Why a Booktrail?
1914 – 1963 onwards: Two Columbian politicians are murdered and the country starts seeking answers
The Shape of the Ruins
What you need to know before your trail
It takes the form of personal and formal investigations into two political assassinations – the murders of Rafael Uribe Uribe in 1914, the man who inspired García Márquez’s General Buendia in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and of the charismatic Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, the man who might have been Colombia’s J.F.K., gunned down on the brink of success in the presidential elections of 1948. Separated by more than 30 years, the two murders at first appear unconnected, but as the novel progresses Vásquez reveals how between them they contain the seeds of the violence that has bedevilled Colombia ever since.
Travel Guide
Colombia – Bogota
Jorge Eliecer Gaitan
A house which is now a museum. This is mentioned in the opening lines of the book as being the home of the man responsible for the most famous police crime in Colomibia’s history. Carballo in the novel visits this museum to see the jacket with gunshot wounds still visible.
Jorge Gaitan was a politician who left his office one day and was shot by Juan Roas Sierra, a young man with vague Nazi Sympahasies.
The author walks the streets such as Carrera Septima where the blood and bullet ridden body of the man is dragged through the streets. In fact this book is all about looking and trailing the events of history
Rafael Uribe Uribe
Gabriel García Márquez himself once said in an interview that the character of Colonel Aureliano Buendía in One Hundred Years of Solitude was loosely based on Rafael Uribe Uribe. García Márquez’s grandfather was under Uribe Uribe’s command in the Thousand Days War.
The 18th locality of Bogotá, Colombia is named after Uribe.
Streetview Maps
B) Colombia - Bogota - Gaitan's Corner
F) colombia - Bogota - Statue of Gaitan
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
This is a wonderfully captivating and fascinating read on so many levels. How to describe it? It’s an experience, a visit to a country as it goes through the assassination of two of its politicians and the consequences and history of the country as a result.
It’s not a linear or straightforward read by any means but then life and history are complex and the stories wrapped in stories wrapped in history is a weave of wonder. Is that the best way to describe this book? You have to experience it for yourself to find out.
I do think this is a very interesting way of putting a book together and the story of an entire country. Bogota is highly featured as are some of the more gruesome parts of the city, but this is more than a murder trail, it’s an overview of a country in crisis. It’s a book that reads fluently with snippets of newspaper articles, quotes from authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It’s a mix of fact and fiction, history and memories of that history.
History isn’t just “facts” – it’s an interpretation of what remains after the event – the shape of the ruins. Don’t they say the history books are written by the winners ?
.there are truths that don’t happen in those places, truths that nobody writes down because they’re invisible. There are millions of things that happen in special places… they are places that are not within the reach of historians or journalists. They are not invented places… they are not fictions, they are very real: as real as anything told in the newspapers. But they don’t survive. They stay there, without anybody to tell them.
Highly recommended and a very insightful and thought -provoking read.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Shape of the Ruins
Destination : Colombia, Bogota Author/Guide: Juan Gabriel Vásquez Departure Time: 1914 – 1963
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