Conversing with History and Reconstructing the Past: The Balloon Journey in 'Love in the Time of Cholera' Anonymous College

In Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez reconstructs the relationship of Colombia’s localized, politicized and historicized past. Thus, the novel engages in a dialogue with history. This essay will explore Colombia’s history by analysing Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Fermina Daza’s balloon trip to San Juan de la Ciénaga. Firstly, it will discuss the history of Cartagena de Indias and focus on the “sieges of the English and atrocities of the buccaneers” (Garcia Marquez, 1997: 274). Secondly, it will focus on Marquez’s illustration of Trojas in Cataca. Lastly, it will explore the massacres which occurred on the banana plantations.

During the turn of the twentieth century, Dr. Juvenal Urbino and Fermina embark on a balloon trip that allows readers to journey through Colombia’s history. During their balloon trip to deliver a letter from the Governor of the Province to the municipal officials of San Juan de la Ciénaga (Garcia Marquez, 1997) they past the “ruins” of the world’s most beautiful city, the “heroic” Cartagena de Indias. The city was founded by Don Pedro de Heredia in 1533 (Garcia-Herreros, 2007). It was glorified for its “marble palaces [,] golden altars” (Garcia Marquez, 1997: 274) and the wealth that was destined for the...