García Márquez was born in Columbia in a time when political tensions were high. The turmoil had a long history dating back to the nineteenth century, after Columbia fought to win its independence from Spain. Several civil conflicts resulted between Liberals and Conservatives, which eventually culminated in the Thousand Days War (1899-1903).

García Márquez was affected by the conflict between the Liberals and Conservatives right from his birth. As Gene H. Bell-Villada notes in his García Márquez: The Man and His Work, the author's father "belonged to the Conservative camp," a fact that did not sit well with the author's maternal grandfather, who had served as a colonel for the Liberal forces during the Thousand Days War. Says Bell-Villada, "Later, in a conciliatory gesture, Luisa [the author's mother] would be sent to her parents'...