Clothes from Garcia Marquez’s Mexico home to be sold in charity fundraiser

By Monica Rubalcava

Mexico City, Oct 19 (EFE).- More than 400 clothing items and accessories from the Mexico City home where Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his wife lived until their deaths are to be put up for sale starting this week, with the proceeds to be donated to a charitable foundation.

“We thought of several options, and this was a good way to invite people so they would have access to the house,” Emilia Garcia Elizondo, the couple’s granddaughter, said in an interview with Efe.

Six years after the Colombian-born Garcia Marquez died at age 87 in Mexico City in 2014, his wife Mercedes Barcha passed away in the capital due to respiratory complications.

With the house no longer occupied, Garcia Elizondo came up with the idea of giving new life to her grandparents’ clothing through a charity fundraising initiative that will kick off on Wednesday.

“It was very exciting because a lot of the clothing is from other eras … It was also quite tough. The memories are still there, and going into someone’s closet is such an intimate thing,” she said.

Two jackets that belonged to the author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” one with an ink stain and another with a marker in its pocket, and a handkerchief in one of Mercedes’ coats are some of the items that became frozen in time upon their deaths and now will be made available for purchase.

“We left (the objects) exactly as they were because they’re small vestiges of past moments that are so beautiful to us, very meaningful,” Garcia Elizondo said.

“Gabo (as Garcia Marquez was affectionately known) used Sharpies (markers) for everything. He signed books with them. It was something so typically him,” she added.

Brands such as Louis Vuitton, Max Mara and Marina Rinaldi abound amid Mercedes’ wardrobe, while Garcia Marquez also had his own fashion style with custom-made clothes made by different tailors.

The coats remind me of Mercedes, and I remember seeing my grandfather with overalls. They were very typically him in his relaxed and casual stage. That’s what I most remember of him,” Garcia Elizondo said.

People interested in visiting the house must make an appointment on the Instagram account of Casa de Literatura Gabriel Garcia Marquez, while proceeds from the sale will be donated to the FISANIM Foundation led by actress and activist Ofelia Medina.

“Ofelia is a close friend of the family. Her foundation helps children from indigenous communities (in southern Mexico), and as a family we all believe that helping children is important. There wasn’t a single doubt,” Garcia Elizondo said.

The house located in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Jardines del Pedregal will soon be converted into the Casa de Literatura Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which Garcia Elizondo will lead.

Gabo’s granddaughter said her intention is to make her “favorite space in the world” a place for promoting literature and culture through workshops, colloquiums and lectures.

“This house is very important to me. I’m grateful to my family for giving me the opportunity to take the reins” of the new institution, she added. EFE

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