when Gabriel Garcia Marquez Already the king of twentieth-century Spanish-language literature and able to put up with any, even rudeness, of language, he decided to overwhelm language academics everywhere with a suggestion that runs down the backbone of the spelling mind with a ferocity that also entertained him.
The official agreement didn’t take it seriously, because there are things, like fragile, that are here to stay, but composed a hundred years of isolation It had been placed in the Creator’s head that the stronghold of the Alphabet, which he saw as worthless, at least this stronghold, was to fall.
did not fall There Dash serves its purposebut then, in the first meetings of this kind in which the language is strengthened, held in ZacatecasIn Mexico, it looked like Gabo’s pulse might topple her. impossible. Resisted, there, silent or full, plentiful, like a chair upon which letters rest.
It was 1997, in the wild splendor that preceded the writing of the most important prose writer in the Spanish language. Gabo was no longer extravagant in conferences or statements, but rather He was convinced that he knew more about the rules than his predecessors and would come. From that power he dictated, for example, that the brittle and other services which he considered obsolete should pass through the valley, or through the valley.
Humor García Márquez
At that time, says the Spanish journalist Arsenio Schoolwho was deputy director Country who now runs the magazine archie letters, A specialist in language, he had to call him from his place at the newspaper to warn the Colombian in a chapter of his memoirs, live to tell, which Escolar was editing on Sunday in the paper, Gabo had not well defined a file duty to, You have just left duty. how? Gabo Flea wasn’t very good at it.
He fell silent on the other end of the line, then said, “Why aren’t you an academic and not a journalist?” Arsenio listened with the frozen phone. “Everything will work out, Gabo,” he dared to tell him. “But what are we going to do with you?” Silence again. Well, correct the first and leave the others. “And why not incur all the rest in this case?”
Silence.
“Because it doesn’t come out of my balls.”
Well, he came out of that part of it to finish ah, and that, after Zacatecas, has led to a great debate about whether orthography is sacred or to be profane according to the dictates of the best and greatest of the twentieth century. Our language writer.
This now forms part of the anecdotes, but then it was a colossal mess, for Gabo has informational power, and by analogy, superior to that of any academic. But he won the ax in that battle between the armies. Dictation was in place, author live to tell, Besides, he already knew what to do, on the other hand, with duty And with him He should.
“And how the hell is he going to fall off the ax?!” The Mexican (and Asturian by origin) asked himself yesterday in Cadiz. Gonzalo SilorioSince 2019 Director Mexican Academy of Languagewho was a friend of Gabo and knew what it was like for a Colombian to fight battles like Don Quixote.
At that time, Silorio was not invited to Zacatecas, because he was not an academic, but he remembers well those gossip that put the H, and other straight spelling lines, into the hands of his most heartless mockers. Both grammar and dictionary, as the illustrious academic already told us yesterday, are “descriptive rather than authoritative, given with a standard of correction. Spelling is what imposes, It imposes an H sign or not, a tilde sign or not, and the user willingly accepts this validity.”
What Gabo suggested “was a matter of choice. It is not true what he said, that the letter does not sound, that it is silent. It is sonorous when you say egg or when you say huarache, because it is half-ringing. Then it becomes silent in haba or in son, but it is not silent in hyena or when follows diphthong & rdquo;.
What the son of a telegraph operator (there are no dialects in telegraphy) from Aracataca was suggesting “was an aberration because, in truth, there is a traditional communication mechanism that allows communication and a unity of language that must be preserved.” he sneered. Juan Ramon Jimenez from g, who changed it to jack, but he was left alone. “And when Gabo conflicts with emphasis, he impoverishes language …”
Was it a spirit, and where was it headed? “I wanted to take the expression out of the academic corset And although the example he used was a spelling example, in my opinion he wasn’t the lucky one. It was neither happy nor effective: what is certain is that what remains behind this statement is creative freedom and the importance of Latin American literature in the context of Spanish-language literature.
Was it controversial? “Rather, he had a sonorous voice,” says Silorio now.
Intelligence game
In Zacatecas he was listening to Gabo, Juan Villoro. He is now one of the greats of the literary language in Spanish, a Mexican so graceful in prose and polemical, that the demands of Congress abound these days. He remembered that sermon yesterday. “It was a rather creative and hilarious game, It is important to understand that language conference [el primero que se celebraba] It will not be a formal occasion but rather an open opportunity to enjoy the language. An important precedent was later, at the next congress held at Rosary beadsArgentina, listen to it Roberto Fontanarossa Talk about the chance of profanity. He did like Gabo: trying to show that the language is open, just like the H apparently, there are words that, in the opinion of the Argentine, should be banned because they are profanity or scribbles, although it is clear that people use them with profit & rdquor ;.
They were, says Veluroux, open and controversial contributions, typical of a language also used for enjoyment, able to do away with the celebration of pomp, frivolity and selfishness, in which there is everything in this generosity of literature. “There is also an extroverted, anti-formal, shocking & mldr; Literature is made of these extremes. The pomp also gave some good results. I, in particular, prefer intelligence and respect“.
Where we were talking yesterday Dario VillanuevaSpanish academic, former director of the RAE and now author of a book dealing with this matter, The power of words (Gutenberg Galaxy). We ask him for his opinion: Was Gabo right?
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“I don’t think so, because orthography is essential, and at this moment, the stability afforded by the orthography convention of a language as broad as ours is very appropriate and timely. What he said was very ingenious. I also responded to the spirit of freedom sometimes constrained by spelling, but one must remember that our spirit is one of the simplest and most obvious ways of spelling. Let’s compare with the Portuguese with the French & mldr; He said Juan Bennett The French spelling is like a steeplechase. It is not ours, and Gabo cannot cancel it. He considered that pulling one thread causes the entire fabric to loosen.
It did not work to the extent that it is said now spot location also Many years later, the firing squad and mldr face off; And if you don’t say it like that, there will be no Quixote, no consequences, no firing squad.
