Colonialism and Collective Trauma: The Development and Deterioration of Macondo

Kaitlyn Tibbetts
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois
United States
krtibbetts11@gmail.com

Best known for his magical realist literature, Gabriel García Márquez is a masterful storyteller who uses his work to explore the traumatic aftermath of colonialism and the unjust realities of living in a postcolonial world as a Latin American. Márquez's works Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude embody Latin American culture as they reshape myths and history into a fantastical story of the rise and fall of the town of Macondo. However, to capture the experiences of his culture authentically, Márquez must deal with the damage inflicted on Latin America by colonialism. He accomplishes this by portraying the deterioration of Macondo as Western influences rapidly advanced the town's industrialisation. The presence of industrialisation in these texts can be understood as a symbol or an embodiment of the effects of colonialism and neo-colonialism, as Macondo's technological advancements wreck the communal identity of the townspeople. This damage to the community of Macondo is seen most evidently in these texts through the characters' rejection of cultural values such as community as they choose instead to live lives of solitude.

As a magical realist author, Márquez's works embody Latin American identity and influence. It is generally accepted that Márquez's most famous novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, encompasses or reflects Latin American history. The town of Macondo, where this novel is set, undeniably follows a history of violence and instability that directly correlates with the history of Colombia and Latin America. However, One Hundred Years of Solitude is not Márquez’s first journey into the fictional town of Macondo. Twelve years prior to the release of his renowned novel, Márquez published his novella Leaf Storm, which is set in the same town of Macondo. Although One Hundred Years of Solitude is credited explicitly as a reflection of Latin American history, I argue that Macondo, spanning across both texts, encompasses the unjust history that inspired Márquez's writings. Therefore, it is necessary to examine these texts and their depictions of Macondo to understand the complete picture of Latin American history that Márquez is painting.

Márquez’s stylistic approach to telling these stories embodies his culture, as both works are magical realist texts. Magical realism is a literary genre characteristic of Latin America that "combines the ordinary with the supernatural and is often used to critique or challenge established political and social systems" (Waham 346). This is seen in One Hundred Years of Solitude, "in which ice, films, false teeth and phonographs are presented as bizarre, while levitating priests, rains of butterflies and girls ascending into heaven are presented as normal" (Swanson 58). In this genre, the boundaries of reality and fantasy are blurred. Making this stylistic choice allows Márquez to align himself with his culture and how he grew up hearing stories passed down. Márquez's use of magical realism confirms this was reportedly influenced by how his grandmother told supernatural stories “with complete naturalness” (Hart 116). However, Màrquez was not the only one who wrote magical realist literature when these texts were published.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Latin American literature experienced what is now known as the Boom Era. This was "a time in Latin America when, during much political and social turmoil, a great explosion of literature and literary criticism occurred that would put Latin America on the map in terms of the worldwide literary community" (Cauley 7). The political turmoil that Latin America experienced directly correlates with the literature that was produced during the Boom Era. During this time, Latin American authors sought to use their voices to capture the Latin American experience. For Márquez, this meant actively challenging Western literary norms through magical realism. In general, European voices took primacy in the literature of this time, causing Latin American writers to struggle "to find their unique voice that might measure up to supposed worldwide literary standards" (Cauley 8). Colonialism influenced the very way that communities understood themselves, which, in turn, limited how they expressed themselves through literature. That is why it is so significant that Márquez did not write in a Western or European style but instead chose to lean into the storytelling familiar to him and connected him to his culture. Therefore, the very way that Márquez approached these texts confirms that his work is an embodiment of his cultural identity.

Because of the way that magical realism rejects Western literary norms and instead embraces Latin American culture, Márquez's use of magical realism in these texts serves as a form of social protest. Much Western literature of this time fell into either modern or postmodern categories. While it was not unusual for Western authors of this time to challenge society and politics in their work just as Márquez does, they often failed to look beyond their Western context. So then, by writing in a genre that is so in tune with his culture, Márquez rejects the Western norms that colonialism pressed upon colonies as he focuses his gaze on his community, which was under-represented in literature then. This deviation from Western literary norms is often captured in the merging of realism and the supernatural. One of the most famous examples in One Hundred Years of Solitude is when Remedios the Beauty levitates into the heavens (Márqeuz 255).

In this moment, Márquez eloquently combines the supernatural with the mundane by muting the fantastical nature of his event with “the ravenous realistic details which surround its portrayal” (Hart 116). This includes the concrete descriptions of “Amaranta's lace petticoats, Remedios's waving good-bye to her sisters on the ground, the insects and flowers in the garden, and the time it occurred (4 o'clock)" (Hart 116). By depicting this magical moment alongside concrete imagery, Márquez illustrates the magic itself as real and tangible, thus embracing the genre of magical realism. The way this genre serves as a form of literary protest can be better understood when one recognises that Latin American authors use magical realism "to interrogate the assumptions of Western, rational, linear narrative and to enclose it within an indigenous metatext, a body of textual forms that recuperate the precolonial culture" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 149). In this, magical realism embodies a return to the indigenous and a challenge to the colonial. Mustanir Ahmad and Ayaz Afsar discuss this further in establishing magical realism as "an important tool employed to register social protest against the lingering effects of the process of colonialism" (1). By rejecting Western and European literary norms, Márquez joined other writers within the Boom Era to establish a sense of agency as writers and individuals, proving that they do not have to operate within a Western context for their work to have worth. This reveals that, while the content of Márquez's work rejects colonial norms, this is also true for how he approached writing these pieces.

While Márquez certainly illustrates the adverse effects of colonialism on Latin American countries through his work, he also highlights the damage caused by the neo-colonialism ushered in by the United States. Neo-colonialism means new colonialism — "a term coined by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 177). Thus, while it is distinct from colonialism and does not include governments invading and taking control of the political structures of foreign countries, it is undoubtedly a kind of colonisation. Although neo-colonialism can naturally influence a country's ideologies — for instance, emphasising capitalist agendas — it is not concerned with infiltrating a culture with a particular belief system in the way that colonialism was.

Overall, neo-colonialism is much more concerned with colonising a country's economy than colonising a country's way of thinking. As previously colonised countries began to gain independence, "newly emerging superpowers such as the United States continued to play a decisive role in their cultures and economies through new instruments of indirect control such as international monetary bodies" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 178). This neo-colonialism is seen in Márquez's work, which depicts the banana industry in Macondo, which was based on the American fruit company, United Fruit. Often, companies such as these appear to offer initial prosperity to previously colonised countries — an idea that Márquez captures in Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude through the early years of the banana factory. That is precisely why neo-colonialism is considered "more insidious and more difficult to detect and resist than the direct control exercised by classic colonialism" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 178).

Previously colonised countries are manipulated into believing that these other countries — primarily the United States — will benefit their community. However, only these neo-colonial countries profit from these efforts. Therefore, while the United States government was not colonising Latin America in the way that the Spanish government did, this "new colonisation" of economic control was just as damaging to these postcolonial communities who, though independent, were still left vulnerable in the aftermath of colonialism. While this American fruit company is critical to the plot of Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude, the latter includes explicitly American characters. These American characters are distinct from the Spanish colonisers that devastated Latin America centuries earlier; however, the damage the Americans caused to Macondo's community through the banana industry undeniably reflects the effects of neo-colonialism. The effects of colonialism are primarily depicted in these works through the industrial development and the quickly following deterioration of Macondo. Thus, while the American characters in Macondo are distinct from Spanish colonisers, they often operate as colonisers, and their exploitation of the town damages the community in similar ways to colonialism.

In these texts, colonialism and its influence on communities are depicted as ongoing. Márquez primarily captures the ongoing nature of colonialism through his previously mentioned portrayal of neo-colonialism. As an adaptation or a continuation of colonialism, neo-colonialism directly illustrates how colonialism continues to impact generation after generation. Although these previously colonised countries "achieved political independence," the authority they gained over themselves remained limited because of the neo-colonial powers that took control over the everyday life of these countries by infiltrating their economies and determining how these communities made their livelihood (Ashcroft et al. Postcolonial Studies 178). This is seen in Márquez's texts through the arrival of the banana industry in Macondo. After all, neo-colonialism's damaging effects are only able to infiltrate these communities in the first place because colonialism made these previously colonised countries vulnerable to further manipulation from political superpowers like the United States.

Because one of the effects of colonialism is the trauma that generation after generation experiences, applying trauma theory in a postcolonial context is necessary in order to understand what Marquez accomplishes in these texts fully. Although trauma is often associated with an individual moment that damages an individual's psyche, the trauma inflicted by colonialism is not always limited to the recipient of the trauma. Therefore, understanding trauma as a single, piercing moment does not account for "the prolonged, cumulative hurt of long years of repression that constitutes the trauma of colonialism, with its repeated and cumulative stressor events" (Visser 3). While one can point to the arrival of colonisers in Latin America as a single event, the trauma this event inflicted went on to restructure the lives of future generations. This postcolonial understanding of trauma theory is necessary to understand Márquez’s characters in Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude since none of these characters were present during the arrival of colonisers in Latin America. However, colonialism is apparent in this work — significantly One Hundred Years of Solitude, which describes shipwrecked Spanish galleons early on and references the names of colonisers such as Sir Francis Drake. Therefore, these texts embody a postcolonial Latin America and illustrate how colonialism continues to have adverse effects on later generations.

In these texts, Márquez depicts how colonialism inflicts collective and ongoing trauma by illustrating how the entire community is damaged by industrialisation. The physical effects industrialisation causes on things such as ecology can be understood as a physical manifestation of colonialism's adverse effects on communities. However, Márquez also clearly illustrates how the effects of colonialism cause communal trauma to the people in a community as well. This is depicted partly through the characters' solitude, which should be understood in the Latin American context of these works as a rejection of the characters' cultural value of community. Thus, by shirking their culture and choosing to live in solitude, the characters in these texts exemplify how colonialism has damaged their understanding of themselves in their relationship.

