Europe mourns “Gabo”: a voice of Latin America who became a voice of our world

The European Union mourns Gabriel García Márquez’ passing away. The author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1982, died on April 18th at the age of 87. “Gabriel García Márquez was a voice of Latin America who became a voice of our world. His imagination has made us richer, and his passing away makes us poorer,” yet “his work will last,” said on behalf of the European Union the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.

Father of the magic realism, his most famous novel is “One Hundred Years of Solitude” (1967) – the story that chronichles one century of the Buendía family. The book was voted as the second most known novel in Spanish language ever during the IV International Congress of Spanish Language in 2007. The book sold over 60 million copies in more than 37 languages.

“Gabo”, as he was affectionately known the writer, was a journalist too, telling several crucial moments of world history: from the revolutions in Cuba and Portugal to the Chilean tragedy, from el Che to the Cubans in Angola, from montoneros, to Central-American dictators, to the post-Franchism Spain of Felipe Gonzalez. He had always been close to the socialist revolutions of his continent – from Cuba to Venezuela – and had never stopped believing in and fighting for freedom and justice in South America.