The General in His Labyrinth, an inner escape

Abstract

General Simón Bolívar is confronted with the challenge of unraveling a labyrinth in the course of a singular journey, the last of his life. The defense of the historical legacy he fears abandoning to its own fate (the Bolivarian ideal and so himself) competes with a growing urgency: to attend to his tuberculosis and to his people. García Márquez's grotesque symbolism manages to open communicating vessels between both dimensions, public and private. These conduits reflect a labyrinthine and salvific space-time, constructed with the richness of a fertile symbolism: that of doubt and paradox.