García Márquez Gabriel - Gabriel García Márquez: a life

O NE OF THE BURDENS of researching a biography is that so many favours have to be asked of so many people, most of whom respond with generosity and goodwill even though they have absolutely nothing to gain from their endeavour. Rarely can a researcher have been indebted to so many people or, indeed, so deeply and hopelessly indebted to a significant proportion of themeven if, of course, the eventual shortcomings of the book are mine alone.

First and foremost, in England (and in the United States), I thank my wife Gail, who over eighteen years has helped me research the book, prepare the book and write the book, with extraordinary generosity, dedication and (for the most part) patience; it is also her book and I would still be years away from finishing it without her assistance. And I also thank my daughters Camilla and Leonie, who have never complained at our occasional neglect of them and their families, whom we love so much. Second, my dear friend John King, of the University of Warwick, who has read both versions of this book, including the longer one, but has read them at the time and in the way necessary to ease my neuroses and maximize my time and effort; I will always be grateful to him.

Gail Martin, Andrew Cannon and Leonie Martin Cannon (literary lawyers both), Liz Calder and Maggie Traugott all read the manuscript and made many invaluable suggestions. Camilla Martin Wilks gave critical help with family trees at a difficult moment.

I could not be more grateful to Gabriel Garca Mrquez and Mercedes Barcha. Few couples have more public and private commitments than they do and yet they have treated me with courtesy, generosity and good humour over almost two decades despite our shared awareness, never spelled out, that few invasions of privacy are more exasperatingor indeed far-reachingthan the repeated and always unpredictable requests and requirements of a biographer. Their sons Rodrigo and Gonzalo (and Gonzalos wife Pa) have also been friendly and helpful. Their secretaries, especially Blanca Rodrguez and Mnica Alonso Garay, have always assisted me on request, and their cousin Margarita Mrquez Caballero, their secretary in Bogot, has been not only charming but efficient and helpful beyond the call of duty. Carmen Balcells, Garca Mrquezs agent in Barcelona, has talked to me at length on several occasions and has enormously facilitated this undertaking both at the beginning and at its end. Jaime Abello, the Director of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism in Cartagena, has been most supportive in recent years, as has his colleague, my inimitable and unforgettable friend Jaime Garca Mrquez; and without Alquimia Pea, Director of the Foundation for New Latin American Cinema in Havana, I might never have met Gabriel Garca Mrquez in the first place. Later, Antonio Nez Jimnez made his unique knowledge of the relationship between Garca Mrquez and Fidel Castro available to me as well as the facilities of his foundation, the Fundacin de la Naturaleza y el Hombre in Havana.

In Colombia my cachaca friend Patricia Castaos generosity, knowledge of the country and networking skills gave me advantages and resources invaluable to a foreign researcher; not only would this have been a different book without her help and advice but the research and preparation would have been much less interesting and enjoyable without her friendship and hospitality and that of her husband Fernando Caycedo. Gustavo Adolfo Ramrez Ariza has contributed to my understanding of Garca Mrquezs relationship with the capital city (despite being a costeo) and has given me crucial and judicious assistance with illustrations and other details (my thanks also to his mother, Ruth Ariza); Rosala Castro, Juan Gustavo Cobo Borda, Margarita Mrquez Caballero and Conrado Zuluaga all opened their personal archives in Colombia to me with unhesitating generosity and gave me indispensable source material. Heriberto Fiorillo has kindly made the resources of the new La Cueva available to me and Rafael Daro Jimnez has guided me around Aracataca with great insight and good humour.

Also in Colombia I have been privileged to meet not only Gabriel Garca Mrquezs mother, Luisa Santiaga Mrquez Iguarn de Garca, on several occasions, but have been treated almost as one of the family (el to Yeral) by his relatives, especially his brothers and sisters and their spouses and children. It would be individious to try to single anyone out but I am grateful to them all, not just for the information but for the extraordinary human experience they have given me both individually and collectively: Margot Garca Mrquez; Luis Enrique Garca Mrquez and Graciela Morelli and their children; Aida Rosa Garca Mrquez; Ligia Garca Mrquez (the family genealogist, literally a godsend to all researchers); Gustavo Garca Mrquez and Lilia Travecero with their son Daniel Garca Travecero; Rita Garca Mrquez and Alfonso Torres, Alfonsito and all the rest; Jaime Garca Mrquez and Margarita Munive; Hernando (Nanchi) Garca Mrquez and family; Alfredo (Cuqui) Garca Mrquez; Abelardo Garca and family; Germaine (Emy) Garca; and last but certainly not least, the unforgettable and much missed Eligio (Yiyo) Garca Mrquez, his wife Myriam Garzn and their sons Esteban Garca Garzn and Nicols Garca Garzn. I hope to give more of a biography of the family in a later volume.

Among members of the extended family, I have met and been generously assisted by the writer Jos Luis Daz-Granados and his son Federico, his mother Margot Valdeblnquez de Daz-Granados (another indispensable family memorialist), Jos Stevenson, another distinguished writer and good friend, whose knowledge of Bogot has been invaluable, Oscar Alarcn Nez (yet another writer; the family boasts several), Nicols Arias, Eduardo Barcha and Narcisa Maas, Miriam Barcha, Arturo Barcha Velilla, Hctor Barcha Velilla, Heriberto Mrquez, Ricardo Mrquez Iguarn in Riohacha, Margarita Mrquez Caballero (mentioned above), Rafael Osorio Martnez and Ezequiel Iguarn Iguarn.

In Paris, Tachia Quintana de Rosoff has always been helpful and welcoming, as was her late husband Charles Rosoff; I feel privileged to have known her.

