Netflix Builds Macondo, Garcia Marquez’s Literary Colombia

Netflix is building a reproduction of Macondo, the town imagined by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his most famous work, One Hundred Years of Solitude. After obtaining the rights to make a film five years ago, the television platform is in post-production of the most representative work of Latin American magical realism. For the filming, a faithful reproduction of the most emblematic points of the universe of the brilliant Colombian writer was built.

Nearly 500 people worked on more than 90 buildings portrayed in the book. Netflix’s Macondo has been erected near the municipality of Alvarado, in the department of Tolima, south of Bogota and far from the Caribbean, where the original was located.

To lend credibility to the physical space, in addition to the mountains of Tolima, which in some ways resemble the foothills of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 16,000 plants native to the Caribbean region were used for the setting.

40,000 square meters of construction for Macondo

For the construction of the village, the production company Dynamo and Netflix have occupied a space of 40,000 square meters. Among the different structures, the Buendia family house occupies a central space. It is about 800 square meters and took 12 weeks to build. The long corridor of the house, a space described prolifically in the work, can also be seen in detail.

Next to this central space of the story is the market square, or the commercial area of the Calle de los Turcos (Street of the Turks). Likewise, Netflix wanted to make a representation of Macondo with Caribbean-style constructions of balconies and lots, as well as a population with dusty streets, like those that appear in the book.

In addition, according to the production company, 400 tons of iron, 200 tons of cement, and 200 tons of wood were needed to build the town.

In what has been, undoubtedly, a huge technological and professional effort, the streaming platform achieves what seemed impossible: recreate the world of Garcia Marquez and the hundred years of Macondo’s history.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, the Colombia of Garcia Marquez

Published in Buenos Aires in 1967, One Hundred Years of Solitude represents the world of the Colombian writer like few other works. In fact, it is his most complete expression, and goes far beyond other novels of the genre and the author, such as Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, or The Autumn of the Patriarch. Macondo is a recurring place in Garcia Marquez’s work, built on a successful blend of his childhood memories and literary imagination.

Inspired by the Caribbean, many have wanted to identify this fictional place with his native Aracataca. In reality, any place in the mysterious Colombian Caribbean could be Macondo. In the Colombian Caribbean, there are many who, without detracting from the merits of the Nobel Prize in Literature, affirm that Garcia Marquez did not invent anything, since he limited himself to describing with precision the most incredible characteristics of the Colombian society of this region.

The production company of the series, which will have at least 16 chapters and will premiere before the end of this year, set the scene in a place far away from the Caribbean, but they have spared no effort to be as faithful as possible to the book’s descriptions.

Active Latin American participation in the project

The writer never wanted to sell the rights to his work for film or television. It was not until 2019, five years after his death, that the writer’s children and heirs agreed to sell the rights. In agreement with Netflix, Rodrigo and Gonzalo Garcia Barcha are the executive producers of the series.

In addition, the director of the production is Colombian Laura Mora, who shares the role with Argentine Alex Garcia. Also participating in the production design are Oscar-winning Eugenio Caballero and Argentine-Mexican Barbara Enriquez, who was nominated for an Oscar for her work in the Mexican film Roma in 2019. In addition, one of the conditions of the contract signed between Netflix and the Garcia Marquez heirs called for the production to be shot in Colombia and to be in the Spanish language.

The result is eagerly awaited by the millions of followers of Garcia Marquez’s work. Fans expect the film to depict the author’s childhood, spent with his grandparents, Nicolas Marquez and Tranquilina Iguaran. They were the ones who introduced him to a universe where magic manifested itself daily in remote villages with lush vegetation, full of figures that would later come to life in his writings, leaving their mark on his literary oeuvre.