at least two generations of Malayalam writers.

The Malayali’s fixation with Marquez, which began in the 1970s, is best told in these jokes: Marquez is ‘the best known Malayali writer in Latin America’ and the ‘first Malayalam author who has won the Nobel.’

Marquez is pronounced almost like Markose, a familiar Malayali name. When the author was hospitalised with cancer in 2000, some of his fans sent a messenger to Mexico City with a bouquet of flowers and a get-well-soon card. A ‘prayer meeting’ was held in Kozhikode, with drinks served, for his early recovery.

Our man there The way Marquez told his stories; the human experiences that floated through magic and reality; and, the enchanting Colombian landscape he portrayed were some factors that lured the Malayali reader to One Hundred Years of Solitude , Love in the Time of Cholera , The Autumn of the Patriarch , The General in his Labyrinth , Chronicle of a Death Foretold and No One Writes to the Colonel .

Macondo, the imaginary village where many Marquezian characters lived, appears in Kerala as the name of homes, restaurants and even of a magazine.

The Latin American peoples’ sufferings under colonial powers and military regimes strike an emotional chord with the Malayali, who voted to power the world’s first Communist government in a democratic setup. The author’s celebrated friendship with Fidel Castro, another Latin American darling of the Left-leaning Kerala, added to the fascination. The Latin American trio of Che Guevara, Castro and Marquez continue to engage Malayalis.

When Marquez died last week, it all Malayalam newspapers put the news of page one, and followed it up with full-page reports, features and memoirs. News channels mourned the death non-stop.

Marquez has never visited this part of the world, but many Malayalis have paid him visits in Mexico City and narrated their encounters to readers back home. Interviews with him and biographical articles on him are aplenty. Two critical books on his works had appeared way back in the 1980s.

Opening a continent The love for Gabo has led to a keen interest in Latin American literature. Mario Vargas Llosa is, perhaps, the second-most-read Latin American writer in Kerala.

Malayalis have a history of affinity towards European and American literatures. In the early 20th century Kesari A. Balakrishna Pillai, a highly regarded literary critic, introduced major French writers to the Malayalis. The French classic Les Miserables was translated into Malayalam in the first half of the 20th century. The works of Franz Kafka, who wrote in German; Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre, the French philosopher-authors, were all translated.

And, several generations of Malayalis grew up with Russian novels, thanks to the inexpensive and well-produced Malayalam translations made available by the Soviet Union. In those days, when the Internet and smartphones were yet to be born, reading was the hobby of choice of the Malayali.

But reading, as many testify, is retreating. The spread of ‘English-medium’ school education has, weirdly, reduced, rather than increased, interest in foreign literature. And, reading for intellectual pleasure is going downhill, too.

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