The Scandal of the Century and Other Writings by Gabriel García Márquez, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker

“I don’t want to be remembered for One Hundred Years of Solitude, nor for the Nobel Prize, but rather for the newspaper. I was born a journalist and today I feel more than ever that I am a reporter. It’s in my blood.” After all the accolades of his fiction writing, few appreciate how important journalism was to Marquez and overlook the importance to journalism to learning to tell a story and writing fiction. The author’s strong political sensitivity and involvement was impacted by the political violence which interrupted his academic. In April 1948 the assassination of the charismatic politician […]

Continue reading

“Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: A Journalist’s Heart in Latin America, by Maria E. Martin, Reviewed by Mark D. Walker

I first became aware of the author at a “Peace Corps Connect” conference in Austin, Texas in 2019 where she was on a panel on “Crossing Borders” with several experts on immigration including the Guatemalan filmmaker, Luis Argueta. Recently, I heard her program on immigration in Guatemala, which aired on the public radio program “Reveal.”  I contacted her once I learned that she was the head of the “Gracias Vida Media Center” in Antigua, Guatemala, which was when I learned about her new book, which was published by Conocimientos Press. This book is an inspiring account of the author’s work […]

Continue reading