 Latin America 's history and culture , Alonso suggests , began with the loss of Bolívar 's dream of a united continent and as a result has developed under a melancholy shadow ever since . Thus , by forcing the reader to return to the origin of modernity in Latin America and confront its death in the most horrific way , García Márquez compels the reader to move from melancholy to mourning , " so that the phantom of the lost object of modernity may cease to rule the libidinal economy of Spanish American cultural discourse and historical life " . 
