Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the death of the universally lauded native Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In Mexico, which has more or less claimed the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude” as their own, there were hundreds of public readings. And in Bogota, there was an exhibit displaying the typewriter that Garcia Marquez used to write his most famous work.

Since the Nobel laureate died from cancer at the age of 87, it seems that his popularity has just grown. He has been the subject of several documentaries and even been the inspiration for a commemorative bottle of rum.

As reported by The Associated Press, Colombia's congress is actually debating whether to put an image of the author on a new banknote.

While the novelist's major memorial took place a year ago in Mexico City, where Garcia Marquez had lived for decades, this past Friday the National Library in Bogota celebrated his life by exhibiting personal objects of his that had been donated by the author's family. These objects included his gold Nobel Prize medal and the typewriter he used while writing "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez obviously belongs to the world, and enough people know his work in the U.S. that he has been referenced in the Woody Allen classic “Crimes and Misdemeanors” as well as an old Phil Hartman "Saturday Night Live" skit.

But some might not know about the author's deep connection to Fidel Castro. Last year the Cuban leader was very affected by the death of his long-time friend. The two men became very close after Garcia Marquez went to Cuba to work for Prensa Latina, the state news agency which was founded by the writer and guerrilla leader Che Guevara.

As reported in the Guardian, Miguel Diaz-Canel, the first Cuban vice president, described Castro, at the time of the author’s death, as dismayed.

Diaz-Canel went on to explain, "Fidel is a man of great human sensibility, so he feels the loss of his friends."