During the entire month of October 2014, India paid tribute to films inspired by the stories of the late Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. The Colombian Embassy in cooperation with the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi (a non profit-organization in charge of promoting the Spanish language culture throughout the world) organized this homage to the Colombian author and Nobel Prize laureate.

Famous films, such as “No One Writes to the Colonel” and “Of Love and Other Demons,” are considered some of the best big screen adaptations of his literary works. These movies–which if you have never seen and consider yourself a “Gabo” (the nickname given to fans of Marquez)–you are missing out.

The films were shown in the India International Center on October 12, 2014, the same day the cycle of films dedicated to Gabo was officially inaugurated. More than 300 people attended the first day of this celebration.

Another part of this celebration took place at the Cervantes Institute in New Delhi. There they showed the documentary “Looking for Gabo.”  This tribute also included the screenings of “Time to Die” and “Miracle in Rome,” movies based on scripts written by Márquez. These films were shown on October 16 and 19.

In addition to film screenings, there were also theatrical performances based on Gabriel Garcia’s works. These included adaptations of García’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” and three of his stories: “I Just Came to Use the Phone”, “Eyes of a Blue Dog,” and “Light is Like Water”.

García’s works have made an impact worldwide. His novels and short stories have been translated into dozens of languages. In India, you can find his stories translated into Bengali, Hindi, and Punjabi. This fact suggests a growing interest in Márquez’s work in India. One of the most recognized Spanish scholars in India, S.P. Ganguly, affirms this: “Gabriel Garcia Marquez has had amplifying repercussions in India.” Márquez has influenced many writers from India, such as Arundhati Roy, and his brand of magical realism is becoming more popular in Asian countries, including India.

It is good to see how even after Gabo’s death–he died at the age of 87 on April 17, 2014,  in Mexico–people still remember him for his great stories. A friend of mine recently told me, “I will never forget how ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ demonstrates how something as simple as ice can become exciting if it is something we don’t know about.”