Last week’s video was my take on a line from the book One Hundred Years of Solitude, which I’m ashamed to say I never finished reading. This week’s video is based on a short story by the same author. You can read the story in English here or in Spanish here.
I have loved this story ever since I first read it in high school. I could just be projecting my own stuff onto it (although isn’t that what the story is about – people projecting their own stuff onto this dead guy?), but to me it’s really the ultimate story about unrequited love. There have been many Estebans who’ve washed up on my shore, and even though I didn’t get the connection that I wanted with them, my contact with them has often lead me to create something new and beautiful just like the villagers in the story rebuilt their village.
On the other hand, I can also relate to Esteban. One of my worst fears is that I will die, and no one will remember who I was. That’s what would have happened to Esteban had he not washed up on the shores of this very imaginative village. If the old woman was right, and he was a misfit while he was alive – he finally found the place where he made sense and he could rest in peace.
I haven’t actually read any formal analyses of this story, so I could be missing something. Does it mean something else to you? Is there another story by García Márquez (or anyone else) that you would like to see made into a song? Feel free to comment and let me know!