Márquez uses the town of Macondo across both Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude to illustrate the postcolonial Latin American experience. One way he accomplishes this is by leaning into the genre of magical realism, which naturally aligns with his cultural identity. By pairing this with a discussion of colonialism and neo-colonialism through his depiction of the industrialisation of Macondo, Márquez illustrates the detrimental damage these constructs inflicted on the community of Macondo. In doing so, Márquez captures the suffering that Latin America experienced. Furthermore, by focusing on industrialisation and the neo-colonial banana industry rather than the arrival of Spanish colonisers, Márquez clearly illustrates the ongoing nature of colonialism, as its effects continue to permeate Latin America long after the departure of colonisers.

Along with that, Márquez focuses heavily on the characters' relationships with each other and how these relationships change as the influence of colonialism seeps into Macondo. In both texts, the evident effects are found in how the characters choose to isolate themselves instead of living in a community with each other. This reveals how the ongoing effects of colonialism essentially alter the townspeople's connection to their community. Therefore, in his magical realist texts Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez illustrates Macondo's industrial development and resulting deterioration to reveal colonialism's detrimental damage to communal identity.

Macondo: Precolonial Culture and Identity

Márquez successfully illustrates the effects of colonialism by rooting the town of Macondo in Indigenous mythology and precolonial culture to better contrast the town's state before and after colonialism's arrival. Because of this, examining Márquez's works with indigenous Latin America in mind instead is essential. Although many literary scholars accept a Western interpretation of his work, considering the influence of Indigenous mythology in Márquez's work is imperative to understand his meaningfully. While it is undoubtedly accurate that One Hundred Years of Solitude, in particular, "can be read on many levels and interpreted from various points of view," one must consider Márquez's cultural context to interpret his work's scope (Grigore 52) sufficiently. While other interpretations are possible, many are reached by reading Márquez's work through a limited Western lens, which it was not meant for. Because of this frequent implementation of the Western lens in reading, Márquez's work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, has been subjected to much biblical interpretation. The "supposition that myth in One Hundred Years is Biblical has become canonical” among many literary scholars (Corwin 62). Reinaldo Arenas originally made this interpretation in 1968 — just one year after the novel’s release (Corwin 61). Partly because this interpretation was offered so early in the life of this novel, it was accepted rather quickly among scholars. Arenas argues that this novel reflects biblical themes from beginning to end, beginning with creation and ending in a kind of apocalypse in which Macondo is destroyed. Arenas, along with many other literary scholars, argues that Macondo is a kind of promised land following the Buendías’ exodus from their previous home, which they fled after José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula’s scandal with Prudencio Aguilar (Márquez, One Hundred Years 25). Although Arenas's "statement is logical, drawing apparent parallels between an ancient text and a modern one," this interpretation is limited because it operates in a Western Christian lens and thus overlooks "the novel's non-Western symbolism" (Corwin 61). Corwin argues that Macondo — which Arenas and others compare to the promised land in scripture — is, in fact, "anti-Biblical, and . . . it may be polar rather than parallel," as this promised land deteriorates in the grip of colonisers (63). This implies that the promises of this land are capable of being damaged, which does not align with a biblical narrative and thus begs a different interpretation. Thus, while one can argue that there are biblical themes in Márquez's work — indeed, he discusses Catholicism directly in both Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude — this does not warrant biblical interpretations for either of these texts, as Catholicism itself was a construct brought to Latin America by colonialism.

The references Márquez includes to Catholicism in these works often serve as a critique of Western Christianity and the way colonisers forced this belief system onto their colonies. Márquez accomplishes this by portraying the priests in both texts as foolish, absurd, and selfish. In Leaf Storm, the parish priest, exclusively called the Pup, preaches sermons that "are not based on the Gospels but on the atmospheric predictions in the Bristol Almanac" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 84). In this, Márquez portrays the Pup's sermons as nonsensical, which can be understood as a critique of the religious traditions of Western Christianity: a construct that was brought to Latin America by colonisation. Márquez critiqued "the colonisation of the mind through the inculcation of Western education, literature, and religion" (Stanley 316). This indoctrination that was pressed upon colonised countries and territories is now recognised to be just as — if not more so — destructive as "the colonisation of material resources and the territory which contains them" (Stanley 316). Religion and ideology are often directly connected to a culture's identity. Thus, replacing these cultural belief systems with Western religion and ideology disparages the identity of colonised communities. So then, by making the Pup's sermons nonsensical, Márquez makes this character look like he does not know anything about the faith that he preaches. This reveals a disconnect between himself and the religion that was pressed upon him by colonialism.

Márquez further illustrates how Western Christianity damaged colonised communities by portraying the selfish Father Nicanor Reynas of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Upon coming to Macondo, Father Nicanor's primary concern is that the townspeople were not "baptising their children or sanctifying their festivals" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 89). While these rituals are exceedingly important in the Roman Catholic tradition, Father Nicanor’s fixation on these details reveals how the ideologies of Western Christianity entirely shaped his concerns. Indeed, the fact that "Father Nicanor Reynas . . . was appalled" by the behaviours of the townspeople of Macondo reveals his lack of tolerance for belief systems contrary to his own (Márquez, One Hundred Years 89). This way of thinking was brought to Latin America by colonial missionary work. This colonisation of the mind "is aimed at turning the minds and hearts of people away from their native religion to one that is generally unsympathetic and hostile to it" (Stanley 315). Father Nicanor's hostile disposition towards the townspeople reveals how his mind and faith have been colonised.

Furthermore, Father Nicanor is illustrated as selfish when he asks for donations to build a church in Macondo. Although the townspeople give donations, he is dissatisfied and demands that they pay him more "because the church had to have a bell" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 89). In portraying Father Nicanor's obsession with worldly details over the community's spiritual health, Márquez further critiques Western Christianity's obsession with material details and ritualistic traditions at the expense of a community's spiritual and physical well-being. This critique of Catholicism supports a reading of this text distinct from a biblical interpretation.

The portrayal of the European Christian myth of the Wandering Jew in One Hundred Years of Solitude further establishes that Macondo operates in a non-Western context despite the influence of Western Christianity brought to Latin America by colonialism. This myth is first referenced when all of the birds in Macondo begin to die. The priest in Macondo at the time, Father Antonio Isabel, claims that the culprit for this loss is the Wandering Jew — a figure in an old European Christian myth (Márquez, One Hundred Years 369). This myth, which emerged during the Middle Ages, tells a story about Jesus asking to rest at a Jewish man's house on his way to Calvary. The Jewish man refuses to offer any hospitality to Christ. Because of this, Jesus curses him "to wait for him until the Second Coming" (Lampert-Weissig 1). Because of this experience, the Jewish man converts to Christianity and “roams the earth, telling all he meets of his encounter with Christ,” thus becoming the Wandering Jew (Lampert-Weissig 1). The only physical description given for the Wandering Jew in these myths is his age, which fluctuates between thirty and one hundred years. According to the myth, the Wandering Jew continued to age after he met Jesus. However, when he reached one hundred years, he "transformed back to thirty years old, his age at the time he encountered Jesus" (Lampert-Weissig 2), so this cycle continued. However, Father Antonio Isabel describes the Wandering Jew's physical appearance as rather monstrous. He depicts the Wandering Jew "as a cross between a billy goat and a female heretic, an infernal beast whose breath scorched the air and whose look brought on the birth of monsters in newlywed women” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 369). This terrible description of a European Christian myth is reflective of the way that Western Christianity entered colonies and became ugly and twisted. However, Márquez does not seem to be suggesting that Christianity or the Catholic church are inherently bad or ugly. Instead, he is drawing attention to the fact that colonial efforts to force religious beliefs onto their colonies are undeniably damaging to communities as they eliminate countless voices and replace them with the idea that only one perspective is of any importance.

In order to interpret Márquez's work accurately, the reader must understand that the fictional town of Macondo, in which both texts are set, reflects Márquez's hometown of Aracataca, Colombia. One of the primary similarities between these towns is that "much like the fictional town of Macondo inhabited by the Buendía family, Aracataca did not become known in Colombia till the arrival of United Fruit and the banana industry” (Cauley 12). This reveals how Aracataca was primarily identified by its banana production. The same is true for Macondo, which is confirmed by the fact that “the town’s name ‘Macondo’ is the Bantu word for ‘banana’” (Cauley 12). Since names can be understood as a source of identity, this reveals how Macondo’s identity is tied up in the banana industry, just like Aracataca’s. The way Márquez identifies Macondo by its banana crop solidifies this connection between reality and fiction. While the influence of the banana company on both Colombia and Macondo will be discussed in more detail later on, it is important to note that Márquez's experiences growing up in a town dominated by the neo-colonial banana industry influenced Macondo.

