The news of the death of the famous South American writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez affected many Iranians who loved him because of his books. His popularity in Iran, however, is not simply due to his magical realism, but also has to do with politics.
Almost all of Marquez’s famous novels are known in Iran. The famous Iranian translator Bahman Farzaneh introduced the king of Colombian literature to Iranian society nearly 40 years ago with “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
“One thinks that some people should never die,” said Alireza at the central branch of the City of Books bookstore on Shariati Street. “For me, Marquez was one of those people. Although he was almost 90 years old, news of his death was still shocking.” Alireza, like most other Iranian fans of Marquez, had read most of his books and believes his work has “deeply influenced my character and the way I view the world.”
“I don’t think there is any other contemporary writer as popular as Marquez in Iran,” a literary critic in Tehran said to Al-Monitor. “I say this as someone who is not even a big fan of Marquez.” He said that part of the modern appeal of Marquez for Iranians was what he offered a society that had endured a sad, war-stricken era during the 1980s.
A writer of short stories who wished to stay anonymous told Al-Monitor, “Marquez became popular in Iran not because of his magical realism but because of his unbreakable connection to the culture and the melancholic history of Latin America and because he creates atmospheres that remind us of our own experiences in life.” He said that Marquez, who is popular across the Middle East as well, is appreciated differently from “citizens of a Third World country.”
“His world is like that of ours: full of secrets and mysteries, tied with an imperialistic modernism and full of characters who are somewhere between Don Quixote and Che Guevara,” he said. “With his European views and Third World imaginations, Marquez was very close to us, or rather we to him.”
The works of Marquez, however, have always faced censorship in Iran. “Love in the Time of Cholera” was published only after the erotic descriptions were removed. His last novel, Memories of My Melancholy Whores, also created a lot of controversy. The publisher had to change the title to “Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts” to convince the radically Principlist officials in charge of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, during then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term as president, to allow the book to be published.
But this was not enough. After only a few weeks, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned the book and ordered the existing copies to be collected and removed from bookshops.
Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, then-minister of culture and Islamic guidance and current cultural adviser to the head of the Sepah (Revolutionary Guards), said at the time, “The person responsible for this mistake (i.e., publishing the book) has been dismissed.” He also said that the book must have been “offensive” and emphasized, “The publisher who published this book knowing about its content should be held responsible.” The publisher, Niloofar, had released the book in 5,500 copies. From the very first day, the book was listed as a best seller and the publisher was preparing for a second edition.
Marquez’s name generated a lot of news in Iran before this as well, specifically when he announced that he wanted to visit Iran. In November 2006, the reformist newspaper Etemaad wrote, “The 78-year-old Colombian writer hasn’t talked to reporters for years, hasn’t traveled in years and only comes out of his shell for old friends such as Fidel Castro. Now, he wants to visit Iran.” Nonetheless Marquez later canceled his trip to Iran because of his fragile physical condition.
In 2011, the Marquez name became wildly popular again in Iran. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the Green Movement, recommended one of his books while under house arrest. During his first meeting with his three daughters, he said, “If you want to understand my condition, read ‘News of a Kidnapping’ by Marquez.”
As soon as supporters of the Green Movement heard about what Mousavi had said, they flocked to bookstores and bought all copies of “News of a Kidnapping,” wishing to learn about the conditions under which their leader lived. In a few days, the book was sold out. The PDF version of the book too was downloaded more than 10,000 times. On Sept. 15, 2011, the official Facebook page of Gabriel Garcia Marquez also quoted what Mousavi had said, in English.
A Green Movement activist who is also a member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (Jebheye Mosharekat-e Iran-e Eslami) tells Al-Monitor, “Prior to that Facebook post, Marquez had captured the heart of Iranians with his writings. Now, with his support of Mousavi, he has become part of our political history.”
by Mojtaba Mousavi
Photo: A worker holds a banner with the picture of the late Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez at the Bellas Artes palace in Mexico City, April 20, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Tomas Bravo)
Al-Monitor