MundoAndino Home : Andes Colombia Guide at Mundo Andino
Macondo
Macondo is a fictional town described in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. It is the home town of the Buendia family.
Aracataca
Macondo is often supposed to draw from Garcia Marquez's childhood town, Aracataca. Aracataca is located near the north (Caribbean) coast of Colombia, 80 km South of Santa Marta. Macondo was the name of a banana plantation near Aracataca, and means "banana" in the Bantu language. Macondo is also the name of the tree Cavanillesia platanifolia, which grows in the Aracatataca area and is so known there.
In June 2006, the people of Aracataca organized a referendum to change the name of the town to Aracataca Macondo. Although the yes vote won, the referendum failed because of lack of voters and Aracataca kept its traditional name.
It is also said that Macondo was inspired by William Faulkner's fictionalized Yoknapatawpha County, although other accounts indicate that Garcia Marquez had not read any Faulkner piece by the time he wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Appearances
The town first appears in Garcia Marquez's short story "Leaf Storm". It is the central location for the subsequent novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. He has since used Macondo as a setting for several other stories.
Fictional history
In the narrative of One Hundred Years of Solitude, the town grows from a tiny settlement with almost no contact with the outside world, to eventually become a large and thriving place, before a banana plantation is set up. The establishment of the banana plantation lead to Macondo's painfully long downfall, followed by a gigantic windstorm that wipes it from the map. As the town grows and falls, different generations of the Buendia family play important roles, contributing to its development.
The fall of Macondo came mostly as a result of a four-year rainfall, which destroyed most of the town's supplies and image. During the years following the rainfall, the town begins to empty, as does the Buendia home.
Other uses
Given the town's association with magical realism, many Latin Americans would portray the everyday illogical or absurd news and situations they or their respective countries face as more aptly belonging to Macondo. As a result, some Latin Americans occasionally refer to their home towns or countries as Macondos.
Need more information for your travel research or homework?
Ask your questions at the forum about Colombian literature or help others to find answers.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Macondo