However, Márquez's experiences in Aracataca were exclusively after the departure of the banana industry, as he was born in 1927, and the Banana Massacre — which will be unpacked more extensively later on — took place in 1928. Although this massacre occurred in Ciénaga, not Aracataca, the turmoil it created in towns whose livelihood was found in their banana crops is undeniable. Because of the irreversible damage this tragic event caused, the version of “Aracataca known by García Márquez was in sharp decline and quickly being forgotten by the world as the banana industry left the area" (Cauley 12). So then, Márquez's depiction of Macondo before, during, and after the banana industry seems to directly reflect the home he knew in the aftermath of the banana industry. The deterioration of Macondo is most evident after the novel, and it appears "that the skeleton of the previously prolific Macondo explored by Aureliano Babilonia at the end of [One Hundred Years of Solitude] is a reflection of García Márquez’ experience of Aracataca” (Cauley 12). This confirms that the Macondo of Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude is a reflection of Márquez's experiences and thus must be interpreted according to the context in which he was living and writing. To accomplish this, one must understand "the context of the (post-)colonial experience of the people of this region" that guides Márquez in his writing (Ahmad and Afsar 2). Márquez's life experiences are interwoven into these works, as he only knew a postcolonial Aracataca. Márquez’s depiction of Macondo’s deterioration reflects the home he was born into: one damaged by the influence of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Thus, Márquez uses tragic historical events in these works to highlight the injustices of the world he lived in.

The world Márquez lived in shaped Macondo's portrayal in these works by incorporating indigenous Chibcha mythology. Although these examples are more evident in One Hundred Years of Solitude than in Leaf Storm, since both of these pieces are set in Macondo and the very founding of this town correlates with Chibcha mythology, it can be concluded that the foundation of these stories is sourced from mythology from precolonial Latin America. In discussing One Hundred Years of Solitude, Lauren M. P. Derby argues that Márquez found "inspiration for Macondo's origin story in Chibcha myth" (230). She points out that Márquez's narrative and Chibcha mythology include couples who "begin their respective odysseys hounded by the fear of incest and accompanying reprisals" (Derby 230). In One Hundred Years of Solitude, this couple is José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán, who were "joined till death by a bond that was more solid than love: a common prick of conscience" (Márquez 22). This prick in their consciences was because they were blood cousins (Márquez, One Hundred Years 22).

Although the couple in Chibcha mythology is "comprised of a brother and sister," both stories communicate similar themes about incest, which results in both couples being exiled and forced to find new homes (Derby 230). It is this search for a new home that brings José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula Iguarán to found Macondo, accompanied by a few others who join them in the “crossing of the mountains” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 15). Based on these correlations, the origin story of Macondo is rooted in Chibcha mythology. This reiterates that Márquez's work is meant to be understood as embracing his culture and rejecting colonial norms, as he shapes Macondo to embody a precolonial Latin America through his use of Indigenous mythology.

In addition to the founding of Macondo itself, Márquez draws further inspiration from Chibcha mythology figures in his characters' development. A specific example of this is the gypsy Melquíades in One Hundred Years of Solitude. In his article, “One Hundred Years of Solitude, Indigenous Myth, and Meaning," Jay Corwin explains how Melquíades embodies a figure in Chibcha mythology who, in some versions of the myths, is called either Nemquerequeteba or Boch. This figure is described as "a bearded man racially distinct to the Chibcha people" (Corwin 63). Corwin points to a similar description of Melquíades to further establish the correlation between this figure and Nemquerequeteba or Bochica. Melquíades is introduced on the very first page of this novel, described as "a heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow hands, who . . . put on a bold public demonstration of what he called the eighth wonder of the learned alchemists of Macedonia" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 1). This description is important because it establishes that these figures are visually similar and conveys that their purposes and relationship to the Chibcha community were similar. Just as Melquíades brought alchemy and other technological advancements to Macondo, Nemquerequeteba or Bochica operated as a kind of messenger to the people, as he is described in Chibcha as the “emissary of the gods or the son god, depending on the source” (Corwin 63). Either way, he is a source of connection between the Chibcha people and the outside world. This is true of Melquíades to Macondo, as he and the other gypsies expose the townspeople to inventions varying from telescopes to ice. The fact that Melquíades is sourced in Chibcha mythology is critical to one’s understanding of One Hundred Years of Solitude as a whole as it is revealed after the novel that Melquíades' pages — which generation after generation of Buendías attempts to decipher — is the very text that the reader is holding. This reveals that the author of the Buendías’ story in the canon of One Hundred Years of Solitude is Melquíades. This is significant because the inspiration for Melquíades is founded in Chibcha mythology. Since he is the source of the Buendías’ story, indigenous Chibcha mythology must be the foundation of the Buendías, confirming that the very source of Márquez’s work is deeply influenced by Chibcha mythology.

Furthermore, Melquíades' role as one who introduces Macondo to inventions of the outside world is significant as it establishes that Macondo's history precedes the arrival of outsiders, including colonisers and non-colonisers alike. In Chibcha mythology, Nemquerequeteba or Bochica “arrives from time to time in their recorded mythology to bring elements of culture to the Chibcha unknown to them but part of the cultures of the world beyond their reach” (Corwin 63). This is precisely the role that Melquíades plays in One Hundred Years of Solitude, as he brings inventions from around the world to Macondo on his visits. Although many of Melquíades's inventions are Western, he is not meant to be understood as a coloniser. Instead, he and the gypsies as a whole embody a deviation from Western norms through the very act of bringing new inventions to Macondo. Alicia Liu explains this in her article on technology in One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which she notes that the "magnets, magnifying glass, ice, dentures, and the 'multiple-use machine' . . . originate from different periods; they cannot all be 'new inventions'" (4). Liu argues that this places Macondo in a timeline that is "progressing on a trajectory separate from Europe" (4). This is significant because it forces Europe "to recognise that Latin America has a history distinct from the European." Thus, this narrative cannot be fully understood through a Western lens (Liu 4). The foundation of this novel is rooted in Latin American history and mythology, and it actively challenges Western norms by establishing that Macondo operates in a unique timeline. So then, One Hundred Years of Solitude embraces Márquez's culture and identity, as he rejects Western norms and instead tells his story in a culturally distinct way by drawing from Chibcha mythology.

While other characters may not directly correlate to figures in Chibcha mythology, Márquez’s character designs reflect the structure of mythological characters in a more general sense. Interestingly, this is seen in the unspecificity of many of Márquez’s characters. In many ways, the characters in Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude feel generalised or even stereotypical. Paul McAleer claims that Márquez's use of stereotypes in the characters of One Hundred Years of Solitude was intended "to be read as a parody of (mainly) Western discourse about the 'other'" (188). This suggests that the development of Márquez's characters challenges colonial norms, poking fun at Western stereotypes by playing into them. Although this is an interesting argument, there may be a different reason for Márquez's supposed use of stereotypical or generalised characters. Derby argues that by leaning into stereotypical or unspecific characters — such as a "young woman, old crone, brave warrior, [or] wise sage" — Márquez is making his characters more inclusive, allowing "for the lessons of these stories to reverberate widely among the members of the myth-telling-and-hearing community" (229). By designing his characters this way, Márquez shapes his story according to the same stylistic structure of cultural myths. Myths passed down orally throughout communities are meant to be general enough that listeners can "identify their reflections in the tale, and consequently, receive its truth" (Derby 229). Therefore, Márquez's characters in One Hundred Years of Solitude are structured similarly to figures in indigenous mythology.

Although Derby speaks to this unusual portrayal of characters primarily in the context of One Hundred Years of Solitude, this unspecificity of characters is also evident in Leaf Storm. This is seen most clearly in three primary characters — the colonel, the doctor, and the Pup — who have no names but are instead identified by their generalised personalities. The colonel is loyal, as a colonel would be expected to be. The doctor is selfish and solitary. Moreover, the Pup is eccentric and faithful. In this, Márquez is not necessarily playing into stereotypes; instead, he is illustrating unspecific characters who play specific roles in the community of Macondo, even if they fail to live into these roles properly, as is the case with the doctor. While these characters fulfil their purposes in this narrative, they are not necessarily well-rounded, as the audience knows little about their past or interior selves. This lack of personal history is seen clearly in the doctor because "no one ever knew where he came from" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 12-13).

Ultimately, these characters are not meant to be well-rounded and whole with tangible pasts. Instead, they are meant to broadly embody different kinds of people in a community so that people can more generally identify with these unspecific characters, just as Derby claims are valid in the characters of One Hundred Years of Solitude (229). Thus, while Márquez may reduce his characters "to several traits that exaggerate and simplify them" as a means of critiquing overly generalised Western stereotypes, it appears more likely that this sense of rebellion against Western literary norms is founded in the fact that Márquez is unabashedly embracing his culture by telling his characters' story according to the same structure as the myths that are foundational to his culture (McAleer193).
Because the Macondo of Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude are the same, the reader can conclude that both portrayals of this town embody Colombian history and indigenous mythology. Márquez even admits that the story of Macondo began with Leaf Storm "before crystallising definitively in One Hundred Years of Solitude” (Fiddian 42). The correlations between these two versions of Macondo are most clearly seen in the fact that they have the same history. Specifically, the same Colonel, Aureliano Buendía of One Hundred Years of Solitude, is also mentioned in a few places in Leaf Storm. Although these references to Colonel Aureliano Buendía are brief, this establishes that, though these stories focus on different characters, the Macondo they are set in maintains the same history. Thus, the characters in Leaf Storm experience the same hostile war environment as in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Similarly, Philip Swanson's assertion that "no amount of scepticism can undermine the impression that [One Hundred Years of Solitude] is very much about Colombian and Latin American history” can be just as aptly applied to a discussion of Leaf Storm (59). This is because, while One Hundred Years of Solitude provides the complete picture of Márquez’s Macondo, Leaf Storm has a significant "place within what can only be called the corpus of Macondian mythography" (Dauster 24). This confirms that while Leaf Storm is the foundation of this fictional town, One Hundred Years of Solitude is its continuation. Thus, while they may focus on different elements or important events in Macondo, they both contribute important elements of the mythography and history of Macondo. So then, the town of Macondo itself embodies Colombian and Latin American history in these texts. Therefore, while Leaf Storm may not have specific references to Chibcha mythology in the same way that One Hundred Years of Solitude does because these stories are set in the same Macondo, it can be concluded that they have the same origin story. Thus, both texts' Macondo is rooted in Indigenous identity.

Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism, and Industrialization

Through the narratives of Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez comments on colonialism and its impact on cultures and communities. To understand the changes Macondo experiences in these two narratives, one must examine the postcolonial perspective that Márquez incorporates into his work "through a portrayal of corporate economic and social influence in Colombia and the Caribbean" (Van Der Linde 37). As has already been established, Macondo in these texts is shaped after Márquez's home in Colombia. So then, Márquez's portrayal of the development and deterioration of Macondo in both Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects the changes he saw inflicted on Latin America because of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and the resulting industrialisation of colonised communities.

In many ways, Macondo embodies the history of Latin America, and its political turmoil directly reflects the postcolonial world that Márquez knew. Jihad Jaafar Waham explains that, in the region Márquez lived in, many uprisings and coups attempted to overthrow military dictatorships. Waham argues that “in many ways, One Hundred Years of Solitude can be seen as a response to this political climate” (346-347). This is seen in Márquez’s depiction of “the vicious circle of the war” that consumed Macondo for years (One Hundred Years 149). This cyclical nature of war makes it feel like the violence consuming Macondo is inescapable. This certainly reflects the various civil wars that overtook Colombia throughout its history. This correlation between the history of Colombia and Macondo indicates that One Hundred Years of Solitude is "an expression of the history of Colombia and the Latin American continents in general" (Grigore 61).
However, it can be argued that Macondo embodies or represents Latin American history. If this is true, the violence and political unrest that Waham and Grigore point to in One Hundred Years of Solitude is also present in Leaf Storm since it is set in Macondo. This is evident in the novella's many negative references to "the civil war of '85" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 38). In this text, Macondo is described as "disorganised by the war," implying that the political unrest and violence that come with war damaged the town (Márquez, Leaf Storm 31). The recurring references to this war reveal that the effects of the war were ever-present in Macondo's life, as the characters seem unable to move on from it. This is seen in how the characters are often characterised by their involvement in the war. For example, although little is known about the Pup, the townspeople did remember that, during the war, “he had been a colonel” (Márquez, Leaf Storm 38). Although he was no longer in the military, he continued to be identified by his involvement in the civil war, thus confirming that the effects of this war continued to infiltrate the identity of the people of Macondo.

Márquez further captures the political turmoil of Latin America in these texts by alluding to civil wars in Colombia. For instance, the date of the Civil War that the characters in Leaf Storm keep referencing correlates with the Colombian Civil War (1884-1885). However, connections can also be drawn to civil wars like La Violencia. In particular, this was "a bloody civil war in Colombia spanning 1946 to 1965" (Cauley 13). This seems to be the war that Márquez mimics in One Hundred Years of Solitude, as this war consisted primarily of "brutal party-on-party aggression" (Cauley 13). One Hundred Years of Solitude clearly reflects this conflict between political parties as the war between the Conservative and Liberal parties consumed Macondo. This party conflict is seen when Colonel Aureliano Buendía asks Colonel Gerineldo Márquez what he is fighting for. Gerineldo Márquez's reply is, "What other reason could there be?. . For the great Liberal party" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 148). This reveals that Márquez's depiction of war in Macondo was meant to depict "the senseless political violence and . . . complete disregard for civilian lives" that he witnessed as these parties struggled hungrily for power (Cauley 13). The fact that his references to civil war can be connected to various civil wars in Colombia further highlights the violence Márquez was surrounded and inspired by. However, it is crucial to note that these wars occurred after Colombia gained independence. Therefore, while colonial powers were not actively causing this violence, countries that gained independence from their colonisers were left vulnerable and unstable. This led to much political unrest since, for so long, these countries had no voice in their governments. This unrest led to further vulnerability, which made these countries susceptible to the manipulation of neo-colonial entities, which offered a false sense of stability. Thus, by depicting Macondo as a place consumed by violence and unrest, Márquez uses this town in both works to illustrate the political turmoil that consumed postcolonial Colombia during his life.

One Hundred Years of Solitude deals with Latin American history more broadly; Leaf Storm centres exclusively around the arrival and departure of industrialisation in Macondo, brought on by the introduction of the railroads. The term leaf storm, after which this story is titled, describes an event in the novella meant to embody the rush of people to Macondo because of the banana industry. The leaf storm was "formed out of the human and material dregs of other towns, the chaff of a civil war that seemed ever more remote and unlikely" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 1). It left Macondo in disarray, embodying the damage of neo-colonialism on a community, and this event is often credited as the source of many of the characters' struggles. While the banana industry led to the leaf storm of people flocking to Macondo, this boom ultimately began when "the train whistled for the first time" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 2). After all, railroads opened the door to the widespread industrialisation of Macondo and the arrival of neo-colonisers.

However, in this novella, the reader never sees firsthand what life in Macondo looked like when the railroads first ran, as the story opens long after the banana industry left Macondo. Instead, Márquez only illustrates Macondo's post-industrialisation, drawing attention to how the community was intrinsically damaged by the neo-colonial modernisation it was subjected to. This is accomplished by telling this narrative primarily through the characters' memories. In particular, the colonel remembers life in Macondo before, during, and after the railroad's arrival. Regardless, his memories often centre around the leaf storm. For instance, when telling a story about the doctor, the colonel's focus abruptly shifts to the leaf storm, as he notes that "he was the only doctor in town until the banana company arrived and work started on the railroad" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 58). This reveals that, to the colonel, the leaf storm was central to every other moment in Macondo.

By contrast, the colonel's daughter, Isabel, only remembers life during and after the railroads, as she grew up at the height of Macondo's modernisation. Isabel is an example of how the industrialisation of Macondo reshaped future generations who do not remember life before the railroads. As a young girl, she recounts her excitement for the movie theatre and public phonograph in Macondo. However, she could not enjoy these things because her father and stepmother credited them as "amusements from out of the leaf storm" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 63). This is evidence that some of the townspeople believed that everything that came out of the leaf storm — or, in other words, the rapid industrialisation of Macondo — was negative. In this, Márquez "attributes the arrival of the railroad and the modern technology to be a curse and a source of corruption for the Indigenous people not because he did not want them to become modern, but for the very reason that the colonial masters used technological revolution more to exploit the resources of the so-called non-civilised people than to revolutionise the lives of the Indigenous population" (Ahmad and Afsar 2). In this, Márquez illustrates how industrialisation puts the power in the hands of the American neo-colonisers who came to Macondo, thus forcing the townspeople into a position of submission similar to that they experienced from their Spanish colonisers. The modernisation of Macondo disregarded the community's culture and traditions and sought only to make it easier for the neo-colonisers to profit from the banana industry in Macondo. So then, Márquez is not arguing against modernisation; instead, he is challenging colonial and neo-colonial industrialisation for disregarding the cultural integrity of communities.

While the arrival of the railroads is also central to One Hundred Years of Solitude, this comes later in the novel when Aureliano Triste — the son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía — advocates for establishing a railroad system in Macondo. Aureliano Triste hopes the railroad will open Macondo up to the world, but it ends in more profound isolation and separation from communal identity. At first, the train is described as "the innocent yellow train," which reveals that the townspeople did not consider the train to be something they should be concerned by (Márquez, One Hundred Years 239). However, the train would go on “to bring so many ambiguities and certainties, so many pleasant and unpleasant moments, so many changes, calamities, and feelings of nostalgia to Macondo” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 239). Perhaps the most evident change was the introduction of the banana industry, which reshaped the life structure in Macondo. In particular, the political structure of Macondo was uprooted by the banana industry. Upon the arrival of the banana industry, the local leaders are replaced by "dictatorial foreigners," appointed not by the locals but by Mr Brown: an American man who, along with Mr Herbert, brought the fruit company to Macondo (Márquez, One Hundred Years 256). These white outsiders, who should be recognised as neo-colonisers as they colonise the economy of Macondo, believe that they have a higher status than the locals. They perceive themselves as superior because of how they function in a modern, capitalist setting. In other words, this “European/Euro-American colonial expansion and domination was able to construct a hierarchy of . . . superior and inferior people around the world” (Grosfoguel 7). This belief in their superiority motivated this push for the industrialisation of Macondo, as these neo-colonisers sought to make the town more modern to make it more Western and, thus, more comfortable for them.

This is confirmed in One Hundred Years of Solitude when the banana industry came to Macondo, and the outsiders who came, described as "the gringos," sought to make Macondo more accommodating to their modern, Western expectations (Márquez 245). They went as far as to build "a separate town across the railroad tracks" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 245). Therefore, Mr Brown and Mr Herbert are a continuation of colonialism, as their Western contribution to Macondo's economy can be characterised as neo-colonialism. This is confirmed by the fact that neo-colonialism refers "to any forms of control of the ex-colonies after political independence" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 178). Therefore, while their government did not send these men to colonise Macondo, they continued to colonise Macondo by infiltrating its economy. This makes it clear that the industrialisation in Macondo was not about bringing the community up to speed with the rest of the world. Instead, it was selfishly motivated by the American newcomers who sought to exploit Macondo's resources.

The industrialisation in Macondo was excessive and failed to recognise the needs of the townspeople since it operated only in a Western context. As a result, the people of Macondo become, in this context, "representations of the Latin American 'other'" (McAleer 187). Márquez leans into this by portraying the Buendías as “eccentric others” (McAleer 188). This suggests that the Buendías, whose personalities are often over-dramatised, are intended to feel distinct from the Western population that infiltrates Macondo, perhaps in an attempt to illustrate how they are othered by their colonisers, or in this instance, their neo-colonisers. Applying Edward Said's ideas on colonial othering, the people of Macondo are being perceived "as the primitive, uncivilised 'other' . . . to create . . . [a] contrast to the advanced and civilised West" (Hamadi 40). By refusing to view the people of Macondo as civilised, characters like Mr. Brown and Mr. Herbert believe themselves to be justified in dehumanising and taking advantage of the townspeople. This action directly uproots cultural values of equality and community established in Macondo from the beginning, thus damaging the integrity of Macondo's culture.

For example, when Macondo was founded, José Arcadio Buendía "had decided upon the layout of the streets and the location of the new houses so that no one would enjoy privileges that everyone did not have" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 42). However, the presence of the white man in Macondo uproots this foundation of equality that José Arcadio Buendía had established. Upon entering Macondo, these neo-colonisers entirely reshaped the town physically and internally by challenging the values and opinions of the townspeople through the physical restructuring of Macondo. After all, the physical layout of the town that José Arcadio Buendía implemented into Macondo emphasised equality. However, when the neo-colonisers came in and built a separate town for themselves, they uprooted José Arcadio Buendía's equality-centered structure, thus causing damage that was not purely physical. Ultimately, this reshaping "of a people's ideology is . . . a kind of deception whereby the majority people forget about or abandon their interests and desires and accept the dominant values and beliefs as their own" (Mansoor 9297).

This deception was exceedingly common among colonisers as they entered countries and forced their social expectations onto indigenous peoples. In the context of fictional Macondo and actual colonised countries, forcing the indigenous people to assimilate to the ideologies of their colonisers can be understood as "the first step in generating a socio-cultural trauma which does not only shift the lens with which the people of Macondo read the world they live in, it is also the beginning of a political trauma that is internalised yielding its mechanisms of resistance" (Mansoor 9297-98). In the postcolonial context of this text, Mr Brown and Mr Herbert embody the influence of neo-colonialism as they restructure Macondo to more comfortably fit their Western preferences — which required the town's industrialisation. This reveals how the ongoing presence of colonialism — and its emphasis on industrialisation and capitalism — chips away at a culture's integrity by tainting it with Western values that are in direct opposition to the cultural values of that community.

While industrial advancements such as the railroads opened up Macondo to the outside world, the arrival of the banana industry is the manifestation of the neo-colonial world's arrival in Macondo, revealing how capitalist values infiltrated the town and tainted its cultural values. Prior to the industrialisation of Macondo, the town was geographically isolated. Macondo was "initially free from foreign influences" in this isolation" (Van Der Linde 37). However, this "relative isolation of the town is . . . broken by the arrival of United Fruit" (Van Der Linde 37). This suggests that the arrival of the banana industry also brought with it the foreign influences that Van Der Linde notes Macondo was originally unexposed to. Initially, this idea feels complicated since solitude is depicted as a negative experience throughout this novel, so it could be assumed that it would be positive for Macondo to connect to the outside world through the railroad system. In fact, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, the Buendías repeatedly attempt to reach the outside world, beginning with José Arcadio Buendía’s expedition to find other communities around Macondo (Márquez, One Hundred Years 12). However, this expedition ends with the realisation that "Macondo is surrounded by water on all sides" and thus is in geographical solitude (Márquez, One Hundred Years 13). The issue with the railroads' presence in Macondo is that, while it draws the town of Macondo out of its geographical solitude, it ultimately damages the town's community by conforming it to Western ideologies and thus deepening the solitude of the Buendías.

In One Hundred Years of Solitude, the neo-colonisers force the townspeople to experience what Ashcroft et al. describe as cultural denigration. This is "the conscious and unconscious oppression of the indigenous personality and culture by a supposedly superior racial or cultural model" (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 9). That is precisely what happens to the Buendías and the people of Macondo. While they do not experience physical dislocation, as they remain in Macondo for the entire duration of this story, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, they experience cultural denigration as the white people — who behave with an unfounded sense of racial superiority — enter Macondo, establish the banana industry, and essentially use the natives of Macondo for labour.

The Western characters' self-perceived superiority is seen most clearly when Mr. Brown selects his leaders to rule Macondo. This infiltration into the political structure of Macondo further establishes Mr Brown as a neo-coloniser, furthering the impacts of colonialism in postcolonial Latin America. However, these leaders do not even live among the locals. Instead, they live "in the electrified chicken yard so that they could enjoy, as [Mr. Brown] explained the dignity that their status warranted so that they would not suffer from the heat and the mosquitos and the countless discomforts and privations of the town" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 256). Thus, by implementing a model of racial superiority into the very government of Macondo, the locals experience cultural denigration as their native identity is oppressed and degraded by greedy and self-motivated Americans who seek only to better themselves by exploiting Macondo's natural resources.

In capitalising on Macondo's resources, the banana industry causes irreversible damage to the town's ecology. While this is seen primarily through the over-harvesting of Macondo's banana crops, this ecological damage is also evident in the extravagant town the Americans built on the other side of the railroad tracks "with streets lined with palm trees, houses with screened windows, small white tables on the terraces, and fans mounted on the ceilings, and extensive blue lawns with peacocks and quails" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 245). Implementing these lavish developments naturally impacted the environment as space had to be cleared to build houses to accommodate the sudden rush of people to Macondo. This environmental damage is an example of what Alfred W. Crosby coined ecological imperialism, which describes "how the experience of colonial occupation has physically transformed the environments of colonised societies" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 92). This is seen in this novel as the banana company picked countless bananas and dug canals to alter the water supply, which caused “the topography of the entire region” to change (Nayar 51). It is this ecological imperialism that caused so much visible damage to Macondo and “transformed [it] into a dangerous place overnight” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 256). Thus, colonialism "not only altered the cultural, political and social structures of colonised societies but also devastated colonial ecologies and traditional subsistence patterns" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 92). The neo-colonial industrialisation of Macondo devastated the townspeople's homes as well as their culture, revealing the far-reaching traumas caused by colonialism.

Perhaps the clearest example of the damage caused by industrialisation in Macondo is the Banana Massacre, which resulted from the social unrest surrounding the banana industry. To grasp the significance of the event of the Banana Massacre in One Hundred Years of Solitude, one must identify the truth it is sourced from. While the banana industry is based on the actual United Fruit Company, the massacre is also "based on the real-life strike of banana workers in Colombia in 1928, who had become fed up with unfair and gruelling labour policies" (Cauley 10). In retaliation to the workers' protests, "the Boston-based United Fruit Company (allegedly) paid Colombian military to squash the revolt resulting in the death of thousands of workers" (Cauley 10). While other sources more definitively state that this act of violence was “carried out by the Colombian Army on December 6th, 1928,” it is clear that, regardless, this violence reveals the catastrophic realities of colonialism as the ultimate source of this massacre was neo-colonialism in Colombia (Caro and Ortega 22).

Just as in history, this event in One Hundred Years of Solitude was quickly covered up by officials and forgotten by the world. In Márquez's fictionalised telling of these events, no one in Macondo remembers this massacre except for José Arcadio Segundo, who witnessed and survived the massacre. José Arcadio Segundo, thought to be dead, was thrown into a train car with the massacred banana workers, where their bodies were piled "in the same way in which they transported bunches of bananas" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 330). This represents how the banana company refused to recognise the humanity of the people of Macondo. From their Western perspective, the people of Macondo were just a commodity. This industrialisation, which was the result of neo-colonialism, dehumanised the townspeople, thus damaging their sense of identity. In other words, colonialism ushered in neo-colonialism, which resulted in industrialisation, which led to extreme capitalism and, in turn, oppressed the people of Macondo. Therefore, in challenging capitalism through his portrayal of the Banana Massacre, Márquez challenges colonialism and its many offshoots.

The banana industry and its resulting massacre left Macondo in shambles, revealing the detrimental damage and change caused by neo-colonial industrialisation. This happens on both an individual and communal level. Individually, José Arcadio Segundo has to live the rest of his life bearing the memory of the Banana Massacre alone, which is an isolating experience. Upon returning to Macondo after the events of the massacre, José Arcadio Segundo is welcomed into the house of a woman who cleans his wounds. When he tells her about the thousands of dead bodies he saw, she assures him that there was no such massacre. She goes so far as to say that ever since the time of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, "nothing [had] happened in Macondo" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 331). Although José Arcadio Segundo knows this woman's words are false, he "could find no trace of the massacre" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 331). The individual isolation José Arcadio Segundo experiences because of this event is important because it emphasises his disconnect from his family and community, ultimately damaging said community as well. This is because José Arcadio Segundo was the only one who remembered the Banana Massacre, and thus, he could have served as a bridge between the townspeople and their past. However, by isolating himself, he also isolates the town from its history. This reveals how José Arcadio Segundo's self-isolation adversely affected his community. Ultimately, this massacre did not only affect José Arcadio Segundo. Even though he was the only one who could remember this event, it was detrimental to the cultural integrity of the entire town, as it distanced them from this event in their history. Thus, if history is a source of identity and culture, losing this part of their history in the recesses of their minds resulted in the denigration of their cultural integrity.

