With a mix of Mozart and folk music, Colombia said goodbye Tuesday to its Nobel-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez in a ceremony in the capital’s cathedral.
While rain soaked the streets of Bogota, the National Symphony Orchestra played Mozart’s Requiem in the Primary Cathedral, filled with yellow roses, Garcia Marquez’s favorite flower.
One day after Garcia Marquez was feted by his adoptive Mexico, President Juan Manuel Santos led the Colombian ceremony for the giant of Latin American literature.
“So much gratitude, affection and admiration is in our hearts today when we say goodbye to the greatest exponent of our national letters as well as the Colombian soul,” Santos said.
The ceremony was capped with a standing ovation and a Colombian vallenato folk song performed by the orchestra, giving a festive end to the solemn event.
Hundreds of people stood in line outside for a chance to sit in the cathedral’s pews. Cabinet ministers and former presidents were in attendance.
“I came because I recognize what he did for Colombia,” said Fernando Rodriguez, a 55-year-old accountant who stood at the cathedral doors.
The event was broadcast on giant screens in a plaza, but the downpour kept many people away.
His wife, Mercedes Barcha, and two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo, did not attend the ceremony in Bogota.
– Final destination unknown –
Mexico honored its adopted son on Monday at the capital’s Fine Arts Palace, with thousands of fans filing past his ashes and speeches from Santos and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
Affectionately known as “Gabo,” Garcia Marquez died last Thursday in Mexico City, where he lived for decades and wrote his masterpiece “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” He was 87.
The cause of his death has not been disclosed but he died a week after a bout of pneumonia.
Garcia Marquez was a leading exponent of “magical realism,” a style of story-telling that blends fantasy and realistic elements.
The family has not said where his final resting place will be but Colombia hopes his ashes will be divided between his homeland and Mexico.
“They perfectly know that Colombians want to have his ashes,” Santos told CNN en Espanol news channel. “Gabo was more Colombian than many Colombians, but this is something for which we respect the family.”
Graciela Canon, a 72-year-old retiree clutching a yellow flower outside the cathedral, said she hoped the author’s ashes would come home.
“I came to see if they bring us Gabito. Although I think it will be difficult, he should return here where he was born,” Canon said.
On Wednesday, Colombia will mark World Book Day with readings of Garcia Marquez’s novel “No One Writes to the Colonel” in more than 1,000 libraries, parks and universities.
Born in Aracataca near the Caribbean coast, Garcia Marquez had a complex relationship with his homeland, marked by accusations that he supported the now defunct M-19 guerrilla movement.
But Santos said Garcia Marquez worked to promote peace in Colombia, a nation that has endured civil strife since the 1960s.
“Those who say Gabo turned his back on Aracataca and Colombia are wrong,” Santos said.