Gabriel Garcia Marquez studied journalism from 1950 onward after he had stopped studying law. His journalistic career involves facts that reflect reality. Gabriel Marquez perceived this to be a literary genre, despite what everyone else believed. Thus, he wrote his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold in a journalistic style, but with a twist. Even though Marquez wrote realistically, magical realism had always fascinated him. Therefore, Garcia Marquez started playing with the concept of what is and isn 't realistic in the story. The events leading up to the murder take place in an hour and a half, from the moment that Santiago Nasar wakes up and gets murdered. Santiago Nasar 's death is due to Angela Vicario’s false claims of Santiago as the man who had deflowered her. The twin brothers respond with an "honour killing" of Santiago to defend Angela 's honour. Marquez wrote the novel in a journalistic style; thus, it keeps to the facts of what had happened. However, Marquez occasionally strays from this style through using surrealistic elements with a clear purpose.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is realistic as it 's based on a real story. Yet, Garcia Marquez altered some information on where it takes place and the names of the characters in the story. The true story had taken place in 1951 in Sucre, Colombia. Two brothers had murdered a man named Cayetano Gentile Chimento. The brothers claimed that he had deflowered their sister even though they were not married. At the