What's in a Name?: The Influence of Home in the Naming of the Microcosms of "Cien años de soledad, Al filo del agua", and "Pedro Páramo"

Abstract

The names used to identify the towns which serve as the foundations for the literary universes created in Cien a?os de soledad, Al filo del agua, and Pedro P?ramo are extremely important to the understanding of these microcosms, and all stem from sources close to Home. The three authors choose to name (or in the case of Y??ez, not to name) the towns they describe using completely different criteria, but each one successfully extends the borders of his microcosm by carefully selecting the symbol used to represent the place. Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez's Macondo, Agust?n Y??ez's town of women dressed in black, and Juan Rulfo's C?mala are respectively identified with a banana plantation, the author's region of origin, and an extant city in the region of the author's birth. All the identifiers strengthen the authors' ties with home, family, and patria, and all include symbolic or mythological connotations. The naming of the microcosm is a primary part of its creation, for as with the first objects Jos? Arcadio Buendia's band of exiles find in Macondo, the thing must be labelled before one can begin to define it. Garc?a M?rquez, Y??ez, and Rulfo labelled their worlds judiciously, and even through this preliminary identification the readers begin to sense the completeness and universality of each microcosm.