The hostage-taking (Marquez)

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The hostage-taking ( Spanish: Viva Sandino! ) Is a script by the Colombian Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez , written in 1979 and published in 1982 by Editorial Nueva Nicaragua (New Nicaragua Publishing). The translation into German by Tom Koenigs came out - also in 1982 - by Peter Hammer in Wuppertal.

background

After Anastasio Somoza Debayle had to give up the office of President of Nicaragua on May 1, 1972 after a five-year term in office, he held it again on December 1, 1974. Almost four weeks later, the president is currently abroad, fourteen Sandinista soldiers under the command of Eduardo Contreras Escobar storm the sumptuous villa of Agriculture Minister José María Castillo Quant during a festive Christmas party. The Sandinista defeat the bodyguards of two guests in a loss-making firefight. These two guests are the US Ambassador to Nicaragua Turner B. Shelton and General José R. Somoza from the Somoza clan . Among the hostages are the Ambassador of Nicaragua to the USA , the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps in Washington, DC Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa (the husband of Lillian Somoza Debayle) and several members of the Somoza cabinet with their wives. On the part of the victims, only the host, Castillo Quant, died while attempting armed resistance. The hostage-takers use their successful commando operation to free eight captured Sandinista soldiers, including Daniel Ortega Saavedra. As a mediator, His Excellency Miguel Obando Bravo , Archbishop of Managua , successfully mediated between Somoza and the hostage-takers.

action

Dill aptly takes this text as "documentation recreated from reality". Marquez has anonymized the armed activists, i.e. the Sandinista freedom fighters, without exception, but from the ranks of the opposing party - i.e. the victims - there are a number of personalities mentioned above among the historically proven facts in the script.

A squad named Juan José Quezada of the Sandan Liberation Front took over in Managua in the house of Dr. José María Castillo Quant people close to the President of Nicaragua as hostages. The commander asked Somoza to release fourteen political prisoners. Eight are released and, together with the command, leave the villa of the shot Quant in the direction of Fidel Castro's Cuba . The commander wants to take the hostages out of the country as a bargaining chip. Somoza doesn't get involved.

Daniel Ortega is mentioned by name in the text as one of Somoza's prisoners freed by the commando operation.

shape

Marquez speaks of Tacho Somoza or the dictator Tachito when he means the President of Nicaragua Anastasio Somoza Debayle.

Towards the end of the script, the viewer becomes a radio listener to whom the goals of the liberation front are, as it were, hammered into. Nevertheless, the tension that the copywriter promises in the edition of dtv used on page 1 is not lacking beforehand : The viewer always wants an answer to the question: Will the hostages survive?

The hostage-taking went off lightly - with the exception of one fatality and some fighters injured by the resistance of the bodyguards.

Márquez makes the viewer understand: The guerrillas are reacting to the repression of the bloodsucking dictatorship. These hostage-takers all come from the people. The hostages, all directly involved in the dictatorship, contributed to the hostage-taking, so to speak, because of their roles.

The text is not free from form weaknesses. With the consistent numbering of the hostage takers' names - starting with the commander Eduardo Contreras Escobar as the zero - the overview is lost. The pushy propaganda of the radio announcer against the end of the text repels. Some sprinkles fall out of the ordinary. For example, the narrator looks at an event in the future - in the case from 1976.

reception

  • Skármeta recalls the time when he wanted to learn how to write a screenplay. He had decided to take Márquez's hostage , of all people - the work of an author who would never have been taught to write the script. In any case, Skármeta praises the “human traits” in the heroes, which they do not lose even “in the intoxication of the action”. In addition, Márquez gives the viewer, who hardly knows Nicaragua, a crystal clear picture of the conditions there at the time of the action.

literature

Text output

  • The hostage situation. Film scenario (script). Translated from Spanish by Tom Koenigs. With the 1982 Nobel Prize Speech “The loneliness of Latin America”. Reclam, Leipzig 1984 ( RUB 1035)
  • The hostage situation. German by Tom Koenigs. With a foreword by Antonio Skármeta . 121 pages. dtv, Munich 1984 (5th edition 1991, dtv 10295), ISBN 3-423-10295-0 (edition used)

Secondary literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Among the attackers are two men who were to command the Sandinista People's Army from 1995 to 2005 : Joaquín Cuadra Lacayo (Spanish: Joaquín Cuadra ) and Javier Carrión McDonough (Spanish: The end of the Sandinista People's Army ).
  2. ↑ Daniel Ortega has been President of Nicaragua since November 5, 2006. He had already held the office for five years from January 10, 1985.
  3. ↑ In contrast to the time of action taken from the Spanish above, “last week in 1974”, Dill mentions the year 1973 (Dill, p. 269, 9. Zvo).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dill, p. 269 above
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 4
  3. ^ Span. Eduardo Contreras Escobar biography at avegasalablanca.wordpress.com
  4. ↑ eng. United States Ambassador to Nicaragua
  5. ↑ eng. Guillermo Seville Sacasa
  6. ↑ eng. Lillian Somoza Debayle
  7. ^ Span. The storm on the villa of the minister Castillo Quant
  8. ↑ Dill, p. 270, 4th Zvu, see also p. 269, 8th Zvo
  9. ^ Spanish Juan José Quesada
  10. ↑ Edition used, p. 73, 3. Zvo
  11. ↑ Edition used, p. 66 below
  12. ↑ see also Dill, p. 271, 4. Zvo
  13. ↑ Edition used, p. 73, 3. Zvo
  14. ↑ Skármeta in the foreword of the edition used, p. 12, 13. Zvo