MARQUEZ 55 including works of literature, as the world wanted to know more and more about the "continent of the future". The desire to know more about its literary creations was roused to an unprecedented level. Apart from this, the Cuban Revolution had a tremendous influence on the writers and intellectuals of Latin America. The literary world witnessed a definite process of polarisation between progressive and conservative trends. The conscious pursuit by the revolutionary government of Cuba of a cultural policy aimed at focussing attention on the nee-colonial danger and galvanising anti-imperialist sentiments played a catalytic role in this process. These factors were mainly responsible for the literary 'boom5 witnessed in Hispanic America in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution. The trend could aptly be described as an explosion, distinguished both by the number of writers thrown up and the quality of their works. However, much of the writings representing the 'boom' phenomenon projected rather a pessimistic view of society as it did not see any future for Latin America. Thus the literary 'boom' could not be called a revolutionary phenomenon in its totality. It could more appropriately be described as the culmination of a phase of bourgeois literary activity which reflected the material and ideological crisis in the countries of Latin America. The most representative writers of the literary 'boom' of the 1960's were Julio Cortazar, David Vinas, Mario Benedetti, Augusto Roa Bastos and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the last being the most outstanding and explicitly progressive writer among them. Recipient of many prestigious awards of Latin America—the Aztec Eagle Award of Mexico, the Romulo Gallegos Award of Venezuela—Marquez has invariably donated his award money to radical causes and Leftist organisations. The Nobel Prize money has been earmarked for establishing a Leftist newspaper in Colombia. A fiery crusader against Rightist military dictatorships, he enjoys a warm friendship with Fidel Castro. Garcia Marquez was born in 1928 in Aracataca (Colombia), a small coastal town remote and obscure. Marquez, describing his home town, says: "There was a constant need for diversion. Jugglers, magicians and fire-eaters arrived and many things happened. The memory I have is of a hot dusty and violent town. The weekends were a regular fiesta when we virtually locked ourselves in the houses. On Mondays there were corpses and wounded people lying in the street." From a town where myth, fantasy and superstition dominated the life of young 'Gabo', he went to the university in Bogota. Later he became a journalist and travelled widely for 20 years as correspondent. His friends from Havana, where he was a correspondent of the Prensa Latina, remember him as a quiet and thoughtful person. Garcia Marquez has produced six novels and numerous short