Its departure is almost as damaging as the arrival of industrialisation in Macondo. This is most evident in Leaf Storm, founded on the upheaval the banana industry's departure causes. Márquez emphasises how the banana industry forced Macondo to become dependent on its revenue, only to leave abruptly with no care to how Macondo may manage alone. Márquez depicts "the United Fruit as a kind of plague that grabs the best of the third world lands and then abandons them, leaving a trail of misery" (Van Der Linde 31). This misery is highly evident to Isabel, who was born into a prosperous Macondo powered by bananas but raised her child in a Macondo without hope and revenue. She fixates on the dust that set over Macondo, making it look rundown and forgotten. She thought it looked “as if God had declared Macondo unnecessary and had thrown it into the corner where towns that have stopped being of any creation service are kept" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 113). This idea that Macondo serves no purpose without the banana industry implies that Isabel believed the colonial lie that the town needed Western powers in authority to have life and reason. Like Macondo, her identity and purpose had become dependent on Western forces. Without it, she and her town were aimless and broken because "the leaf storm had brought everything, and it had taken everything away" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 109). In recognising this, Isabel does not appear to be reflecting on the banana company with any fondness, as she recognises that this dusty and melancholy version of her home resulted from the banana industry. Looking out the window at the dead doctor's house, she takes in the tattered town and recognises that "all of Macondo has been like that ever since it was squeezed by the banana company" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 114). This connects to Van Der Linde's assertion of the banana company's plague-like nature in the context of Márquez's work. Even though the neo-colonial banana industry brought some version of prosperity to Macondo in the rush of the Leaf Storm, its abrupt departure left Macondo weak, unstable, and "on the eve of a silent and final collapse" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 114). This reveals how neo-colonialism uproots the original foundation of communities, only to offer a weaker foundation that will later be pulled out from under the community. In this, Márquez clearly "treats colonialism as the most significant form of exploitation" (Ahmad and Afsar 2). That is precisely what occurred in Macondo as the town became dependent on the banana industry, only for the company to leave abruptly, having drained Macondo dry of its natural resources and irreversibly damaging the townspeople's sense of identity and connection to each other.

The aftermath of the banana industry is just as evident in One Hundred Years of Solitude as Macondo recovers — or fails to recover — from the departure of the banana industry. After the Banana Massacre, Mr. Brown announced that a new agreement with the banana employees would be implemented as soon as the rain — which had recently begun falling — stopped. However, it continues to rain for three years straight. By this point, the banana industry had deteriorated, and all the Mr. Browns, Mr. Herberts, and other Western influences had left. As a result, "Macondo was in ruins" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 355), leaving only a few fading "memories of the hordes of newcomers who had fled Macondo as wildly as they had arrived" (356). Because the banana industry reshaped Macondo to become dependent on capitalist structures, Macondo came to rely on the factory and the Western entities who ran it. Thus, the entrance of industrialisation weakened a once strong and independent community. However, the exit of industrialisation brutalised Macondo beyond repair. This is recognised by the gypsies upon their return to Macondo. The gypsies were well-acquainted with Macondo during its prosperous seasons, but they returned to find "the town so defeated and its inhabitants so removed from the rest of the world” (Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude 371). Although the initial building of the railroads was meant to open Macondo up to the world around them, they were ultimately plunged deeper into solitude in the aftermath of the Banana Massacre. This reveals how colonialism and, specifically, neo-colonial industrialisation damages communities by stripping them of their cultural identity and disconnecting them from their community.

Resulting Cultural Trauma
In these texts, solitude is the primary embodiment of neo-colonial industrialisation's trauma on communities. This conclusion is based on the idea that community and communal identity are central to Latin American culture. However, industrialisation, in many ways, eliminates the need for community. This is seen early on in One Hundred Years of Solitude when Melquíades proudly states, "Science has eliminated distance . . . In a short time, man will be able to see what is happening in any place in the world without leaving his own house" (Márquez 2). While this may sound ground-breaking, these industrial advancements eliminate the need for community. In a modern world, people can live in solitude — never needing to leave their homes to connect with others, content with technology's artificial connections. Melquíades' claims are almost immediately confirmed when "José Arcadio Buendía spent the long months of the rainy season shut up in a small room that he had built in the rear of the house so that no one would disturb his experiments" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 4). Ultimately, this disconnect between self and others — which is first spurred on by an introduction to technology and later furthered by neo-colonial industrialisation — can be understood as a trauma response to the extreme shift in the Buendías’ sense of reality as their everyday life is altered by colonial influence and values. In reshaping reality, colonialism also forced the foundation of their culture to change, resulting in a loss of communal identity.

Márquez reveals how colonialism damages cultural identity through his portrayal of communal trauma throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude. To begin to grasp the ongoing trauma that Márquez is illustrating, it is necessary to understand the foundation of trauma research and how it has developed in response to history. Beginning in the 1990s, scholars' understanding of trauma began to shift to focus more on communal experiences to make sense of the collective trauma that the world experienced through "historical catastrophes such as Hiroshima and, particularly, the Holocaust and their aftermaths" (Baquero 372). Although these events are what spurred more focused research into collective trauma, this kind of collectively experienced trauma was occurring in the world long before the events of World War II. For instance, the many countries colonised by Western governments were early victims of collective trauma. This occurs on various levels. One instance of this is in the loss of indigenous language as colonisers implement "imperial oppression [through] control over language" (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 7). This is understood as culturally traumatic because it damages a culture by taking away a significant component of its cultural identity: language. By forcing colonised communities to stop speaking the "language which will allow them to express their sense of 'Otherness,'" colonisers communicate that their indigenous language is inferior and they are expected to conform to the Western norms of their colonisers or otherwise be othered (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 11). While one could argue that forcing a community to reject their indigenous language is not necessarily a traumatic event, that is an argument based on outdated early trauma studies. After all, one of the most significant limitations of early trauma studies is its tendency to apply an "exclusive focus on the event-based model of trauma, which does not account for the sustained and long processes of the trauma of colonialism" (Visser 3). Thus, applying an understanding of trauma that is specifically focused on cultural trauma is necessary to grasp the ongoing communal trauma caused by colonialism. While Márquez does not explicitly discuss language loss in these texts, this seems to be primarily because he focuses on illustrating postcolonial Latin America, where Spanish had already become the dominant language. Regardless, Márquez captures the realities of ongoing trauma as he tells Macondo's story.

The displacement of the townspeople of Macondo is a primary contributor to the communally experienced trauma that the characters are subjected to by colonialism. This is seen ultimately in the way that the neo-colonial industrialisation of Macondo led the people to distance themselves from each other, rejecting their community as they plunged themselves into solitude. Colonialism results in losing the townspeople's identities, as their "relationship between self and place" is damaged (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 8). Although the townspeople are not displaced in the sense that they are forced out of Macondo, they experience displacement through the industrial endeavours that enter their town. While displacement certainly can refer to the driving off of Indigenous people from their land, displacement can also be caused by "the establishment of agricultural complexes and even by misguided plans to build 'modern' urban centres" (Ashcroft et al.; Postcolonial Studies 88). That is precisely what is seen in Macondo with the arrival of the neo-colonial banana industry. Thus, while the townspeople remain in Macondo, the change in Macondo causes their feelings of displacement. On one hand, the changes the banana industry brought to Macondo upset "the ecological balance of the region" (Nayar 51). This change to the townspeople's home naturally creates a sense of displacement as those who grew up in Macondo suddenly “had a hard time recognising their town" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 246). On the other hand, these changes also directly impact the characters’ sense of identity, as their home is directly related to their sense of self (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 8). Therefore, the physical damage caused to the town creates internal and collectively experienced trauma to the community of Macondo.

While trauma is experienced collectively in One Hundred Years of Solitude through the tragic events inflicted upon Macondo by the presence of industrialisation, trauma is also passed down like a hereditary trait throughout the Buendía line. This inheritance of traumatic experiences is partly embodied in the characters' inherited names — which also come with consistent features and character traits. Gene H. Bell-Villada discusses this in his article on the pattern of names in One Hundred Years of Solitude, saying that "these names present a lucid, rigorously consistent and fairly simple pattern of character traits and biological trajectories" (37). Even Úrsula, the matriarch of the Buendía family, recognises the inherited traits that came with the passing down of names. After observing generations of Buendías, she concludes that “while the Aurelianos were withdrawn, but with lucid minds, the José Arcadios were impulsive and enterprising, but they were marked with a tragic sign” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 187). Because of the supernatural connotations around this inheritance of names, each generation of Buendías was destined to relive their ancestors' lives. This is seen clearly in the Buendías named Aureliano. The first Aureliano, Colonel Aureliano Buendía, was very fascinated by his father’s silver workshop to the point that “he concentrated so much on his experiments in silver work that he scarcely left the laboratory to eat” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 44). Similarly, many of the Aurelianos who followed after him isolated themselves from their family and community in this laboratory. José Arcadio Segundo — who is thought to have switched places with his twin Aureliano Segundo as a young boy, meaning that he was meant to bear the name of Aureliano — lived his final days in the laboratory; Little Aureliano spent hours in the laboratory pouring over Melquíades' manuscript; Aureliano Amador shut himself away, utterly unaware that José Arcadio was being drowned in the other room (Márquez, One Hundred Years 380, 383, 404). Thus, the Buendías inherit not only names but an inescapable pattern that they are destined to follow, which results in them remaining in the cyclical trauma of their ancestors.

The only exceptions to this consistent naming pattern are José Arcadio Segundo and Aureliano Segundo, the twin sons of Arcadio and Santa Sofía de la Piedad. As children, the twins would swap places as a game. Úrsula, however, "wondered if they might not have made a mistake in some moment of their intricate game of confusion and had become changed forever” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 198). Despite the names they went by, José Arcadio Segundo looked and behaved like the Aurelianos before him, while Aureliano Segundo grew large and impulsive like the previous José Arcadios (Márquez, One Hundred Years 198). Úrsula believes so strongly that the twins accidentally swapped places because she witnessed for generations the cyclical timeline that her family lived in. After having the same conversation with José Arcadio Segundo as she had had with her son, Colonel Aureliano Buendía — "because it was he and not the other one who should have been called Aureliano” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 281) — Úrsula recognises that "time was not passing . . . but that it was turning in a circle" (361). This reveals that, in this novel, names are directly tied to one's identity and fate supernaturally, as parts of the characters live on through the passing down of their names. This explicitly reveals how the inheritance of names in this novel correlates with the inheritance of trauma since the Buendías receive their ancestors’ names and personalities, leading them to make the same choices and experience the same solitude-rooted traumas.

