‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ By Gabriel García Márquez Has Been Banished and So Have Other Books That Shaped Latin America

The quiet act of reading has become a battlefield in the United States. Across classrooms and libraries, shelves once filled with stories that shaped generations now stand bare, stripped of titles deemed “inappropriate.” The latest report by PEN America, The Normalization of Book Banning, reveals that during the 2024–2025 school year, nearly 4,000 titles were prohibited in 87 school districts. The organization, which defends freedom of expression, describes a historic surge in censorship unlike anything previously documented.

A Culture of Censorship

PEN America recorded 6,870 cases of censorship, representing a steep increase in restrictions affecting public education. Since 2021, at least 22,810 bans have been enacted across 45 states, targeting books that explore identity, gender, race, and human rights. The report warns that censorship has evolved into a systematized model where literature is filtered through ideological control rather than educational merit.

Florida leads the nation with 2,304 bans, followed by Texas, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Other states, including Michigan and Minnesota, are reportedly considering similar measures. The bans have reached iconic works such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera by Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. His novels now join a growing list of works deemed unsuitable for students, despite their literary and cultural significance.

The Machinery of Control

In Tennessee, authorities removed Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and a graphic adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank from classrooms. PEN America researchers found that these decisions were not based on pedagogical assessments but on coordinated efforts to impose ideological oversight on public education. The report describes how fear and anxiety among parents have been manipulated to justify restrictions that reshape the intellectual landscape of schools.

The organization defines censorship as any action that limits students’ access to literary works because of their content, whether through complaints from parents, administrative decisions, or directives from state authorities. During the past academic year, three main types of restrictions emerged: total bans, limitations by age or grade level, and titles subject to special approval or review.

Federal involvement has also expanded these practices. In one instance, nearly 600 titles were removed from libraries in schools managed by the Department of Defense. The decision, linked to internal policies on diversity and inclusion, resulted in the silent disappearance of numerous works without public acknowledgment of the titles involved.

Silenced Voices

Among the authors affected are Isabel Allende, Stephen King, Sara J. Maas, Ellen Hopkins, Atsushi Ohkubo, and Elana K. Arnold. Allende’s The House of the Spirits was among the books withdrawn, illustrating how censorship reverberates beyond classrooms to impact the writers themselves. PEN America warns that these bans create economic and emotional consequences for authors while depriving readers of essential perspectives on humanity and history.

In some cases, banning one book has led to the exclusion of an author’s entire body of work, a phenomenon the organization refers to as a modern “Scarlet Letter.” Literature dealing with LGBTQ+ themes has been disproportionately targeted, often labeled as “sexually explicit” to justify removal. Works discussing racial justice, migration, or sexual violence have also been restricted, revealing a pattern of silencing voices that challenge dominant narratives.

The Erosion of Learning

PEN America notes that censorship extends beyond the removal of books. Entire educational ecosystems are being reshaped, with canceled book fairs, rejected library donations, and rewritten curricula. These measures threaten to normalize the erasure of complexity and difference in classrooms that should encourage thought and curiosity.

The report concludes with a warning that the fabric of public education is being altered by fear disguised as morality. The absence of García Márquez, Allende, and Bradbury on school shelves represents more than administrative decisions; it signifies the quiet dismantling of a shared cultural conscience, one page at a time.