A Legend Has Died

I was at work when I heard the news. A legend has died. After a brief prayer, I decided to research and write a blog post about this intriguing writer. Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez passed away in his home on Thursday, April 17, 2014.

The world knows him simply as Gabriel García Márquez. This is the man who wrote the famous work, "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Latin American literature was never the same again. This is the novel that gave birth to the literary style known as "magical realism." Simply put, magical realism inserts mystical or supernatural elements into the normal, everyday world that we live in. This could be a character living way past his or her natural life span witnessing future generations as an example. The novel was published in 1967 and became a smash hit earning him lots of money, fame and the ability to reach political leaders such as Fidel Castro. They were friends.

Márquez was born in Aracataca, Colombia on March 6, 1927. At infancy, he was separated from his parents and raised by his grandparents. Their large home prompted the seed for "One Hundred Years of Solitude." Latin America nicknamed him "Gabo." His left-leaning politics served him well working to bridge the rebels and the Colombian government.

After leaving law school, he took up journalism. The stage was set for his many critiques of the government and international politics. He married Mercedes Barcha in 1958 and after twelve years, they had two sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

The writer in him created many short stories and non-fiction works including "Autumn of the Patriarch" (1975), "Love in the Time of Cholera" (1985) and "The General in His Labyrinth" (1989). He set some of his fictional works in a village called Macondo inspired by his Aracataca birthplace. In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize in literature.

It has been said that back in the mid-60's when his family and him were living in Mexico, they took a road trip to Acapulco. Suddenly Márquez got the inspiration for "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and turned the vehicle right around and headed back home. He spent the next eighteen months writing the novel everyday. This hurt his family financially so much they had to sell the family car just to make ends meet.

Márquez loved the cinema and was a freelance screenwriter. A lot of his wealth went towards Latin American film studies.

Doctors did diagnose him with lymphatic cancer in 1999. Fortunately it went into remission after chemotherapy. He continued writing and strictly reduced travel and many future plans during this period. "Living to Tell the Tale" (2002) published shortly thereafter which was one of a projected memoir triliogy. His health continued to decline. Márquez' brother, Jaime, mentioned that in 2012, Márquez had dementia. But at age 87 surrounded by family, Márquez succumbed to pneumonia at his home in Mexico City. The world will always remember him through the vast works he left behind and the life he led. May he always be at peace.

Why not pick up a piece by Márquez and honor him with his words?

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith

A Continuation of Reflecting

Last time I introduced reflexive verbs. If you did not get a chance to go over that, I suggest you do that now
before moving any further. You can access that blog posting here.

I explained how we use reflexive verbs in English. I described how simple they are to use in Spanish and I provided you with some sample sentences to practice. How did you do on them?

First, let's do a quick review of reflexive verbs. Infinitive verbs ending with -se are identified as reflexive. All you have to do is (1) drop that -se ending. (2) Move that ending to the front of the verb. Then (3) conjugate it according to how the verb is conjugated using the following: me, te, se, nos, os, or se. Simple as 1-2-3, right!

Here are the sample sentences and their answers:

1. I get up at 8.  Me levanto a las 8.
2. We are getting married in Las Vegas.  Nos casamos en Las Vegas.
3. My sister puts on a lot of makeup.  Mi hermana se maquilla mucho.
4. My dog and cat always clean themselves.  Mi perro y gato siempre se lavan.
5. He cuts himself with a knife.  El se corta con un cuchillo.
6. I brush my teeth twice a day.  Me cepillo los dientes dos veces por día. Or: Me lavo los dientes dos veces por día.
7. I abstain from chocolate during Lent.  Me abstengo de chocolate durante la Cuaresma.
8. We go to bed early.  Nos acostamos temprano.
9. After swimming, the team dry themselves off.  Después de nadar, el equipo se seca.
10. My mom cleans the house once a week.  Mi mamá se limpia la casa cada semana.
11. I am falling in love with you.  Me enamoro de ti.
12. I feel sick.  Me siento enfermo.
13. My parents never get angry.  Mis padres nunca se enojan.
14. You smile a lot in pictures.  Se sonríe mucho en las fotos.
15. The kids are getting bored.  Los niños se aburren.
16. Do you talk to yourself often?  ¿Se habla a sí mismo mucho?

Many verbs in Spanish that wouldn't normally be reflexive may have a reflexive pronoun (me, te, se, nos, os, or se) added. But be careful! In doing so, you could alter the meaning of the sentence. Here are quite a few examples of what I mean:

dormir	to sleep	dormirse	to fall asleep
ir	to go	irse	to go away
llevar	to carry	llevarse	to take away
abonar	to pay money	abonarse	to subscribe to (a magazine, newspaper, etc.)
acusar	to accuse	acusarse	to confess
combinar	to combine	combinarse	to take turns
acordar	to agree/to decide	acordarse	to remember
poner	to put	ponerse	to put on/to wear
abrir	to open	abrirse	to open up (confide in someone)
callar	to be quiet	callarse	to become quiet
salir	to leave	salirse	to leave unexpectedly/to leak
poner	to put	ponerse	to put on/to wear
aparecer	to appear	aparecerse	to appear, often said of a supernatural event
ocurrir	to occur or happen	ocurrirse	to have a sudden idea
parecer	to seem like	parecerse	to look physically like
saltar	to jump	saltarse	to jump over, to skip an event or avoid an obligation
volver	to return	volverse	to turn around, to make an unexpected return
aburrir	to bore	aburrirse	to get/be bored
acordar	to agree	acordarse de	to remember
casar	to perform a marriage ceremony	casarse con	to get married to someone
acostar	to put to bed	acostarse	to go to bed
despedir	to fire	despedirse	to say goodbye
morir	to die (all of a sudden; by accident, war, etc.)	morirse	to die (natural causes and “figuratively”)
negar	to deny	negarse	to refuse
probar	to try, to taste	probarse	to try on
quitar	to take away	quitarse	to take off

Isn't it amazing that something so simple can change the meaning of an entire sentence, much less a verb?

The reflexive pronoun (the me, te, se, nos, os, and se part of the verb) in a lot of the above examples could be thought of as emphasis. One example is negar and negarse. Negar is simply to deny something or someone, but negarse is providing emphasis by out right refusing something or someone. Another example can be found in ocurrir and ocurrirse. Ocurrir means to occur or to happen and makes it seem quite ordinary, but when you add that reflexive pronoun to it, you transform the verb to a sudden idea. How unexpected!

Emphasis is one way to help you remember the altered meanings when using these verbs in the reflexive. Another way is to think of their reflexive counterparts as the next step or a deeper meaning of the non-reflexive verb. For example, aparecer and aparecerse both mean to appear; however, the reflexive verb takes on a deeper meaning or understanding of something supernatural perhaps? Another example is morir and morirse. Even though they both mean to die, the difference is when and how. The non-reflexive has more of a sudden occurrence of death whereas the reflexive verb makes it more drawn out -- the "next" logical step for someone dying of natural causes or when speaking figuratively about the act of dying.

Take a few moments to go over both the non-reflexive and their reflexive verb meanings. Imagine how much deeper or emphasized the reflexive verbs take on through their meaning. It's almost as if the reflexive is going that one step further.

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith

Reflecting

Reflexive verbs in Spanish is not a new thing. In fact, we use reflexives a lot in English. We're just not always aware when we do. We really do not have a lot of reflexive verbs in English. That's part of the reason why it can be tricky when we need to use them in Spanish.

So what are reflexive verbs?

Basically, it's a verb where the recipient of the action is receiving said action or reflecting back the action of the verb. It is much like looking into a mirror to see the person looking back and what they are currently doing. Here's an example: I wash my hair everyday.

"I wash" tells me that I am doing the action. But "my hair" tells me that the action of washing is reflecting back upon myself or in other words, I am receiving the action of "wash."

A non-reflexive use of the same verb in English would be as follows: I wash my dog everyday. Something or someone else is receiving the action of the verb "to wash." In this example, "my dog" is the recipient.

But reflexives may be used with other subjects other than myself. "My mom and dad wash their hair everyday" is a perfect example of how we use reflexive in English without using the subject "I."

Now let's switch this to Spanish. Are you familiar with llamarse? We use it to provide our names in Spanish such as "Me llamo Keith." I am reflecting the action of calling myself by reflecting the verb back to me and using my name. Some verbs in Spanish will have a -se ending which will tell you that the verb is reflexive.

All you have to do is (1) drop that -se ending, (2) move it in front of the verb, and (3) conjugate it according to the subject you use with the verb. It's as easy as 1-2-3!

When you drop that -se ending, you will need to know the conjugation for all the of the subjects that use it. Here's a table for you to familiarize:

me	myself	nos	ourselves, each other
te	yourself (familiar)	os	yourselves (familiar), each other
se	yourself (formal), himself, herself, itself	se	themselves, each other, yourselves (formal)

Now let's practice on a few examples:

I shower at 5:17 a.m.

Me ducho a las 5:17 por la mañana.

You worry about the future too much!

¡Te preocupas el futuro demasiado!

We always complain about the same things.

Siempre nos quejamos de lo mismo.

You do it! Beware! There are some tricky ones below. Use the verb in the parenthesis.

1.       I get up at 8. (levantarse)	9. After swimming, the team dry themselves off. (secarse)
2.       We are getting married in Las Vegas. (casarse)	10. My mom cleans the house once a week. (limpiarse)
3.       My sister puts on a lot of makeup. (maquillarse)	11. I am falling in love with you. (enamorarse)
4.       My dog and cat always clean themselves. (lavarse)	12. I feel sick. (sentirse)
5.       He cuts himself with a knife. (cortarse)	13. My parents never get angry. (enojarse)
6.       I brush my teeth twice a day. (cepillarse or lavarse)	14. You smile a lot in pictures. (sonreirse)
7.       I abstain from chocolate during Lent. (abstenerse)	15. The kids are getting bored. (aburrirse)
8.       We go to bed early. (acostarse)	16. Do you talk to yourself often? (hablarse)

How did you do? Find out next week when I continue with reflexive verbs. Continue the conversation below by posting your comments, answers and thoughts about reflexive verbs.

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith