100 Years of Solitude Gives New Life on Netflix

olutionaries — but as Cataño notes, he used that friendship to depict them unrivaledly in both their nobility and their moral wreckage.

“What Márquez taught me,” Cataño says, “is that revolutionary love — or war, or political commitment — is also love, the possibility to change your life, even if all that remains to you are memories, images of childhood.”

Cataño believes the series meticulously captures the essence of that revolutionary love.

“For example, the series that we have the beautiful Colombians who have arrived in the Puerto Principe of their dreams,” he notes. “All colors, forms, sounds, dances, songs, beliefs — food — oh! How rich food! Have been poured here in their love of life and the possibilities that politics offers, beyond tragedy.”

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Ana María Villamizar as Meme Buendía in One Hundred Years of Solitude. (Photo/Netflix)

The fact that a streaming giant like Netflix is determined to tell these stories as artistically and authentically as it can matters profoundly in this post-literate media age.

“It’s particularly important that this adaptation isn’t only a cultural and artistic achievement,” says Abello. “It’s also an assertion of the power of words — literature — to keep telling us deep truths about ourselves and our world.”

Words that can also, he hopes, carry us to a deeper love — even love for a simple gesture like a cup of coffee, “when you stop to greet, remember, love, be loved.”

And yet, he adds, this post-literate age has other messages for literature, especially epic work like One Hundred Years of Solitude.

“Different stories,” he says. “Alert, compelling, emotional, stories on all platforms like Netflix. It is a perfect time for the silent generation to experience an awakening.”

With that in mind, Abello notes, it’s fitting that Rodrigo García will turn over the series to his daughter Alissa.

“It’s a legacy,” said the elder García. “Perhaps one day she will live up to this task.”