Marquéz at work on 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' |
"For the National Library (of Colombia) it would have been an honor to have those materials," Culture Minister Mariana Garcés told the FM radio. "For Colombia, it's a great pity not having them."
She said that Colombia had expressed interest in the collection.
One of the manuscripts donated to the Harry Ransom Center. (Photo: Harry Ransom Center) |
Perhaps more relevantly, Marquez lived the last half century of his life in Mexico City, where he is buried. Some Colombians resented what they considered Marquéz's small contributions to the mostly poor people who inspired his stories. So, it's in a way appropriate that his papers will rest outside of Colombia as well.
Marquéz's corrections and editions on manuscript of 'The General in his Laberynth.' |
Marquéz's family did not completely stiff Colombia. Items including the typewriter he wrote 'One Hundred Years of Solitude,' on and his Nobel Prize medal will go to the Colombian National Library.
Many commentators on the El Tiempo newspaper's story about the sale seemed to get a cynical pleasure from the spectacle of the leftist writer's family selling his material to a United States institution.
"That's the Colombian left," wrote Fercast0513. "Just imagine, Gabo's son sold his leftist father's files to a university in the North American empire."
By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours
4 comments:
Well, Colombia has nothing close to the Ransom center in Austin, and his manuscripts being housed there would be accessed by a much wider audience. Furthermore, the documents wouldn't come under scrutinization by some Colombian faction with a bone to pick with his outspoken political views. I could only imagine the squabbling that would ensue if such documents came to Colombia.
Hi Dan - Yes, the folks at the Ransom must be pros at document conservation. They've got a Gutenberg Bible there, after all, and a Shakespeare First Folio.
However, Texas has lots of factions, as well. It's just that they don't care as much about Gabo as the Colombians do.
But, you're right, it'd be a sad thing for the docs to get lost in some Colombian library, or defaced by some Uribista.
Mike
Sure, but the dominant political party in Texas is one that is completely opposite to the ideology of Gabo; the Republicans. Even though polarization may be quite the problem in the US, the petulant behavior of Colombian politics could easily put his manuscripts at risk had they been housed within the country.
Thanks mostly to its growing Latino population, Texas may turn Democratic within a few election cycles.
But I doubt that'll make a big difference to Gabo. And Austin's a lefty island, in any case.
Mike
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