Development: Dissonant Confrontations

Abstract

Moving as far as possible beyond the hegemonic marketing strategies, in this case supported by intellectual purveyors of comfortable multiculturalism, this section turns to “The Confrontation” that provokes a revelation, transforming this Romantic tale into an important statement of the late twentieth century. Although dissonance need not always resolve in consonance, the concluding cadence of this composition leads to “The Florentino Juvenal Counterpoint: Of Love and of Latin America,” “Florentino and Juvenal in Harmony: Love, Marriage, and Latin America,” and finally “El amor en los tiempos de Amé rica Latina,” which considers what we might learn—and how we could change—from the conflicts composed by Garci a M á rquez. El amor en los tiempos del c ôlera comes to a musical climax when Florentino and Juvenal meet. As orchestrated by Garci a M á rquez, this confrontation reprises several crucial elements from Mar ia by Jorge Isaacs Ferrer, “the most read novel in Spanish-speaking America” 1 (McGrady 13). In both works, two men desire the same woman but only one of them knows about this rivalry; moreover, the one who knows feels a great deal of compassion for and commonality with his ignorant interlocutor. Musical references guide both discussions. “Isaacs had the habit of picking up songs from the lips of the people during his frequent trips,” 2 writes McGrady in a footnote explaining the appearance of a song that appears in Mar ia (272). The national library in Bogot á, repository of Isaacs Ferrer’s papers, contains 325 of the songs he collected.