In honor of the first anniversary of his death, Colorado State University is holding a symposium this week to pay tribute to renowned Latin American author Gabriel García Márquez.

The symposium, hosted by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, will take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Morgan Library on Friday, April 17.

Last year the world mourned the death of García Márquez, the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicles of a Death Foretold and The Autumn of the Patriarch, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Beloved among readers for the magical realism of his novels, he is one of the main voices of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s. His writing has shaped the image of Latin America as one of solitude and exuberance and has had a lasting, often hotly debated impact on the region’s literature.

The symposium, Solitude and Exuberance, will highlight the life and work of García Márquez by featuring a keynote by literary critic and novelist Gene H. Bell-Villada, workshops by CSU faculty and affiliates, presentations by students, as well as fun workshops in writing and storytelling for teenagers, students and creative minds.

The symposium is free and open to the public. Events will be held in English and Spanish. For more information visit www.gabosymposium.wordpress.com

Gabriel García Márquez

García Márquez is perhaps one of the most influential authors of magical realism, a style of storytelling that combines the real and the miraculous. He was born in Aracataca, Colombia, in 1928. He was the eldest of 12 children and lived with his maternal grandparents for much of his young life. His grandmother was an avid story teller and his grandfather a colonel. It is suspected that he acquired some inspiration for One Hundred Years of Solitude from this time of his life.García Márquez was a well-known novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist. He passed away on April 17, 2014, in Mexico City at the age of 87.

Gene H. Bell-Villada

Gene H. Bell-Villada is a professor of romance languages at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. Bell-Villada is a novelist, translator and memoirist with a strong interest in Latin American writing, magic realism and modernism. He received his doctorate in romance languages from Harvard University. Bell-Villada has written several literary pieces about Gabriel García Márquez, including One Hundred Years of Solitude: A Casebook and García Márquez: The Man and His Work.

Stephanie Hilvitz

There will be a reception following the keynote address, during which local artist and CSU graduate Stephanie Hilvitz will lead visitors in a world of imagination and myth with her Monarch butterfly art installations.

Schedule of events

Morgan Library Event Hall

• 9 a.m. – Inauguration
• 9:30 – 10 a.m. – Recollections of Chronicle of a Death Foretold on Broadway
• 10 – 11 a.m. – Bilingual story time
• 11 – 11:15 a.m. – Coffee break
• 11:15 – 11:45 a.m. – Teatro: Fragmentos de cien años de soledad
• 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m. – Lunch
• 1 – 1:30 p.m. – Taller de creacion listeria multimedia: Relaciones intertextuales en la escritura de Kawabata y García Márquez.
• 1:30 – 4 p.m. – Student panels
• 3:45 – 4 p.m. – Coffee break
• 4 – 4:45 p.m. – CSU faculty presentations
• 4:45 – 5 p.m. – Coffee break
• 5 – 6 p.m. – Keynote Address: Gene H. Bell-Villada
• 6 p.m. – Reception: Opening of the art exhibit “The Migration of the Souls” with artist Stephanie Hilvitz, Patio and Gallery, Morgan Library

Sponsors

Sponsors include CSU’s Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, College of Liberal Arts, Morgan Library, and Lilla B. Morgan Memorial Endowment, as well as the Poudre River Public Library District.