From the Colombian writer García Márquez and other authors such as Rulfo, one tends to associate magical realism with a certain tropical region.
Places where rain and sunlight alternate so profusely that they produce exuberant, and sometimes overstated, vegetation and human behavior.
Strictly speaking, this 20th-century literary movement is not exclusive to the tropics. Still, there is no doubt that this region has produced, literally and literarily, remarkable outcomes.
It is useful to review some characteristics of magical realism.
Fantastic elements are perceived by the protagonists as normal.
Reality and the magical converge toward a surprising or ineffable outcome.
Events are presented as real yet inexplicable.
Time is handled in a distorted way, as if in a permanent déjà vu.
The atmosphere merges the mythical with the dreamlike.
Let us consider an example of magical realism in the work of García Márquez.
Remedios helps Fernanda hang the laundry.
“Amaranta noticed that Remedios the Beauty appeared translucent with an intense pallor.
‘Are you feeling unwell?’ she asked.
Remedios the Beauty, holding the other end of the sheet, smiled with pity.
‘On the contrary,’ she said, ‘I have never felt better.’
No sooner had she said it than Fernanda felt a delicate wind of light tear the sheets from her hands and unfold them to their full extent.
Amaranta felt a mysterious trembling in the lace of her petticoats and tried to cling to the sheet so as not to fall, at the very moment when Remedios the Beauty began to rise.
Úrsula, almost blind by then, was the only one calm enough to recognize the nature of that irreparable wind, and she let the sheets surrender to the light, watching Remedios the Beauty wave goodbye, amid the dazzling flutter of the sheets that rose with her, leaving behind the air of beetles and dahlias, passing with her through the air where the four o’clock hour ended, and disappearing with her forever into the high skies.”
(One Hundred Years of Solitude)
Up to this point, this concerns magical realism. Or does it?
Let us compare it with the oath taken by Commander Hugo Chávez upon being re-elected President of Venezuela in 2006.
In recent times, we have seen Argentine legislators articulate oaths upon taking office that would deserve a place in a dictionary of absurdity.
But this is a true marvel of magical realism.
“Citizen Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, do you swear, first, by Almighty God, do you swear by the sovereign People who re-elected you, do you swear by the memory of our indigenous peoples, do you swear by the memory of our liberators, do you swear by the memory of Afro-descendants, peasants, martyrs and anonymous heroes, do you swear by your honor, by your life, do you swear by the Fatherland, that you will not rest nor give respite to your arm, your spirit or your soul until you fulfill the mandate given to you by the sovereign People of Venezuela. Do you swear to uphold and enforce this Constitution and the other laws of the Republic, do you swear to fulfill all the duties inherent to the office of President of the Republic of Venezuela?”
The response is worthy of García Márquez himself. Perhaps he even wrote it.
“I swear before this Constitution, this wonderful Constitution, I swear before you, I swear by God, I swear by the God of my parents, I swear by them, I swear by my children, I swear by my honor, I swear by my life, I swear by the martyrs, I swear by the liberators, I swear by my People and I swear by my Fatherland that I will give no rest to my arm nor peace to my soul; that I will devote my days, my nights and my entire life to the construction of Venezuelan socialism, to the construction of a new political system, a new social system, a new economic system. I swear by Christ, the greatest socialist in history, I swear by all of them, I swear by all the pains, I swear by all the loves, I swear by all the hopes that I will fulfill, that I will comply with the supreme mandates of this wonderful Constitution, with the supreme mandates of the Venezuelan People, even at the cost of my own life, even at the cost of my own peace. Fatherland, Socialism or Death. I swear it.”
If you have made it this far, for your patience, I will refrain from further commentary.