Hi all, I’ve spent a few hours today writing this guide to reading one of GGM’s first works. I’m really enjoying reading it, but am also surprised by how easy it is for me as an Intermediate, given it’s by a writer known for very advanced and expressive language. It’s also a really cool book to be reading, because of its historical context and controversy, which I explain below.
I am thinking of writing more of these kinds of guides, especially for B1/B2 level books, with the aim of increasing enjoyment and learning ability, but before I write any more I wanted to see what kind of feedback this gets. I’ve included vocabulary lists, which I am prepared to turn into Quizlets and Anki Flashcards if there is demand for them. The idea is that, by using these vocabulary lists, a reader can synthetically jump 1-2 levels and enjoy and learn from a more advanced text than they’d usually be able to.
*PLEASE* give me any feedback you may have on this guide: whether it’s helpful, and whether there’s anything else you think would be useful in a language learner’s guide to a book.
**Spanish Learner’s Guide: Relato de un Náufrago / The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor**
Recommended level: upper intermediate
Could be grasped at lower intermediate or possibly even high beginner if using a Kindle, using the vocab lists below.
**GGM**
Relato de un Náufrago is an intermediate-level introduction to the Nobel Prize winning works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (hereafter GGM), who is considered among the world’s most significant 20th century authors, and is perhaps the most famous Latin American writer. He is a must-read for anyone who wants to deepen their appreciation of the Spanish language or Latin-American history and culture, and Relato de un Náufrago is a great entry point to these works. What’s more, it was embedded in controversy that was formative in GGM’s life and career.
**The history of the story**
GGM is known for his novels, but Relato de un Náufrago was written early in his career at age 27, when he was primarily working as a journalist for El Espectador, one of Colombia’s main newspapers. It was highly controversial, having been ghostwritten by GGM in 1955 and published in 14 daily instalments, originally under the name of the story’s 20-year-old protagonist, Colombian Navy seaman Luis Alejandro Velasco. The military dictatorship claimed that the sailors, all pronounced dead after four hours, perished as the result of a storm, and when Velasco washed ashore 10 days later, he was proclaimed a military hero and became a motivational speaker and poster-boy for the bravery of Colombian servicemen.
**Controversy**
The true story told by the surviving Velasco showed that the accident was caused primarily by a heavy load of contraband illegally carried on board the destroyer, caused avoidable deaths by having no lifesaving equipment aboard its rafts, and Velasco himself said that his bravery “consisted solely in not allowing [him]self to die of hunger and thirst for ten days”.
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla’s dictatorship was furious; El Espectador was closed, Velasco was forced to leave the navy, fading from national hero into obscurity, and Marquez fled Colombia to live in exile in France. After the success of “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, GGM’s publishers urged him to dig up the newspaper series and publish it under his own name, which he did, with great success. He generously ceded the royalties and author’s rights to Velasco, who later ended up suing him for the translation rights, which he lost. In the last week of his life, he apologised to GGM for doing so.
You can read more about the story and its controversy here: [https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-shipwrecked.html](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marquez-shipwrecked.html)
[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-06-me-65488-story.html](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-aug-06-me-65488-story.html)
**Core Vocabulary**
Un Náufrago – a castaway, shipwrecked sailor
Un Naufragio – a shipwreck
Franquicia – exemption from duties
El Buque – The vessel
La Marina – The Navy
La litera – The bunk
El Motín – Mutiny
Los Amotinados – Mutineers
El Barreminas – the Minesweeper
Ingresar (en la Marina) – to join (the navy)
Marear – to get dizzy
Fragata – frigate
Cabo (en la Marina) – corporal
Batir – to beat
Efectuar – to effect/carry out/execute (formal speech)
Zarpar – to set sail
Babor – Port
Estribor – starboard
El marino – the marine
La travesía – the crossing
Una bronca – a row, fight
Embarcar – to embark, board
Echar la casa por la ventana
Teniente – lieutenant
Suboficial – non-commissioned officer
Maquinista – Machinist – naval engineer
Novato – novice
escorar/escorando – to heel over, lean over
Las amarras – the moorings
Auriculares – headphones
La carga – the cargo, load
La popa – the stern
Mástil – mast
Remar – to row
Los remos – the oars
Rumor – murmur
**Intermediate/Advanced Vocabulary**
Tiritando – Shivering, trembling
Perjudicar – to be detrimental to
Rebelde – rebellious, stubborn
Tibio – lukewarm
Una torcedura – a twist
Sordo – dull, muffled
Endurecida – toughened
Infundir – to instill
Botas Dotadas – equipped boats [equipped with lifesaving equipment]
Implacable – implacable, relentless, ruthless
Azotado – Lashed, whipped
Aferrar – to anchor, grapple
Precipitarse en un abismo – to plunge into an abyss
Caucho – rubber
Reventar (las olas reventaban) – to break (waves breaking against the bridge)
Arreciar – to get worse
El pavor – the terror
Conciliar – to reconcile
Un agonizante – a dying person
Manifestar – to declare, express
Desgarrar – to tear, rip
Las presiones – the pressure
Los Gérmenes – the germs
Relojería – watchmaking, clockwork
La patria – fatherland, homeland
El tez – the complexion
Los anteojos – the spectacles, glasses
Estrepitosamente – with a loud crash
Bien plantado – fine looking
Curtir/curtida – to tan/tanned
Infundado – unfounded
Desencajado – dislocated, out of position, shaken [en la media cubierta, el cabo Miguel Ortega estaba sentado, desencajado, luchando con el mareo]
Lívido – livid, furiously angry
Dril – Cotton drill fabric, a heavyweight, durable fabric
Extenuar – to exhaust, weaken
Voraz – voracious
Un Antropófago – a cannibal
Recapitulación – recapitulation – the act of summarising and restating the main points of something
