Cronica personajes y citas

Alberta Simonds

Alberta Simonds

Alberta Simonds is the mother of Bayardo San Román, who makes an appearance in the town after her son becomes engaged. Alberta is a mulatto woman from the Caribbean island of Curaçao. In her youth, she was one of the great beauties of the Antilles.

Angela Vicario

The beautiful young bride of Bayardo San Román, Angela Vicario is sent back home in disgrace on her wedding night when her husband finds she is not a virgin. She tells her family that Santiago Nasar is the one who took her virginity, although there is some doubt as to whether she is telling the truth. For years after the disastrous wedding night, Angela continues to send letters of apology to her disappointed groom, until at last he forgives her and returns to her when both are middle aged.

After the wedding night, she cried and cried for Bayardo, and eventually began writing him letters once a week for seventeen years. Finally, Bayardo returned, carrying a suitcase filled with almost two thousand letters she had written him. They were all unopened.

Angela's letters to Bayardo

The fact that Bayardo never opens any of the letters sent to him by Angela is indicative of the symbolic or ritualistic nature of romantic love in their society. The actual contents of her letters is not important—just the fact that she sends them and he receives them is all that matters. They seem to relate to each other according to conventional rules of courtship; that is, first through gifts from Bayardo to Angela, and now through love letters from Angela to Bayardo.

Apunar

to stab

Bayardo San Román

The dashing Bayardo San Román, a railroad engineer, arrived in the town six months before the murder. In search of a woman to marry, he discovers Angela Vicario, and wins her hand by dazzling her family with his wealthy and prominent background. However, he fails to win Angela's heart. On their wedding night, Bayardo is dismayed to find Angela not a virgin, and sends her back to her parents in disgrace. Many years later, however, the couple is reunited.

Bayardo San Román is found in his bed, having drunk himself half to death, but survives and is taken away to recover by his mother and sisters

Ch 10: Narrator

"He died without understanding his own death."

"Él murió sin entender su propia muerte."

Ch 2: Doctor Dioniso Iguarán

"He was healthier than the rest of us, but when you listened with the stethoscope you could hear the tears bubbling inside his heart."

"Él era más sano que el resto de nosotros, pero cuando usted escuchó con el estetoscopio se podía oír las lágrimas burbujeo dentro de su corazón."

about widower Xius

Ch 2: Narrator

"The boys were brought up to be men. The girls had been reared to get married. They knew how to do screen embroidery, sew by machine, weave bone lace, wash and iron, make artificial flowers and fancy candy, and write engagement announcements. ...[T]he four were past mistresses in the ancient science of sitting up with the ill, comforting the dying, and enshrouding the dead. ...[My mother] thought there were no better-reared daughters. 'They're perfect,' she was frequently heard to say. 'Any man will be happy with them because they've been raised to suffer.'"

Ch 3: Narrator

"[Clotilde] was certain that the Vicario brothers were not as eager to carry out the sentence as to find someone who would do them the favor of stopping them."

"[Clotilde] estaba seguro de que los hermanos Vicario no estaban tan ansiosos de ejecutar la sentencia en cuanto a encontrar a alguien que no les haría el favor de detenerlos."

ch 3: Pablo to Pedro

" 'There's no way out of this,' he told him. 'It's as if it had already happened.' " "" No hay manera de salir de esto ", le dijo. 'Es como si ya hubiera ocurrido. "

Ch 4: Pedro Vicario

"No matter how much I scrubbed with soap and rags, I couldn't get rid of the smell." "No importa lo mucho que me fregué con jabón y trapos, no podía deshacerse del olor."

Chp 1: Placida Linero

"he won't even get off the boat. He'll give an obligatory blessing, as always, and go back the way he came. He hates this town" que ni siquiera bajar del barco. Él le dará una bendición obligatoria, como siempre, y volver por donde vino. Odia a este pueblo"

Clotilde Armenta

Actually thinks the twins are being serious - but her husband tells her that they're not milk shop owner husband (Ron Rogelio de la Flor) dies of shock when he sees Santiago dead

Colonel Lázaro Aponte

The town mayor, Colonel Lázaro Aponte is notified of the plot to kill Santiago, but fails to take the threat seriously. Rather than arrest Pedro and Pablo, he merely takes away their knives and reprimands them. Later, he fails to stop the murder because he is checking on a domino game.

Cristo Bedoya

The best friend of Santiago Nasar, Cristo Bedoya tries and fails to warn Santiago about his impending murder.

