Aracataca, the coastal town where Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born, and Bogota, the inland city where he was educated (both located in Columbia), are synthesized in his writing. The two places represent broad differences in attitude, psyche, behavior, culture, and belief to Marquez. Bagota is the modern world: political, progressive, industrial, bleak, impersonal, and spiritless. Marquez once commented that Bogota was "a city without women" (Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Magic and Reality). Aracataca, on the other hand, is apolitical, reactionary, undeveloped, lush, close, and magical. In an interview with Peter H. Stone, Marquez said "that Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination" (162). Magical realism, Marquez's writing style, combining these seemingly dichotomous elements, directly resulted from his youthful experiences in these divergent environments.
             Marquez was raised in Aracataca, by his grandparents, until the age of eight. It is during this period of his life that Marquez absorbs the magical elements that later influence his writing. His grandmother "was a great storyteller." He further describes his grandparents as "very superstitious and impressionable people," and their home as "a world of fantastic terrors" (Marquez, qtd. in Rushdie 173-74). Marquez highlights the importance of the impressions resulting from his childhood upbringing, remarking "that nothing interesting has ever happened to [me] after the age of eight" (qtd. in Rushdie 173-174). Clearly Marquez picked up his grandparents' impressionability. Marquez's grandmother's storytelling is representative of a body of local myths and superstitions which connect him spiritually to the Aracatacan community. His familiarity and comfort with the mythical and the spiritual world of his folkloric early years grants him easy access to the magical world. This world finds its way into Marquez's writing in both mood and character.
             Marquez's grandfather died when he w...