On our journey through Macondo, we often encounter yellow butterflies. They are a fundamental part of the relationship between Meme and Mauricio Babilonia. He attracted the butterflies and carried them around.
Every night Fernanda del Carpio, Meme’s mother, attempted to exterminate these butterflies with an insecticide bomb, trying to eradicate them. Fernanda believed that the nocturnal butterflies brought misfortune, a superstition that made her loathe the creatures.
If you already know the end of this story, then you understand why the butterflies have become such an emblematic symbol of the novel. They often visually represent scenes from One Hundred Years of Solitude.
But do you know where García Márquez got the idea for these butterflies?
The superstition described didn’t just come from his imagination; it was born from an experience in his childhood.
In an interview, García Márquez recounted an occasion when he found his grandmother spraying insecticide against butterflies. She was passionate and determined to eliminate what she believed these butterflies brought to her home.
The butterflies from his childhood anecdote were different from those in the novel, though. They were white, which in the novel was replaced by yellow, more closely linked to the magic of Macondo and the novel’s literary style.
Tranquilina (García Márquez’s grandmother), believed that it was an electrician who would come to do work in the house sometimes, who attracted these butterflies. They embodied the aura of negativity that accompanied the man.
These butterflies, of course, are essential to our collection "The World of Magical Realism," inspired by Macondo. Explore the collection.
