Some advice by Profe. Invernizzi

A Buendía Family Tree

Thank you so much, Jaime, for inviting me to take part of this group. I have no idea who has signed up, English teachers, Math, Science, so, please, English teachers and literature lovers, and all those who have read the novel and love it… skip this, but if you are picking it up for the first time and are not an English or Literature teacher, you might find the following helpful.

The Family Tree

1. Make sure to make your own family tree. Don´t use the one the book gives you. If you make your own, you will learn the names in no time and José Arcadio Buendía will be very different to you from Arcadio, or José Arcadio, or Arcadio José. I promise. The repetition of names has its important place in the novel. As you get frustrated, keep thinking what GGM wanted to say.
2. As you build your family tree place a line with two arrow- heads in between the names that are married and make it a solid line.
3. Off that couple, bring arrows with one arrow- head for the names of the children. Then marry or couple those children with their pairs and so on.
4. When a couple is not married but has simply gotten together or had kids together, place a broken line between them and two arrow- heads toward each name.

This will help you remember the names and know who is married and who is not. In the end this will make a difference.

The Marvelous Real of Latin American Reality

Also, as you read, it is very good to keep in mind the term some critics have used to describe GGM´s style: Lo real y maravilloso (as it has been translated: The Marvelous Real of Latin American Reality).

Yes, you may have heard the term "Magical Realism," but I urge you to think of GGM´s style as The Marvelous Real of Latin American Reality instead of Magical Realism. You see, if you term it "magical" and "realism" somehow in your mind you will think of things being real and things being magic.

This, I believe, places you in a space that makes it difficult for you as a reader to understand GGM as fully as one might. Simply exchanging Magical Realism for The Marvelous Real of Latin American Reality, I believe, will help you, the reader, read deeper, and closer.

Great luck. It is one of the most exciting and beautiful novels I have read. I hope it is for you as well.