Google on Tuesday celebrated Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez’s 91st birth anniversary with a doodle.
About Gabriel García Márquez
Márquez, born in 1927, was not only a novelist but also a short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. He was affectionately known as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America.
The Spanish writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature in 1972. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century.
After fighting a long battle against lymphatic cancer, which he had contracted in 1999, Márquez was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease when he was 85. Two years later, he died in April 2014 in Mexico.
“In his long literary career, he penned over 25 books, transporting readers into a world of magical realism where they find themselves in the lush, humid tropics – moldering into solitude or being slowly consumed by the throes of passion,” Google says in its blog.
“Gabo’s keen sense of political activism and courage also allowed him to author a number of non-fictional works that eloquently document the times that he lived in, News of a Kidnapping being among the most famous of these,” it adds. “For all this and more, we celebrate the 91st birthday of a cultural icon whose star continues to shine brightly over the literary and journalistic worlds of Latin America and beyond. Feliz cumpleaños [Happy birthday], Gabo!”
Artist Matthew Cruickshank’s doodle depicts the magical city of Macondo, brought to life by Márquez in A Hundred Years of Solitude.
“Deep in the Amazonian jungle, through the lush green canopy and multi-hued vibrance of the hot and humid rainforest, look carefully and you might catch a glimpse of a city of mirrors; a city separated from the world by an expanse of water and yet reflecting everything in and about it; a city that is home to the Buendia family and the site of strange otherworldly happenings,” Google says in its description of the doodle. “Here, little fish made of pure gold dazzle the eye; large yellow butterflies flit through the flowers; a train chugs along once in a blue moon; and the only visitors are the all-knowing, mysterious gypsies who come bearing strange tales.”