In contrast, names serve a different but equally important role in Leaf Storm. Names still seem to have some authority over the characters' identities. However, because three of the primary characters in this novel — the colonel, the doctor, and the Pup — remain unnamed throughout the novella, Márquez seems to suggest that their identities are incomplete or unable to connect them to their community. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, the passing down of names was the passing down of the Buendías’ broken history. However, the characters in Leaf Storm with no names have no past. In this, Márquez equates identity and history with names. This seems to be accurate, particularly for the Pup. He is a local to Macondo who moved away after the civil war of 1885, only to return forgotten by his community. The colonel notes that, upon his return, "very few remembered his given name," so they exclusively called him the Pup (Márquez, Leaf Storm 38-39). The fact that the Pup leaves Macondo after the civil war implies that he left to escape the memories of this violence. Perhaps he even came to associate his hometown with the violence he experienced during the war. The fact that he returns with no name — and thus no connection to his community — reveals how his traumatic experiences at war caused him to no longer find his identity in his name, which undoubtedly would have connected him to his family and history. This reveals that trauma influences one's sense of individual and communal identity.

This loss of memory and identity correlates with the insomnia plague in One Hundred Years of Solitude, in which the townspeople's memories deteriorate along with their sense of self. This plague, which makes it impossible for the people to sleep, is brought to Macondo by the arrival of Rebeca, but Visitarecognisednizes it, “a Guajiro Indian woman who had arrived in town with a brother in flight from a plague of insomnia that had been scourging their tribe for several years” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 41). Visitacíon is the one to explain that “the most fearsome part of the sickness of insomnia was not the impossibility of sleeping, for the body did not feel any fatigue at all, but its inexorable evolution toward a more critical manifestation: a loss of memory” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 48). This is precisely what occurred to anyone who caught the plague, as "the recollection of his childhood began to be erased from his memory, then the name and notion of things, and finally the identity of people and even the awareness of his being, until he sank into a kind of idiocy that had no past" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 48). If a person has no past, she has no connection to her ancestors or culture. So then, this loss of memory can be understood as a traumatic loss of history. This is why "the insomnia illness is wholly devastating" since it results in the townspeople of Macondo forgetting who they are and where they came from (Sghirlanzoni and Carella 252). Similarly, the way that the townspeople forgot about the Pup eradicated his past to the point that he had almost no connection to his history beyond the few loosely remembered facts about him. This loss of memories and cultural identity is an undeniable effect of colonialism. After all, the goal of colonialism is to erase the memories of a community since memories are an embodiment of the past and the source of a community's history and culture. That is why the insomnia plague is so catastrophic: memories are directly tied to cultural identity, so to lose one's memories is to lose one's culture.
In addition to the inheritance of names and personalities, trauma is collectively passed down to the Buendías through the inheritance of memories. A prominent example of this occurs when Aureliano Segundo encounters Melquíades and, despite being born long after his death, he "recognised once, because that hereditary memory had been transmitted from generation to generation and had come to him through the memory of his grandfather" (Márquez 200). Of course, the fact that Melquíades is alive is a supernatural event attributed to Márquez's use of magical realism. However, Aureliano Segundo's inherited memory is also supernatural. Considering memory as hereditary equates it with how traditions, stories, and names are passed down in Latin American culture and this novel. This connects to Michelle Balaev’s discussion of trauma theory in literature, in which she discusses how "a massive trauma experienced by a group in the historical past can be experienced by an individual living centuries later who shares a similar attribute of the historical group . . . due to the timeless, repetitious, and infectious characteristics of traumatic experience and memory" (152). This connects to how the effects of colonialism continue to traumatraumatiseescendants of colonicolonisednities even centuries later. This inherited trauma, passed down by generations, requires trauma theory to be "more inclusive, allowing trauma to occur along a continuum of responses and broadening it to include vicarious trauma, such as that incurred by witnesses or other recipients of traumatic events, as well as removing the emphasis on individual traumatraumatisationser 3). Márquez's depiction of communal trauma connects to such versions of cultural trauma theory. Thus, by portraying memory as hereditary, as seen in the example of Aureliano Segundo and Melquíades, Márquez is communicating that the experiences of the past Buendías continue to impact the experiences of the Buendías who follow, even if they did not live through the trauma inflicted on their family. This reveals colonialism's ongoing traumatic influence on colonicolonisednities, as it contaminates cultural identity, which inevitably damages future generations.

This connection between trauma and memories is also evident in Leaf Storm, as almost all of the story is told through the characters' memories. Interestingly enough, each character keeps returning to the same moments. This reveals that they cannot escape or move past the traumatic experience of the leaf storm as they keep returning to these moments in their minds. The three characters through whom the story is told — the colonel, Isabel, and Isabel's unnamed son — all have very different memories surrounding the leaf storm. Over half an hour in real-time, the three narrators "recall some of the events of the preceding twenty-five years, the flourishing and decay of Macondo" (Dauster 25). Together, they reconstruct "the thickly textured communal history of Macondo" as each contributes his or her puzzle piece (Fiddian 43). The colonel remembers the flourishing and the decay as he lived in Macondo before the leaf storm. He saw Macondo during its height when the rush of people brought much prosperity to the town. However, he also witnessed how the departure of the leaf storm left Macondo in ruins. His narratives provide "a wider frame of reference that is more properly historical" (Fiddian 45).

In contrast, Isabel only knew life during and after the leaf storm. Because of this, her memories are less focused on historical events, as she instead "relates to and explains the past in terms of personal experience and landmark events in the life of the family" (Fiddian 45). Her unnamed son, however, was born after the banana industry left Macondo. Despite Isabel and her son's limited experiences, the three narrators are all equally damaged by these events, even if this damage is manifested differently in each of them.

Isabel's son is evidence of the ongoing trauma of colonialism as, unlike his mother and grandfather, he never experienced the influence of neo-colonialism directly. The colonel and Isabel experienced the leaf storm's traumas as a personal loss, which "can be understood as the lived experience of a traumatic event by an individual" (Balaev 152). However, in the case of Isabel's son, he experienced more of a "historical absence [which] can be understood as a historically documented loss that a person's ancestors experienced" (Balaev 152). Although he did not live through the leaf storm, living in the aftermath meant he was still subjected to the event's ongoing traumas. This is revealed early in the novella, which begins with a brief history of the banana industry in Macondo before transitioning to Isabel's young son's perspective. As he sits in the dead doctor's house, the boy draws the reader's attention to the industindustrialised of Macondo when he says, "In the distance, I can hear the train whistle as it disappears around the last bend" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 7). This reference to the train confirms that, though the boy did not experience the arrival of the train and the neo-colonial powers that came with it, the influence of this industrialisation is still pertinent in his life. Although the boy did not directly experience the traumas that neo-colonial industindustrialisationcted on the town, he is still impacted by them because he is living in a postcolonial Macondo: a Macondo that has already been drained dry by the greedy grip of colonialism. Because he is living in a world that has been damaged by colonialism, he is still impacted by its influence, even though he did not live through colonicolonisation aligns with postcolonial trauma theory, which critiques early trauma theory's emphasis on "the completed past of a singular event—while colonial and postcolonial traumas persist into the present" (Visser 3). This implies that colonial traumas are not inflicted on communities in one moment but instead traumatumatiseicolonisednities over "sustained and long processes" (Visser 3). Thus, the ongoing presence of the train in Macondo and how Isabel's son appears to be quite accustomed to hearing its whistle represent how he experiences the ongoing traumas and effects of colonialism even in the present.

Solitude: Distance from Past and Culture

The inclination for solitude caused by the traumas of colonialism is seen most clearly in One Hundred Years of Solitude when one compares the earlier moments of the novel with the sharp contrast in the characters and the town after industrialisation has been felt. In the early days of Macondo, José Arcadio Buendía is described as a "youthful patriarch who would give instructions for planting and advice for the raising of children and animals, and who collaborated with everyone, even in the physical work, for the welfare of the community” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 9). Before José Arcadio Buendía was exposed to Western technologies that embody colonial influence, his primary focus as a leader was on the health of his community. However, as José Arcadio Buendía becomes obsessed with technology, he isolates himself in his alchemy laboratory, disregarding his community and turning his focus entirely inward as he plunges himself into solitude and the furthering of his inventions. Ultimately, he loses his mind because of his perpetual solitude, and his family ties him "to the chestnut tree in the courtyard" where he lived the rest of his days (Márquez, One Hundred Years 86). However, it is notable that before José Arcadio Buendía was dragged off, he attempted to smash "to dust the equipment in the alchemy laboratory, the daguerreotype room, the silver workshop" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 86). This aggression was a frustrated response to his failed attempts to build a time machine (Márquez, One Hundred Years 85). José Arcadio Buendía spent many hours discovering how to make his invention work.

However, his aggressive reaction towards the technology seems to communicate that he somehow places blame on the technology itself. When considering that the technologies brought to Macondo are meant to reflect the influence of colonial industindustrialisationdifference between José Arcadio Buendía before and after his exposure to these technologies reveals how his identity and priorities were damaged by colonialism. Ultimately, the influence of these colonial technologies results in him spending the rest of his life in isolation, tied to the chestnut tree. This illustrates how the damage inflicted on him by colonial influence distanced him from the rest of his community by plunging him further into solitude.

