Colombia’s Congress will put forward a law that will make the country’s most renowned writer, the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the new face of a Colombian banknote, El Espectador newspaper reported Wednesday.
Congress is working on a bill that will permit the National Bank to issue notes with Marquez, honoring the memory of the famed author who passed away last week.
MORE: Colombia mourns death of ‘greatest writer ever’, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
According to Congress President Juan Fernando Cristo, the draft legislation which was agreed upon by all political parties is expected to be approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives before July 20 and then submitted for presidential approval, El Espectador reported.
The “Gabo” note is not the only way the Congress wishes to commemorate and remember one of Colombia’s greatest writers.
The same proposed law would require the legislation building to be called “Nobel” and own a bust of the writer.
“We submitted a project from the behalf of all Congress, because the ‘Nobel’ figure doesn’t belong to any political party, in order to process a ‘Honors’ Law for Gabriel Garcia Marquez to realize homages, busts, stamps, notes, professorships, and most importantly that the new Congress building have his [Gabo’s] name.” said Cristo, according to El Espectador.
Garcia Marquez died on Thursday after a years-long battle against cancer. The writer is the only Colombian to ever have been awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature.
The first official Colombian ceremony to pay homage to the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez took place in Bogota’s Primary Cathedral at noon Tuesday.
MORE: Colombia’s official tributes to Garcia Marquez begin in Bogota’s cathedral
Sources
- Colombia tendría el billete García Márquez (El Espectador)