Big Mama's Funeral (original Spanish-language title: Los funerales de la Mamá Grande), a long short story, is a satirical commentary on Latin American life and culture by Gabriel García Márquez. Most of the place names mentioned come from Colombia. It displays the exaggeration associated with magic realism. "Big Mama" herself is an exaggeration of the 'cacique' (political boss), a familiar figure in Latin American history and tradition; the term itself comes from a Native American word for a tribal chief.
Big Mama's funeral is mentioned in Marquez's famous novel One Hundred Years of Solitude soon after Melquiades' death, an example of Marquez's tendency to tie together his literary works.
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Famous quotes containing the words big, mama and/or funeral:
“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I dont know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”
—Ernest Hemingway (18991961)
“My Mama has made bread
and Grampaw has come
and everybody is drunk
and dancing in the kitchen”
—Lucille Clifton (b. 1936)
“Up, black, striped and damasked like the chasuble
At a funeral mass, the skunks tail
Paraded the skunk.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)