Los Funerales de la Mamá Grande / Big Mama's Funeral

Big Mama's Funeral is a long short story by Gabriel García Márquez that satirizes Latin American life and culture. It displays the exaggeration associated with magic realism. Most of the places' names mentioned come from Colombia, and "Big Mama" herself is an exaggeration of the 'cacique' (political boss), a familiar figure in Latin American history and tradition.

In Big Mama's Funeral, we find ourselves in Macondo once again, among recognizable characters and events. The story centers around Big Mama's burial, absolute sovereign of this world, who died in holiness at the age of 92, after having preserved her virginity throughout her life, and whose funeral is attend by the President of the Republic and even the Supreme Pontiff, but also by peasants, smugglers, rice farmers, prostitutes, sorcerers, and banana growers.

Under the motto of these mythological funerals, the author gathered seven stories, and also the novelle that gives this book its title, in which the magical elements, that would from then on define Garcia Marquez' work, appear in all its splendor cohabiting with reality.