Gabriel García Márquez’s Subversive Agenda

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  • Title: Gabriel García Márquez’s Subversive Agenda: Architectures of Deception to Discredit the Non-Ending Colonial Status Quo
  • Author(s): Faith N Mishina
  • Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
  • Collection: New Directions in the Humanities
  • Keywords: García Márquez, Colombia, Deception
  • Date: December 15, 2016
  • ISBN (hbk): 978-1-61229-897-9
  • ISBN (pbk): 978-1-61229-898-6
  • ISBN (pdf): 978-1-61229-899-3
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.18848/978-1-61229-899-3/CGP
  • Citation: Mishina, Faith N . 2016. Gabriel García Márquez’s Subversive Agenda: Architectures of Deception to Discredit the Non-Ending Colonial Status Quo. Champaign, IL: Common Ground Research Networks. doi:10.18848/978-1-61229-899-3/CGP.
  • Extent: 81 pages

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Abstract

Gabriel García Márquez was one of the first Latin Americans to not only condemn but to understand the significance of the growing monolithic bloc of corporate capitalism and the neoliberal onslaught on Latin America in the second half of the 20th century. As a boy, he saw the economic and social violence triggered by a northern corporation, United Fruit, on his hometown of Aracataca. He recognized that corporate capitalism had morphed exponentially into a complex architecture of deception with the Chilean coup of 1973. Corporate capitalism, especially northern corporations, wanted access to Latin American resources on their terms. Their illegal objectives required a complex three-dimensional and multipronged architecture in which to disguise their push for profits at the expense of Latin American lives. In response, Gabriel García Márquez strategically constructs his imaginative architectures of deception in three of his novels—El otoño del Patriarca, Crónica, and El General en su laberinto—to capture and mirror the complex political reality of his Latin America. In opposition to northern corporate consumption of Latin America’s riches and lives, Gabriel García Márquez’s creative architectures strip away the fixed political opinions of neo-colonial interests, forcing his readers to experience the unending circular path of the powerless, that is, the majority of the Latin American people. This alchemist of word structures will defend the powerless and attack the rule of corporate imperialism by forging post- and anti-colonial readers. His textual architectures enhance his political message and are a delight to all metaphoric minds and potential saboteurs.