Another prevalent example of solitude that impacted the community in One Hundred Years of Solitude is how the Buendías repeatedly marry within the family, placing the entirety of their family unit into solitude. As the patriarch of the Buendía family, José Arcadio Buendía is the first to exemplify this inclination towards solitude. This is evident in his marriage to his cousin Úrsula. Marrying within his family can be understood as a form of solitude because it allows José Arcadio Buendía to remain cut off from those outside of his inner circle. Although this relationship reflects the origin story of Chibcha mythology, it is important to note that the Chibcha myth does not claim incest to be an embrace of culture. Instead, "the offending couple is punished for violating the incest taboo" (Derby 230). Thus, this relationship is not an embodiment of cultural community but a deviation from it, as it separates the couple from their community because of the marriage scandal. Ultimately, José Arcadio Buendía's marriage to Úrsula hurls his entire family into solitude as generation after generation of Buendías follow this path of incest. The negative implications of this relationship — and consequentially of solitude — are portrayed in this novel through the imagery of "pigtails" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 20). This image is derived from José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula's fear that their children will be born with non-human congenital disabilities because of their incest. Thus, this image can be understood as a symbol of how solitude slowly takes away one's humanity.

However, suppose this solitude is a response to colonial trauma, which causes communities to associate their culture with trauma since their non-Western-conforming culture is the reason they face oppression. In that case, it is colonialism that is damaging the humanity of the Buendías. Although it is not until the last Aureliano is born that a Buendía is born with "the tail of a pig," all of José Arcadio Buendía and Úrsula's descendants have a metaphorical pigtail (Márquez, One Hundred Years 412). This is a conclusion that Úrsula comes to when Colonel Aureliano prepares to kill Gerinaldo Márquez. Úrsula tells her son that if he goes through with the murder, it would be “the same as if [he’d] been born with the tail of a pig” (Márquez, One Hundred Years 169). In other words, murdering Gerinaldo Márquez would distance Aureliano from his humanity. Thus, just as a pigtail would make him less human, choosing to lean into the violence of war brought to Latin America by colonial influence would have the same result. So then, by understanding these pigtails as a consequence of the Buendías’ solitude, it is clear that Márquez is portraying the idea that solitude and a distance from one’s culture leads to a loss of one’s humanity.

Alongside this concept of solitude, Márquez uses a nonlinear timeline in One Hundred Years of Solitude to portray the cultural importance of the past. In One Hundred Years of Solitude, this nonlinear timeline is depicted as circular: an idea that is recognised by characters as well — Úrsula in particular, realizrealisesduring her previously mentioned interaction with José Arcadio Segundo, which closely reflected a conversation she had years prior with her son, Colonel Aureliano Buendía (Márquez, One Hundred Years 361). This circular timeline is also seen very clearly after the novel when the final Aureliano reads Melquíades' pages, and every moment in his family's story is portrayed as having "coexisted in one instant" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 415). This reveals how the past is interwoven with the present, as the past does not lose its significance with time, remaining just as crucial to the story as the present is. Thus, the way that the Buendías loosely relive the same moments over and over again reflects how they have been culturally traumatraumatisedlonialism, as their present is incapable of being disconnected from the past and unable to move on. Márquez's nonlinear timeline makes this repetition even more apparent, as the Buendías cannot escape the damage inflicted on them by colonialism. Because the past and present are interconnected in this novel, when the Buendías continually live in solitude, they distance themselves from the present generation and the past.

This distancing of themselves from their past could perhaps be understood as a trauma response, as they attempt to distance themselves from the traumatic events of their past inflicted on them by colonialism.

Although the timeline in Leaf Storm is not necessarily circular, it is nonlinear, just as in One Hundred Years of Solitude. In particular, the characters repeatedly return to the same moments in their memories, as if they cannot move forward from past events. This illustrates how the past has a presence in the present and, second, how the past has lasting damage on the future. The clearest example of this repetition of the past is the moment that the colonel and Isabel return to multiple times in their memories about the night the doctor refused to provide his services to a group of wounded men. He told those who had brought the wounded men to his door to take them elsewhere "and kept the door closed" (Márquez, Leaf Storm 17). The doctor's solitude physically damaged his community. This is seen literally in the fact that the men he rejected to care for all succumbed to their injuries. This is a physical loss to the community.

Furthermore, this decision altered the dynamic of Macondo by making the townspeople's primary connection to each other based on their shared hatred for the doctor. Additionally, the fact that the narrators of this story keep returning to this moment confirms that this was a key turning point in Macondo's trajectory. This past moment's significance in the present reflects Freud's ideas of trauma and its ongoing nature. To illustrate the ongoing and ever-evolving features of trauma, Freud uses an illustration of "a group of travellers involved in a train accident, who, despite being unharmed, began, after a certain period – latency – to suffer from nightmares and flashbacks, which brought them back to the original frightening experience" (Baquero 372). In this, Freud illustrates how trauma — even that which did not seem to hold too much weight at the moment — "continues to reappear in the present" (Baquero 372). So then, at this moment, when the doctor makes a choice that damages his community, he is inflicting trauma that the townspeople will continue to relive through their memories. This is seen each time the characters return to the memory of this event in the narrative. Through this, Márquez communicates that, while the townspeople initially turn to solitude as a means of coping with the trauma inflicted upon them by the influence of colonialism — which disrupted and restructured their community — by continuing to live in solitude as the doctor does, Macondo is plunged into further trauma. While solitude is the result of communal trauma, trauma is often the result of continued solitude as well.

Additionally, the previously mentioned repetition of names throughout One Hundred Years of Solitude reflects not only the cultural importance of ancestors in Latin American culture but also plays into the nonlinear timeline that Márquez incorporates into this narrative. These recurring names are perhaps the most prevalent example of this novel's circular timeline, as the past manifests in the present through the repetition of character names. By portraying the passing on of names as the continuation of different characters' personalities, Márquez reveals how the past directly impacts present generations. Therefore, passing on names plays into the nonlinear timeline by interweaving the past into the present. This is evident in Colonel Aureliano Buendía's seventeen sons, who all bore the name Aureliano. Each boy is described as having "a look of solitude that left no doubt about the relationship" (Márquez, One Hundred Years 150). This reiterates how inheriting someone's name in the Buendía family also meant inheriting their personality characteristics. However, the fact that it is Aureliano's solitude that his sons inherit reveals that solitude not only impacts a single individual but also the future of the community he is a part of. Additionally, by portraying Aureliano's sons' inclination for solitude, Márquez conveys that the younger generations are bound to their past patterns. However, inheriting Colonel Aureliano's "look of solitude" means they also inherited a disregard for their culture (Márquez, One Hundred Years 150). This distaste for their culture is ultimately sourced from colonialism.

Through the colonicolonisers'ssive actions, they conveyed a message to the townspeople that degraded their worth. In this, the repetition in One Hundred Years of Solitude is a chronicle of "repressive power structures and their recurring reduplication on various levels" (Mansoor 9295). In this, Márquez's nonlinear timeline depicts how colonised nations cannot escape their damaged past as colonialism completely reshaped their history. Ultimately, the Buendías' solitude illustrates how colonialism traumatraumatisesnities. It is clear that "the inevitable outcome of traumatisationicted by colonialism is "submissiveness and inaction" (Visser 6). Solitude is precisely that: a submissive and inactive response to trauma. So then, if solitude is a complacent rejection of community and culture, the Buendías' perpetual inclination for solitude depicts how their culture has been intrinsically damaged by colonialism, as they subconsciously distance themselves from their cultural identity by isolating themselves from each other.

Conclusion

Through Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez utilizutilisesown of Macondo to embody Latin America's traumatic history by incorporating pre-colonial and postcolonial themes. By embracing indigenous culture in Macondo's origin story through his allusions to Chibcha mythology, Márquez clearly illustrates a pre-colonial Latin America. However, by pairing this with the devastation brought to Macondo by neo-colonial industindustrialisationuez effectively illustrates the detrimental and ongoing damage that colonialism causes to communities. In this, Márquez depicts the catastrophic effects of colonialism by portraying the stark juxtaposition between Macondo before and after colonialism. Emphasising damage allows Márquez to critique colonialism. He does so by depicting Macondo's development and deterioration at the hands of industindustrialisationhis; he also illustrates the ongoing effects of colonialism by illustrating how the United States dominated Latin America's economy through neo-colonialism. By portraying the lasting effects of colonialism, Márquez draws attention to how these events communally traumatraumatisedations of Latin Americans and continue to perpetuate Latin American identity.

Colonialism traumatraumatisesnities by erasing cultural narratives and attempting to replace them with Western norms. However, Márquez rejects these Western norms by rooting the town of Macondo in Latin American culture and Chibcha mythology. Thus, Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude can be understood as direct challenges to colonialism and neo-colonialism, leading to instability in the postcolonial world. In these texts, Márquez gives a new voice to the stories of his culture by authentically capturing the raw history of the communal trauma experienced by Colombia at the hands of colonialism and intertwining it masterfully with fiction through magical realism. This merging of reality with the supernatural allows Márquez to communicate the Latin American experience while simultaneously embracing his culture. Through his depiction of industindustrialisationhe and the resulting deterioration of Macondo, it is evident that the solitude the characters of these texts experience is meant to be understood as a rejection of their culture as they choose to separate themselves from the cultural value of community. However, they feel this need to distance themselves from their culture because their sense of collective identity has been so damaged by colonialism and neo-colonialism. So then, by challenging Western norms and forcing readers to face the realities of history, Leaf Storm and One Hundred Years of Solitude serve as Márquez’s embrace of his culture as he calls for the voices of Latin America to be heard and remembered, refusing to be erased from history as colonialism intended.

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