Gabriel García Márquez surpasses Miguel de Cervantes as the most widely translated author in the Spanish language
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- 17 May 2023
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Gabriel García Márquez Surpasses Miguel de Cervantes as the Most Translated Spanish-Language Writer, Reports the Instituto Cervantes.
The Instituto Cervantes, an organization dedicated to promoting Spanish language and culture worldwide, has recently declared Gabriel García Márquez, renowned for his works such as 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Chronicle of a Death Foretold,' as the most translated Spanish-language writer of the current century, surpassing Miguel de Cervantes. However, it's important to note that Cervantes still holds the title for the most translated writer in Spanish over the past eight decades. His timeless masterpiece, 'Don Quixote,' continues to be one of the best-selling novels of all time, alongside Alexandre Dumas' 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy.
The news of García Márquez's literary achievement arrives as the Instituto Cervantes prepares to unveil its latest creation, the World Translation Map (Mapa Mundial de la Traducción), during the ninth National Spanish Language Congress in Cádiz, known as the IX Congreso de la Lengua. Developed in collaboration with the Spanish government's directorate for Books and Reading Development and the National Distance Education University's Digital Humanities Laboratory, this innovative tool utilizes metadata to provide insights into which Spanish-language writers have been widely translated across various languages. By examining translation trends between 1950 and 2022, the World Translation Map highlights the authors who have had the greatest impact on global readership.
Analyzing data from 2000 to 2021, the top three most translated Spanish authors are Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende (author of 'The House of the Spirits'), and Jorge Luis Borges (author of 'The Aleph'). Following closely behind is Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, renowned for his novel 'The Time of the Hero.' Completing the list of the ten most translated authors are Carlos Ruiz Zafón ('The Shadow of the Wind'), Arturo Pérez-Reverte ('The Club Dumas'), Luis Sepúlveda ('The Old Man Who Read Love Novels'), Roberto Bolaño ('The Savage Detectives'), and Javier Marías ('A Heart So White').
Delving into the details, the new data reveals that García Márquez dominates translations into Arabic and Portuguese. Meanwhile, Allende, Vargas Llosa, and Ruiz Zafón emerge as the most translated authors from Spanish to Swedish. García Márquez, Pérez-Reverte, and Borges claim the top spots for translations into Russian. Cervantes, on the other hand, stands as the most translated Spanish author in Chinese, while Franco-Chilean writer and avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, known for 'El Topo,' leads the list for the French language.
Although Allende is the most translated Spanish author in Italian, English, and German, it is evident that women are underrepresented on the map. The top 10 female authors featured are Allende, María Isabel Sánchez Vegara ('Little People, Big Dreams'), Saint Teresa of Ávila ('The Interior Castle'), Laura Esquivel ('Like Water for Chocolate'), Alma Flor Ada ('Where the Flame Trees Bloom'), Anna Llimós Plomer ('Make it with Plants'), Almudena Grandes ('The Ages of Lulu'), Paloma Navarrete ('Other Frontiers, Other Realities'), Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz ('Pawns of a House'), and Zoé Valdés ('Café Nostalgia').
