MEXICO CITY, April 18 (RIA Novosti) – Famed Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died at the age of 87 in Mexico City, a spokeswoman for his family has said.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1927 in Colombia’s river town of Aracataca. The novelist was raised by his grandparents who introduced him to folklore and grassroots language, which were to play an important role in his work.
In 1947, García Márquez began studying law at the National University of Colombia, while also beginning his career as a journalist and publishing two short stories in Bogota’s El Espectador newspaper.
In 1948, he moved to Cartagena where he continued his studies and wrote for El Universal. He continued his career as a reporter and began writing his first novella, "Leaf Storm," in Barranquilla.
García Márquez returned to Bogota in 1954, where he worked again for El Espectador. As a reporter, he visited Italy, Poland, France, Venezuela and the United States.
He landed a job at the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, later moving to Mexico in 1961, where he wrote movie scripts, articles and books.
His novella "Leaf Storm" was published in 1955. It depicts life in the fictitious village Macondo, which later appeared in other Marquez stories such as "No One Writes to the Colonel" (1961), "In Evil Hour" (1962) and his famous "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967).
The latter was subsequently translated into dozens of languages and has been called a masterpiece of magical realism and Latin literature, receiving multiple awards. Marquez was awarded with an honorary doctorate from Columbia University in New York City and moved for seven years to Barcelona, Spain.
In 1975-1981, García Márquez worked as a political journalist in Bogota.
In 1982, García Márquez was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first Colombian to receive the award.
More of García Márquez's works were published in the following years: "Love in the Time of Cholera" (1985), "The General in His Labyrinth" (1989), "Of Love and Other Demons" (1994), "News of a Kidnapping" (1996) and others.
In 2012, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev awarded him the prestigious Order of Honor for strengthening friendship between Russia and Latin America.
In 1999, García Márquez was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer.
In April 2014, he was hospitalized in Mexico with infections in his lungs. The novelist died of pneumonia on April 17.
Marquez was married to Mercedes Barcha; they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.
