Mercedes Barcha, Partner of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Passes Away

Mercedes Raquel Barcha Pardo, President Emeritus of Gabo Foundation and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's lifelong companion, has died at the age of 87 in Mexico City. 

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She, and her late husband, who himself died in 2014, were married for 56 years and had two children: Rodrigo and Gonzalo.

The couple, both of whom were born in Colombia, spent their lives in Mexico since 1962.

At the time of her death, she was President Emeritus of the Gabo Foundation, which promotes journalism, with an emphasis on the workshop method and on the memory of the founder Gabriel García Márquez.

Also known as ‘La Gaba,’ Barcha said she grew up with the socialist author and journralist García Marquez for as long as she could remember and said she knew he would be famous when he told her: “You have to marry me.”

It is largely believed that Barcha was the biggest influence on ‘Gabo’ and works like Love in Times of Cholera were “Dedicated to Mercedes, of course.”