Feature: LatAm remembers Garcia Marquez on first anniversary of his death

More than 180 bookshops in seven Latin American countries organized events to honor Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who passed away a year ago Friday.

Public readings took place around Mexico, where "Gabo," as he was affectionately known to Spanish speakers, lived and worked most of his life.

In his native Colombia fans in the capital Bogota got an opportunity to see the typewriter Garcia Marquez used to tap out his seminal work One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Garcia Marquez's death in Mexico City at the age of 87 revived interest in his work, returning One Hundred Years of Solitude to best-seller lists around the world.

Since his death, he has inspired several documentary films and even had a brand of rum named after him.

Presciently, he once said: "I would like for my books to have been recognized posthumously, at least in capitalist countries, where they turn you into a kind of merchandise."

Colombia's Congress, meanwhile, is debating whether or not the writer' s image should be immortalized on a new banknote.

Garcia Marquez's conflicted relationship with his homeland is fodder for another novel. While the author acknowledged Colombia inspired some of his work, he admitted it disappointed him. Many Colombians have criticized the writer for neglecting his country.

On the occasion of his death, the main memorial took place in Mexico City, where the author lived for decades with his family, who decided to sell his personal archive to the University of Texas in Austin for a reported 2.2 million U.S. dollars, instead of bequeathing it to Colombia.

But a year after his death, Colombia's quarrel with the literary giant may be over. For the first time ever, the National Library in Bogota will exhibit a collection of the writers' personal objects, donated by his family, including the gold Nobel Prize medal and the Smith Corona typewriter he used.

The linen suit the author wore when he accepted the Nobel Prize in 1982 is displayed at Colombia's National Museum, and "Macondo," the fictitious Caribbean town made famous in his landmark novel, will be featured at the 28th annual Bogota International Book Fair next week to honor the writer.

"Macondo will be recreated in an 'interactive space dedicated to the imagination of the greatest Colombian writer of all time,'" the organizers said.

Readers and bookshops in Mexico, Panama, El Salvador and Honduras, among other countries, will be celebrating Garcia Marquez's most famous novels and inspiring tales throughout the month of April, said Grupo Planeta, the author's publisher. Endi