A Sculpture in Cuba to Be Dedicated to Gabriel García Márquez

Havana, Feb 9 (Prensa Latina) Cuban sculptor José Villa Soberón is giving the final touch to a sculpture of Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Prize in Literature, to be revealed in Cuba.

The piece already exists in Colombia, as it was requested to the Cuban artist and was placed in the Museum of the Caribbean in Barranquilla, but the present ambassador of that South American country in Havana, Gustavo Bell, insisted on also locating a copy here, in a city that was visited many times by the author.

According to Villa Soberón, the context of the 26th edition of the International Book Fair, taking place in the Cuban capital from February 9 to 19, provides the right environment, as the event also salutes García Márquez for the 90 years of his birth and the 50th anniversary of the publication of his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The garden of the Lyceum of Arts and Literature of Havana, in the Marques de Arcos Palace, within the historic center of the city, will host the sculpture inspired by the moment when the prolific writer and journalist attended the Nobel Prize-winning ceremony of Literature in Stockholm, Sweden.

Many people were dressed in tailcoats with their decorations on the chest, while Garcia Marquez arrived with a liquiliqui (a traditional costume of the Llanos, a geographic region between Venezuela and Colombia), recalled Villa Soberón in conversation with Prensa Latina.

In one of his hands, he brought some books and in the other a yellow flower, added the winner of the National Prize of Plastic Arts in Cuba in 2008.

As he confessed, he agrees to work only when he chooses an image with which he can connect, and this one caught him immediately.