Worldwide, as well as those mentioned above, my interviewees have included Marco Tulio Aguilera Garramuo, Eliseo (Lichi) Alberto, Carlos Alemn, Guillermo Angulo, Consuelo Araujonoguera (La Cacica), Germn Arciniegas, Nieves Arrazola de Muoz Suay, Holly Aylett, Carmen Balcells, Manuel Barbachano, Virgilio Barco, Miguel Barnet, Danilo Bartuln, Mara Luisa Bemberg, Belisario Betancur, Fernando Birri, Pacho Botta, Ana Mara Busquets de Cano, Antonio Caballero, Mara Mercedes Carranza, Alvaro Castao and Gloria Valencia, Olga Castao, Rodrigo Castao, Jos Mara Castellet, Fidel Castro Ruz, Rosala Castro, Patricia Cepeda, Teresa (Tita) Cepeda, Leonor Cerchar, Ramn Chao, Ignacio Chaves, Hernando Corral, Alfredo Correa, Luis Carmelo Correa, Poncho Cotes, Luis Coudurier Sayago, Claude Couffon, Antonio Daconte, Malcolm Deas, Meira Delmar, Jos Luis Daz-Granados, Eliseo Diego, Lisandro Duque, Ignacio Durn, Mara Jimena Duzn, Jorge Edwards, Mara Luisa Elo, Rafael Escalona, Jos Espinosa, Ramiro de la Espriella, Filemn Estrada, Etzael and Mencha Saltarn and family in Barrancas, Luis and Leticia Feduchi, Roberto Fernndez Retamar, Cristo Figueroa, Heriberto Fiorillo, Vctor Flores Olea, Elida Fonseca, Jos Font Castro, Marcos Mara Fossy, Alfonso Fuenmayor (I owe Alfonso an unforgettable tour of old Barranquilla), Carlos Fuentes, Jos Gamarra, Heliodoro Garca, Mario Garca Joya, Otto Garzn Patio, Vctor Gaviria, Jacques Gilard, Paul Giles, Fernando Gmez Agudelo, Ral Gmez Jattin, Katya Gonzlez, Antonio Gonzlez Jorge and Isabel Lara, Juan Goytisolo, Andrew Graham-Yooll, Edith Grossman, Oscar Guardiola, Toms Gutirrez Alea, Rafael Gutirrez Girardot, Guillermo Henrquez, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Ramn Illn Bacca, Michael Jimnez, Jos Vicente Kataran, Don Klein, Maria Lucia Lepecki, Susana Linares de Vargas, Miguel Littn, Jordi Llad Vilaseca, Felipe Lpez Caballero, Nereo Lpez Mesa (Nereo), Alfonso Lpez Michelsen, Aline Mackissack Maldonado, Magola in the Guajira, Berta Maldo nado (La Chaneca), Stella Malagn, Gonzalo Mallarino, Eduardo Marceles Daconte, Joaqun Marco, Guillermo Marn, Juan Mars, Jess Martn-Barbero, Toms Eloy Martnez and Gabriela Esquivada, Carmelo Martnez Conn, Alberto Medina Lpez, Jorge Orlando Melo, Consuelo Mendoza, Elvira Mendoza, Mara Luisa Mendoza (La China), Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza, Domingo Miliani, Luis Mogolln and Yolanda Pupo, Sara de Mojica, Carlos Monsivis, Augusto (Tito) Monterroso and Barbara Jacobs, Beatriz de Moura, Annie Morvan, Alvaro Mutis and Carmen Miracle, Berta Navarro, Francisco Norden, Elida Noriega, Antonio Nez Jimnez and Lupe Vliz, Alejandro Obregn, Ana Mara Ochoa, Montserrat Ordez, Jaime (El Mono) Osorio, Leonardo Padura Fuentes, Edgardo (Cacho) Pallero, James Papworth, Alquimia Pea, Antonio Mara Pealoza Cervantes, Gioconda Prez Snyder, Roberto Pombo, Eduardo Posada Carb, Elena Poniatowska, Francisco (Paco) Porra, Gertrudis Prasca de Amn, Gregory Rabassa, Sergio Ramrez Mercado, Csar Ramos Hernndez, Kevin Rastopolous, Rosa Regs, Alastair Reid, Juan Reinoso and Virginia de Reinoso, Laura Restrepo, Ana Ros, Julio Roca, Juan Antonio Roda and Mara Fornaguera de Roda, Hctor Rojas Herazo, Teresita Romn de Zurek, Vicente Rojo and Albita, Jorge Elicer Ruiz, Jos (El Mono) Salgar, Daniel Samper, Ernesto Samper, Mara Elvira Samper, Jorge Snchez, Enrique Santos Caldern, Lszlo Scholz, Enrique (Quique) Scopell and Yolanda Field, Elba Solano, Carmen Delia de Solano, Urbano Solano Vidal, Jos Stevenson, Jean Stubbs, Gloria Triana, Jorge Al Triana, Hernn Urbina Joiro, Margot Valdeblnquez de Daz-Granados, Germn Vargas, Mauricio Vargas, Mario Vargas Llosa, Margarita de la Vega, Roberto de la Vega, Rafael Vergara, Nancy Vicens, Hernn Vieco, Stella Villamizar, Luis Villar Borda, Erna Von der Walde, Ben Woolford, Daniel Woolford, Seor and Seora Wunderlisch, Martha Yances, Juan Zapata Olivella, Manuel Zapata Olivella, Gloria Zea and Conrado Zuluaga. I am grateful to all of them and would like to be able to detail exactly what each of these interlocutors has done for me or taught me, but this would take a book in itself.