Cien años in braille

A blind and deaf brother and sister in Guadalajara, Mexico were the first to read One Hundred Years of Solitude in braille yesterday during a marathon reading of García Márquez's novel.

The eldest of the two, twenty-six-year-old José Darío Randon Nieblas, explained that he was very interested when they invited him to participate, although he was worried that someone might tell them at which place to pick up the reading "because the amount of pages is different in braille."

The braille version of the novel is nearly 900 pages, as opposed to the new Real Academia Española version, which has 460.

José Darío, whose favorite authors include Mario Vargas Llosa and Victor Hugo, acknowledged that he had never before read Gabo's novel, although he felt that the part he was to read was "exciting."

Five blind children between the ages of 9 and 12 from the Hellen Keller School also participated in the reading.

(With thanks to A.)

[Selections translated from the El Tiempo article.]