Garcia Marquez heavily critiques the idea of “progress” in Latin America during the 20th Century in One Hundred Years of Solitude by showing the misfortune and pain that this so called “progress” brings, throughout the novel there was a cycle of taking one step forward and two steps back. He illustrates this through the story of Macondo, a utopia-like village founded by a family doomed to a solitary destruction brought on by the increased interference from the outside world, resembling the chaos in Latin America. Garcia Marquez also uses the forgetfulness of Macondo to portray the dangers of forgetting their culture and way of life of their ancestors.
The Buendia family, like Latin America had a peaceful self-governing and isolated society, free from the problems of the outside world. Once the town and the economy began to grow and new wealth came to Macondo, more problems came with as well, such as prostitution and new government. The prostitutes took the child-like innocence that the little town had, for example, “According to the girl’s calculations, she still had ten years of seventy men per night,” Aureliano saw first-hand how the corrupt the world was (52). Along with the influx of people, there came new authority, Magistrate Don Apolinar Moscote, sent by the government. Garcia Marquez used the Magistrate to show how tyrannical South American government had gotten and as they progressed they changed their old ways of governing by, “His first order was for all the houses to be painted blue in celebration of the anniversary for national independence (55).”
Jose Arcadio Buendia the patriarch of the Buendia family also confronted Moscote about the order of how their government worked, he said,” In this town we do not give orders with pieces of paper... And so that you know it once and for all, we don’t need judges here because there is nothing to judge (56).” The author uses Jose Arcadio Buendia to criticize the new form of authoritarian government because of the corrupt politicians and oppressive laws.
New ideologies and the continuation of unjust laws passed by the government leads to growing restlessness among the people in South America. Marquez used the war in One Hundred Years of Solitude, to criticize the motives behind the rebellion and to show how blurred the lines between good and evil are. When Colonel Aureliano Buendia says,” As far as I’m concerned, I’ve come to realize only just now that I’m fighting because of pride (135).” The author shows that the beginning of the revolution was rooted in good intentions but as the war continued the ones in power over the rebels continued fighting purely out of pride. Not only was war ensuing out of pride, but it had become a quest for power, the Colonel even says, “All we’re fighting for is power (168).” Colonel Aureliano Buendia says this when he was executing a once loyal general who lost faith in the war. The war didn’t just become a mad grab for power it also blurred the line between good and evil. Garcia Marquez depicts this by showing how much of a toll the war took on Colonel Aureliano Buendia and how the Liberal party was turning into the very same Conservative regime they set out to overthrow. Once back in Macondo he ordered the execution of his long-time friend and current magistrate of Macondo, Jose Raquel Moncada, who told the Colonel, “At this rate, you’ll only be the most despotic and bloody dictator in our history, but you’ll shoot my dear friend Ursula in an attempt to pacify your conscience.” Even though Moncada was a fair and just leader according to Ursula, the matriarch of the Buendia family, who said, “His government was the best we had ever had in Macondo,” and many more from the town come to defend him, who said, “One by one the old women who had been founders of the town, several of whom had taken part in the daring crossing of the mountains, praised the virtues of General Moncada (157-158).” Colonel Aureliano Buendia comes to his senses and works toward an armistice with his enemies, which causes uproar and threats on his life from his once loyal subjects.
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Garcia Marquez uses many symbols to critique the increasing industrialization of Latin America, one being the railroad that was built through the once little village. The railroad came by once a week and soon there was one passing through every day, and on it came more diverse people and more technological advances including the light bulb, movies, phonographs and a telephone in the train station, as the newcomers said, “We came because everyone was coming (228).” Once the train arrived in Macondo, it was the beginning of the end of Macondo, the growth of the city had become uncontrollable, which brought chaos to the once peaceful place as the author said, “A town that had become dangerous overnight (237)”. However, The Most despicable thing that came aboard the train were the American capitalists.
The American capitalists brought their families and built their own society across the river guarded by a high fence with electrified chicken wire. The Americans also brought the banana company, led by Mr. Brown, and established dictatorial foreigners in the places of judges and political roles in the town. They also replaced the old police force with their own hired assassins armed with machetes. The corruptness of the new police force angered the aged Colonel Aureliano Buendia so much that he tried to respark the revolution as Garcia Marques said, “He was tormented by the definite certainty that it had been a mistake not to have continued the war to its final conclusion (237).”
The workers in the banana company grew tired of the bad working conditions, nonexistent medical services, lack of sanitary facilities in the living quarters, and the implication of company stores which led to a strike led by Jose Arcadio Segundo (300). The army was brought in to keep peace during this chaos, which resulted in a massacre of 3000 men, women and children. The massacre was forgotten by the people living in Macondo, the woman who Jose Arcadio Buendia had come to after escaping death in the massacre said, “There haven’t been any dead here. Since the time of your uncle, the colonel, nothing has happened in Macondo (308).” Garcia Marquez shows the dangers of the increasing involvement of foreigners in South America which was seen as progress. He does so by showing how corrupt the banana company was in Macondo. The fruit companies mistreated South Americans and forcefully kept them subdued. The author also showed the corruption within the foreign companies, by putting their own people in power and bringing tier own police force to do anything at their discretion. Not only does Garcia Marquez point out the obvious corruption in the fruit companies but he also shows corruption in the government by having the national army commit a massacre for the banana company but also for them to erase it from the memory of the town.
Garcia Marquez uses the forgetfulness of the people of Macondo to represent the natives of South America losing their culture of their ancestors after beginning to adopt the culture of the foreigners, for example, the author says, “Arcadio forgot the language of the Indians and learned Spanish (246).” Towards the end of Macondo none of the people had any remembrance of the Buendia Family, who were the founders of the town and once the wealthiest and most powerful family in Macondo. This forgetfulness had brought the end of the once peaceful little town. Through the book One Hundred Years of Solitude Garcia Marquez critiques the progress of Latin America by portraying the village of Macondo stuck in a circle of consequences whenever innovation comes. He instills the fear of what happens to a society that forgets their origins and their history. The progress that Garcia Marquez is against brought South America into the 20th century but at what cost?
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