Divina Flor

Divina Flor is the teenage daughter of the Nasars' cook, Victoria Guzmán. In the first bloom of adolescence, she is both frightened and excited by the predatory advances of Santiago Nasar. She seems to know that she is fated to be his lover, just as her mother, Victoria, was once seduced by Santiago's father, Ibrahim. cries when he touches her on his last morning b/c she knows he will die

Dr. Dionisio Iguarán

Dr. Dionisio Iguarán is the town doctor, whom the narrator respects as a learned man.

dreams & weather

Dreams and weather are recurring motifs in the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold. In Chapter 1, the night before his murder, Santiago dreams that birds shit on him, which is a bad omen. Later in the novel, the narrator has a strange dream about a child chewing corn. References are made throughout the book to the weather, as characters disagree as to whether or not it rained on the day of the murder. It is suggested that dreams and the weather may be omens that foretell lucky or unlucky events; however, their significance is never fully explained. Whatever their meaning, the frequent references to dreams and weather contribute to an atmosphere of mystery and surrealism in the book.

el burdel

brothel

el luto

mourning

Father Carmen Amador

Father Carmen Amador is the parish priest, who learns that Santiago is about to be killed, but forgets to mention it to him. He later performs the autopsy on Santiago's body, as the town doctor is absent.

First line from play - Narrator

"El día en que lo iban a matar, Santiago Nasar se levantó a las 5.30 de la mañana para esperar el buque en que llegaba el obispo.

Flora Miguel

Flora Miguel is the pretty but rather dull fiancée of Santiago Nasar. Her father Nahir warns Santiago he is about to be killed, but Santiago is confused and doesn't understand the warning.

General Petronio San Román

General Petronio San Román is the father of Bayardo San Román and hero of the civil wars. The general cuts an impressive figure when he comes to visit the family of Angela Vicario.

golpear

to hit

Ibrahim Nasar

The father of Santiago Nasar, Ibrahim Nasar was an Arab immigrant who arrived in Colombia at the end of the civil wars. His marriage to Santiago's mother was one of convenience, and they only had one child, Santiago. At the time of the story, Ibrahim has been dead for three years.

Inevitability of Fate

Throughout the novel, omens and coincidences point to the fact that Santiago Nasar's death is fated to happen. Although the townspeople are to blame for not stepping in to prevent his senseless death, the extraordinary series of coincidences and omens seems to suggest that this murder was meant to happen.

La mancha

no fue una mancha en la cama de su boda

Luisa Santiaga

The mother of the narrator and Santiago's godmother, Luisa Santiaga tries to warn Santiago's mother of the plot against his life, but she is too late. Luisa Santiaga is the real name of Gabriel García Márquez's mother.

Magical Realism

Many details of magical realism are found in Chapter 4, such as the smell of Santiago in the jail cell, the idea that the possessions of Xius's house are perhaps being carried off by his wife's ghost, and the fact that Bayardo San Román never opened any of the nearly two thousand letters from Angela

In the moments before the murder, Divina Flor has a vision of Santiago, dressed all in white and carrying what looks like a bouquet of flowers, entering the house. The vision is so clear that when Santiago's mother asks her where Santiago is, she answers that he is already inside. Having just heard the news from the cook, Santiago's mother then rushes to lock the front door

Margot Jaime and Luis Enrique

siblings of the narrator

María Alejandrina Cervantes

María Alejandrina Cervantes is the owner of the town brothel and lover of many, including Santiago Nasar and the narrator. she's an important character - embodies all that is hypocritical about this society with "honorable" women

Meaningless Ceremony and Ritual

(similar to Cases de Bernarda Alba) The emptiness of ceremony and ritual is a theme addressed through many examples in this novel. For instance, when the bishop arrives to bless the town, his visit is simply an empty ceremony, devoid of any real feeling. He in fact hates the town and is not really sympathetic to the people there who have gathered, sincerely hoping that his blessing will cure them or heal their pain. Another example of meaningless ritual is seen in the courting between Bayardo and Angela. Their courting consists of symbolic gestures, such as when Bayardo buys things for Angela or when she sends him letters that he never opens.

Mercedes Barcha

Mercedes Barcha is the girlfriend and future wife of the narrator (also the name of Gabriel García Márquez's actual wife).

Narrator

The narrator is an unnamed reporter and longtime resident of the town where Santiago Nasar was killed. He writes twenty-seven years after the murder, in an attempt to clear up the mystery as to why, if everyone in the town apparently knew of the plot, nobody succeeded in preventing the tragedy from occurring.

Pedro & Pablo Vicario

Pedro and Pablo Vicario are the twin older brothers of Angela Vicario, pig butchers by trade. Pedro and Pablo kill Santiago Nasar in order to defend their family's honor after Angela claims that Santiago took her virginit

Plácida Linero

Plácida Linero is the mother of Santiago Nasar. Her husband, Ibrahim Nasar, is dead, and Santiago is her only child. Plácida is the last to learn that her son will be killed, and fails to save him from his fate.

Poncio Vicario & Purísima Del Carmen

Poncio Vicario and Purísima del Carmen are the parents of Angela Vicario. Poncio is an aged former goldsmith who has gone blind from years of doing fine work in gold to maintain his family's social position. Purísima is a former schoolteacher whose meek and nunlike appearance belies the strength of her character. She is the one who pushes Angela into a loveless marriage, saying "Love can be learned too." When Angela is returned to the house in disgrace, Purísima flies into a rage and beats her. Poncio dies some time after the events of what Angela calls "moral pain."

