In One Hundred Years of Solitude, some of the big conversations are about how reality meets fantasy. Another conversation relating to that is how does the past meet the present (and how the present meets the future). This is where the Gypsies come into play. For years in the fictional town of Macondo, groups of Gypsies would flock to the town and turn it into a sort of carnival. They would show the town’s residents many things, including magic carpets. The Gypsies were the resident’s only contact with the outside world, thus blurring the Lin’s between what was real and what was fantasy. This was of course all before Macondo had their own road to reach the outside world, so all they had were the Gypsies. After reaching the outside world, the lines would blur even more. Was what the Gypsies showed them actually real?
The Gypsies also act as a bridge between characters and events. When certain characters or ideas and events seem unrelated, it was always the Gypsies that connected them. But it’s not just the Gypsies that introduce the fantastic, many other things happen over the course of this story. But since the Gypsies are living, breathing people that have introduced fantastical elements to them before, it would be easier to blame them. The only way the process of believing these Gypsies works, is the fact that Macondo is isolated from the rest of the world.
I found it interesting that in addition to the indisputably fantastic things that the gypsies introduce to Macondo, such as the magic carpets, they also bring things like telescopes and magnifying glasses; we would not consider these things to be fantastic, but due to how isolated Macondo is, the people of Macondo do.
I thought the gypsies were very mysterious characters because of the reasons you mention. I agree that the gypsies were the citizen’s primary escape to the outside world. I actually found myself wondering if some of the fantastic inventions were just the gypsies trying to fool the citizens, like with the flying carpet. It very well could have been a real flying carpet, but what if the citizens were simply gullible because they are so isolated like you said?
The idea of Gyspies being able to transport themselves from the present (modern world) to the past (Macondo, or as some might deem a third-world country), and bringing in modern objects as Macondo’s lifeline to the rest of the world is so interesting. I like the way you really focused in on the Gyspies and started a conversation I might not have thought about.