Two encounters of 'Gabo' in Paris

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That year, García Márquez lived in Paris. He was in his twenties and was a correspondent for the newspaper El Espectador in Colombia. One cold morning, at the end of February, on the Boulevard de Chateau, two blocks from the Seine, García Márquez saw what looked like a dream: on the other side of the street, walking as if he were a bear just woke up, there was a guy big, sporting a splendid beard: it was Ernest Hemingway, his idol, the writer who has just won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

'Gabo' just managed to shout "Master!" And Hemingway, knowing that he was the only Master in that street, turned around and waved his hands and yelled at 'Gabo': "Adious, amigou! " Neither Hemingway nor 'Gabo', nor anyone in the world, could guess that 'Gabo' would sleep in the same Hemingway bed. But for a protocolar reason. The Nobel Committee reserves the same room and the same bed for all the laureates from the first year and the custom is maintained. Hemingway slept there in 1954 and 'Gabo' 28 years later.

The next morning, despite the joy of having seen Hemingway, the stomach of 'Gabo' reminded him that he had not eaten for two days. El Espectador had been closed by Rojas Pinilla, a fascist soldier, and the newspaper did not send the payment of its columns. Desperate, 'Gabo' had only one option: begging. He stopped at the subway entrance and tried to explain to the first one something like: "I'm not a beggar, I'm a Colombian journalist who ..." The guy did not let him finish. He threw some coins at his chest and said: "Allez a la merde".

Some rolled down a sewer. 'Gabo' bent down and retrieved it. There was his bread and his coffee to compensate for his nostalgia for the Caribbean and to alleviate the hunger pangs. What would he say today, if he knew, the man who threw the coins? "I sent the m ... to a Nobel Prize." Or maybe, "I did a great honor for a Nobel Prize."

In life, says 'Gabo', things are not as they are, but as they are remembered. In chess, no: things are the way they are. And here the white remembers:

This story was originally written by my friend Ramiro Díez on his Radio La Vida page, if you are going to make use of its content, please quote the original source: http://www.radiolavida.com/ramirodiez/dos-encuentros-de-gabo-en-paris/#sthash.W5rqUqCm.dpbs