Mercedes Barcha
{{short description|Wife of novelist Gabriel García Márquez}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mercedes Barcha
| image = Photo of Mercedes Barcha.jpg
| image_size =
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| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|11|6|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Magangué, Colombia
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|8|15|1932|11|6|mf=y}}
| death_place = Mexico City, Mexico
| nationality =
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| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse = {{marriage|Gabriel García Márquez|1958|2014|end= died}}
| children = 2
}}
{{family name hatnote|Barcha|Pardo|lang=Spanish}}
Mercedes Raquel Barcha Pardo (November 6, 1932 – August 15, 2020) was the wife of novelist Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014).{{cite web |last1=Green |first1=Penelope |title=Mercedes Barcha, Gabriel García Márquez's Wife and Muse, Dies at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/books/mercedes-barcha-dead.html |website=The New York Times |accessdate=30 August 2020 |date=23 August 2020}}
Life
Barcha was born on November 6, 1932, in Magangué, Colombia. Barcha is best known for her financial and emotional support of her Nobel Prize-winning husband, the author Gabriel García Márquez.{{cite web |title=Addio a Mercedes Barcha, moglie di Gabriel Garcia Marquez |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/mercedes-barcha-morta-la-moglie-di-gabriel-garcia-marquez_it_5f38ff35c5b6959911e5b2d6 |website=L'HuffPost |accessdate=30 August 2020 |language=it |date=16 August 2020}}{{cite web |title=Mercedes Barcha, 1932-2020 |url=https://www.ft.com/content/4f9872c5-2132-4db3-b81c-b60da01655ce |website=Financial Times |accessdate=30 August 2020}}She famously pawned her hair dryer to raise the postage needed to mail the draft of One Hundred Years of Solitude to the publisher.{{Cite web |last=Walch |first=Louis |date=2020-11-06 |title=The Discreet Strength of Mercedes Barcha |url=https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/article/2020-11/the-discreet-strength-of-mercedes-barcha-restrepo-pombo-fitz/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Words Without Borders |language=en}}
She went by the nickname "La Gaba", a feminine version of her husband's nickname "Gabo".
Marriage
She met García Márquez in 1941 when they were both still children, he was 14 and she was nine. In The Fragrance of Guava,{{Cite book |last=Mendoza |first=Plinio Apuleyo |title=The Fragrance of Guava |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=1983 |isbn=9780571193264 |location=London}} it is recounted how García Márquez proposed to her at school dance when she was 13. They finally married in Barranquilla on March 21, 1958 when he was thirty-one and she was twenty-five.{{cite web |title=Mercedes Barcha, el gran amor y la musa de Gabriel García Márquez |url=https://www.abc.es/cultura/abci-mercedes-barcha-gran-amor-y-musa-gabriel-garcia-marquez-202008161145_noticia.html |website=ABC |accessdate=30 August 2020 |language=es |date=16 August 2020}} The couple had two sons, director Rodrigo García and Gonzalo García, who was born in Mexico and later became a graphic designer in Mexico City.{{cite web |last1=Osorio |first1=Camila |title=Muere Mercedes Barcha, la mujer que hizo posible el éxito de García Márquez |url=https://elpais.com/cultura/2020-08-15/muere-mercedes-barcha-el-apoyo-mas-grande-que-recibio-gabriel-garcia-marquez.html |website=EL PAÍS |accessdate=30 August 2020 |language=es |date=15 August 2020}} At the end of The Fragrance of Guava, when García Márquez is asked who was the most interesting person he had every met, he answered "my wife".
Occupation
In 2014, after García Márquez's death, she served as the President Emerita of the Gabriel Garcia Marquez Iberoamerican Foundation for New Journalism in Cartagena, Colombia. In 2017, she founded the Fundación Gabo to promote García Márquez's legacy.{{cite web |title=Fundador |url=https://fundaciongabo.org/es/institucion/fundador |website=Fundación Gabo |accessdate=24 September 2020 |language=es |date=30 November 2016}}{{cite web |title=Mercedes Barcha Pardo Fuelled Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Literary World |url=https://thewire.in/culture/gabriel-garcia-marquez-wife-mercedes-barcha-pardo |first=Indradeep|last= Bhattacharyya|website=The Wire |date=24 August 2020|accessdate=24 September 2020}}
Death
Barcha died in Mexico City on August 15, 2020.
References
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