Ironically, although they try to appear macho and strong, they are as much victims of their society's rigid conventions as is their unfortunate sister, Angela. they do everything they can throughout the chapter to get someone else to stop them, and nobody does. including even the town mayor, arbiter of the law, and the priest, the moral authority for the community. It is significant that the priest, who has been alerted about the crisis, does nothing about it because he is wrapped up with the bishop's visit. The moral and spiritual leaders of this society are more concerned with meaningless ceremony and ritual than they are with actually safeguarding the lives and souls of the people they serve

Pablo marries Prudencia and Pedro reenlists in the army and is killed while patrolling guerrilla territory

Priest/official

obispo

Religious symbolism - Santiago as a Christ figure

The presentation of Santiago as a butchered or sacrificial animal, as well as the comparison of Santiago's hand wound to a stigma of Christ, underlines the symbolism of Santiago as having been sacrificed for the sins of the community.

the extraordinary series of coincidences, along with Divina Flor's prophetic vision, seem to suggest that Santiago's fate is predestined and could not have been prevented in any case.

In Chapter 1, three references are made to the crowing of cocks (gallos) on the morning of Santiago's murder. This may be interpreted as a sign of betrayal. In the Bible, Jesus predicted that before the rooster crowed in the morning, his disciple Peter would deny him three times.

Right before/after death

In the moments before the murder, Divina Flor has a vision of Santiago, dressed all in white and carrying what looks like a bouquet of flowers, entering the house. The vision is so clear that when Santiago's mother asks her where Santiago is, she answers that he is already inside. Having just heard the news from the cook, Santiago's mother then rushes to lock the front door, wanting to prevent the killers from entering. As she rushes upstairs to find her son, Pedro and Pablo catch him at the door and stab him to death. He staggers into the house, carrying his intestines in his hands, and falls down on the kitchen floor.

Santiago Nasar

The central character of the novel, Santiago Nasar, aged twenty-one, is a handsome young Spanish-Arab man from a well-off family. Santiago is heir to his father's cattle ranch, which he administers "with very good judgment but without much luck." A typical macho man, Santiago enjoys hunting, falconry, and horses, as well as seducing women. When falsely accused of having taken the virginity of Angela Vicario, he meets a brutal death at the hands of Angela's brothers.

The smell of santiago

Maria undoing the buttons of his shirt. However, she stops suddenly, saying that she can't make love to him because he smells like Santiago. In fact, everything in the town smells of Santiago. Pedro and Pablo, trapped in their jail cell, are driven mad by the smell, which they cannot remove from their bodies no matter how much they scrub with soap and rags

Here, smell signifies guilt and remorse.

The Widower (viudo) Xius

An elderly widower, Xius lives alone in the house he shared for thirty happy years with his late wife. When Bayardo San Román insists on buying the widower's house, Xius is torn apart. He doesn't want to sell, but cannot refuse the large sum of money Bayardo offers. Xius dies of grief only two months after selling his home.

Theme: Apathy (la apatía) of Society

The failure of the townspeople to act when they learn of the threat against Santiago could be seen as a criticism against apathy in society. People in the narrator's town seem to view themselves as outsiders or observers rather than as actors who can make a difference.

Theme: Failure of Authority

One of the themes evident in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is the failure of legal and moral authority in a time of crisis. Gabriel García Márquez was critical of political and religious leadership in Colombia for failing to address real problems of the people. As a journalist, he called attention to the failings of leadership. In the novel, he portrays the mayor as being more interested in a domino game than in preventing a murder that is about to happen in their town. The priest, Father Amador, is shown as being more interested in a visit from the bishop than in counseling the would-be murderers and trying to stop the crime.

Theme: Honor

(similarity to La Casa de Bernarda Alba) The concept of honor is strong in the narrator's society. A man must defend the family honor by killing if necessary. Gabriel García Márquez shows how the idea of honor can be crippling for both men and women in the society. In the case of Angela Vicario, her dishonorable loss of virginity before marriage causes her to be rejected by her husband, beaten by her parents, and unable to marry again. The dishonor drives Bayardo San Román nearly to suicide, and then causes him to lead a lonely life for more than seventeen years. And finally, Angela's brothers, Pablo and Pedro, are forced to commit an act of violence they do not have the heart to commit in order to restore their family honor.

Victoria Guzmán

The Nasar family's cook, Victoria Guzmán was seduced long ago by Santiago Nasar's father, Ibrahim. She is not fond of Santiago Nasar, and warns him to stay away from her daughter, Divina Flor.

What happened to Santiago's body right after death

his dogs want to eat his guts, which is natural as they cannot tell the difference between the guts of a rabbit and those of their master. Ironically, although the body is saved from being eaten by dogs, it meets an even worse fate at the hands of people, as the autopsy is a "massacre," and the guts the dogs wanted to eat end up tossed into a garbage pail.

Yamil Shaium

Fellow Arab immigrant and friend to Santiago's late father, Yamil Shaium is alerted to the plot against Santiago, but fails to warn him, preferring to check with Cristo Bedoya first.