On the occasion of the 50th commemoration anniversary of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” publication, a masterpiece that led Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) to the pinnacle of his carrier with the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature, the Embassy of Colombia to the Kingdom of the Netherlands together with the Cervantes Institute organized on 18 May 2017 a dialogue about this novel and its author, as well as the opening of the photographic exhibition “García Márquez Portraits” in Utrecht.
The event started with a welcoming speech by the Cervantes Institute Director, Isabel Lorda Vidal, followed by a literary intervention by the Ambassador of Colombia to the Netherlands, H.E. Juan José Quintana. A fragment of “Gabo: The Magic of Reality” documentary directed by the British Justin Webster was displayed, in which García Márquez, Juan Gabriel Vásquez and other personalities narrate their stories around “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.
During the dialogue about the 50 years publication of this masterpiece, Colombian writer Dasso Saldívar and one of the most outstanding biographers of García Márquez participated as well as Mariolein Sabarte, literary translator since 1969 and who has spread great authors of the Spanish and Latin American literature in Dutch language; Maarten Steenmeijer also participated as moderator, he is a literary critic and Professor of modern Spanish and Latin American literature at Radboud University in Nijmegen.
The “García Márquez Portraits” exhibition opened during the reception hosted by the Embassy. While tasting typical Colombian snacks, the public had the chance to visit the nine portraits captured by Colombian photographer Nereo López (1920-2015) and currently in custody of the Colombian National Library. In this exhibition, “Gabo” can be discovered from his everyday life in his office to his spontaneity during the Nobel Prize for Literature ceremony in Stockholm.
This cultural event aroused great interest and the auditorium was widely attended by completing its maximum capacity. Among the guests, Ambassadors, members of the diplomatic corps of The Hague, representatives of international organizations and personalities from the Dutch society were present.
