Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Photo: File.

December 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Gabriel García Márquez and, happily, Colombia will be the guest of honor at the 31st International Book Fair, which will open its doors this February.

The writer will be the center of important activities at the literary event, such as

a colloquium by Ediciones ICAIC dedicated to his life and work and the presentation of various titles on his career.

It was no less for those who move away from the prototype of a distant writer of universal stature and slip into the collective imagination as one more Cuban.

His history with the largest of the Antilles and Fidel was one of sincere friendship.

He would cost him questioning from the world's powerful and being banned from entering the United States for several years.

The Commander in Chief and the triumph of the Revolution were the decisive causes of his approach to Cuba, in 1959, to participate in a massive press conference called by Fidel to confront the disinformation campaigns against the new government:

Operation Truth.

The invitation was made on January 18.

While he was tidying up his desk, a fighter from the July 26 Movement appeared at the door of the magazine where he worked in Caracas looking for journalists who wanted to go to Cuba that same night.

He did not hesitate to join the effort.

From Venezuela, months before, he had already written articles that showed his sympathy for Fidel and the process he led.

On this first trip he met him in person.

Five months later, the Latin American Information Agency Prensa Latina emerged, of which he was the founder, together with Jorge Ricardo Masetti, Rodolfo Walsh, Rogelio García Lupo, Jorge Timossi and Carlos María Gutiérrez.

Gabo -as he was affectionately called- lived in Cuba for several months and by 1960 he was already part of the agency's staff of correspondents in the region.

As a reporter for Prensa Latina, he first worked at the Bogotá correspondent and then, in 1961, opened the agency's New York office.

His stay in that city was closely followed by the FBI.

The president of that organization, John Edgar Hoover, signed an order in February 1961 that provided for immediate notification to the FBI in the event that the Colombian arrived in the United States for any reason.

Although he did not return to Cuba until 1975, he maintained ties with institutions such as Casa de las Américas and

remained faithful to the Island, precisely in that decade, when some representatives of the Western intelligentsia left the country.

Gabo wrote several texts on the Cuban reality.

Three chronicles published in his country under the name "Cuba from end to end" stand out;

the report "Operation Carlota" - about the presence of Cuban internationalist troops in Angola - and the dozens of articles dedicated to Fidel Castro.

The friendship of Fidel and García Márquez was consolidated for more than half a century.

Photo: File.

On the Comandante's 61st birthday, his friend published a profile where he acknowledged his sympathy for him and for Cuba.

He gives the impression that nothing amuses him as much as showing his true face to those who arrive prepared by enemy propaganda to meet a barbarian leader

.

He sings the truths to them, and supports very well when they sing to him”, read one of the paragraphs.

“But the most unfortunate thing, both for Fidel Castro and for his listeners, is that even the best journalists, especially the European ones, do not even have the curiosity to confront their questionnaires with the reality of the street.

They yearn for the trophy of the interview with questions written in accordance with the political obsessions and cultural prejudices of their countries, without taking the trouble to find out for themselves what Cuba is really like today, what the dreams and frustrations are. of their people: the truth of their lives”, he affirmed.

García Márquez commented in 1981 that his friendship with Fidel Castro was intellectual and that when they were together they talked about literature.

He offered the leader of the Revolution books and even the drafts of his novels, to have his criteria before publishing them.

According to Gerald Martin, biographer of the writer, Fidel affirmed that Gabo was a magician of literature, who knew the people of Latin America very well and believed in the improvement of men and society.

He pointed out that

the writer never said a phrase in public that indicated differences with Fidel and the Revolution, even though he did not agree on certain aspects.

“I am a friend of Fidel and I am not an enemy of the Revolution.

That's all," García Márquez stated on one occasion.

Proof of that loyalty was his mediation with US President Bill Clinton, with a secret message from Fidel addressed to the president, warning him about terrorist acts against Cuba.

Clinton had revoked during his presidency (1993-2001) the veto for the Colombian to enter the country.

Cuba was a constant destination in the life of García Márquez.

Here he lived, worked and the same could be found at a concert, in a rural town or teaching classes.

He accompanied Fidel on his return to Birán after the Commander's 70th birthday, on August 15, 1996, and was at the mass that Pope John Paul II offered in the Plaza de la Revolución in 1998.

But one of his most important missions in Cuba was linked to the development of cinema

.

He promoted the emergence of the New Latin American Cinema Foundation in 1985 - of which he was president - and the creation in 1986 of the International Film and Television School, where he worked as a script teacher.

Related to the big screen was also his last public appearance in Cuba.

It happened in December 2010, when she attended the 32nd Havana Film Festival, where her presence was a tradition and a grateful gesture for the people, always reciprocal to Gabo's affection.

The writer is one of the most published and read Latin American authors in the largest of the Antilles.

García Márquez was not only close to Cuba as a person.

His works and the environment described in them are also identified with our Caribbean context, permeated, even today, by magical realism.

For this reason, the 31st International Book Fair, soon to be inaugurated, will be a space to remember and pay homage to whoever accepted Cuba as one more homeland and will offer those of this land the possibility of knowing the author behind the great works.

All this nuanced by a sincere friendship, proof of criticism and the passage of time with the leader of the Cuban Revolution.

Fidel and Gabo at the inauguration of the San Antonio de los Baños International Film and Television School.

Photo: Mario Ferrer.

On video, Conversing with García Márquez about his friend Fidel