Illusions of Life: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

-I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man when it is to help him to stand up. -Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

Illusions of Life: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

by Armando Ortiz

I discovered illusions through your words, and the characters conceived in your mind became archetypes- mythical American figures.

I felt the scent of death and marveled at the mystery of love- as people floated to the heavens and spirits were sequestered to the earth.

Making me relive my visits to Guatemala, and looking back with wonder, while traveling down the river of your youth with mountainous steam clouds floating in the sky, and a Latin American blue, crystal clear- god’s oil painting.

Love was at the heart of your fables, and compassion at arm’s reach. You wrote, and I saw with my eyes, how the general on horseback liberated countries. I felt the cool breeze on the Andes Mountain along the streets of Los Angeles.

Those books taught me history and to love, and showed what life could be as a child through adult eyes. I became a Spanish gypsy, wandering the western hemisphere, and connected to my own heritage through food and song by looking through your mind.