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People went to the deserted presidential palace to check. They found the body of the Patriarch, pecked at by vultures. They didn t readily believe that it was the Patriarch for it was the second time that he had been dead (the first was his double- Patricio Aragones). The palace was chaotic; there are vendor, beggars and dogs. The foul stink of the toilet used by all the servants, soldiers and concubines can be smelled. The man of the house himself doesn t mind the disorder. He supervises the milking of the cows and he talks to the servants. Marines previously occupied his country. During that time, he ruled by signing laws with his thumbprint but when they left, he ruled orally and physically. Patricio Aragones did the high-risk jobs like cutting ribbons at enemy territories. His salary was 50 pesos a month. He believed he had the advantage of living like a king without the calamity of being one.
So it came to pass that Patricio Aragones became the man most essential to the seat of power, the most beloved and also perhaps the most feared. The Patriarch had more time available to take care of the armed forces, not because the armed forces were what sustained his power, as we all thought, quite the contrary, because they were his most feared natural enemy. He had the help of General Rodrigo de Aguilar in keeping the arsenal of ammunition he hid safe. The Patriarch didnt want to go out before for fear that he would be assassinated but with Rodrigo de Aguilar and Aragones, he felt safe.

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The Patriarch was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love that he went out more frequently. He played dominoes with the former dictators of other countries whom he granted asylum in his country.
Bendicion Alvarado- the Patriarchs mother The papal nuncio would visit him and tried to convert him into Christianity. He asked him why he should convert when all that he has been doing was what the people want. During a cockfight, he saw the tearing of a cocks head as an omen. He had a member of the band arrested who later on admitted that he indeed planned on assassinating the Patriarch. After that, he had become extremely paranoid. He himself did not realize that his fierce struggle to exist twice was feeding the contrary suspicion that he was existing less and less. His fear was taking away his old desire to command. One day, Aragones was fatally wounded by a poisoned dart. It was predicted by soothsayers that the Patriarch would die in his sleep. You're president of nobody and that you're not on the throne because of your big guns but because the English sat you there. in one case for the killings at Santa Maria del Altar, in another for the prisoners thrown into the moat of the harbor fort to be eaten by crocodiles, in another for the people you skin alive and send their hides to their families as a lesson. When he saw what the people did to Aragones body, thinking that it was the Patriarchs, he decided to show himself and kill his ministers who betrayed him when they thought he was dead. He also got rid of the military men except his comrade, Rodrigo de Aguilar. He just wanted two maids, a minister of health and a secretary, no more concubines. He alone was the government and he had no enemies left. Those who assaulted his body were paid four hundred gold pesos to drag the corpse to the dung heap in the marketplace. This was ordered by a group with two generals in it. He decided that those acts of torture (against those who assaulted his body) would be the last of his regime. He restored the March poetry festival and the annual contest for the election of a beauty queen, he built the largest baseball stadium in the Caribbean and he ordered a free school established in each province to teach sweeping. Europeans came for trade. When the people found the body, they search for indications of his identity, to make sure that it was the Patriarch. Leticia Nazareno- she had been kidnapped from Jamaica inside a crate of party crystal to be placed upon her throne as wife of a hidden president Contrary to what his clothing showed, the descriptions made by his historians made him very big and official schoolboy texts referred to him as a patriarch of huge size who never left his house because he could not fit through the doors, who loved children and swallows, who knew the language of certain animals, who had the virtue of being able to anticipate the designs of nature, who could guess a person's

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thoughts by one look in the eyes, and who had the secret of a salt with the virtue of curing lepers' sores and making cripples walk. He had a son with Leticia, the only one who bore his name. There were no records of his origins. I'm tired of begging God to overthrow my son, because all this business of living in the presidential palace is like having the lights on all the time. Bendicion They exiled Bendicion to a suburban mansion when she remarked that if she had known that her son would be president, she would have sent him to school. When the Marines were still in the country, he sneaked to his mothers house to have sex with the maids because the Marines got rid of his concubines. The Marines left the country frightened off by an epidemic. They rendered the Patriarch chief of state. He re-established cockfights, kite flying and other diversion prohibited by the Marines. When he became President, his mother noticed that he changed. He was anxious and at the same time, indifferent to the deaths of his generals. He didnt care about the disorder in the presidential palace. Six generals were murdered by their escorts on his birthday. One survived, General Saturno Santos who later became his back-up man. So no one understood better than Bendicion Alvarado the boyish excitement with which he got rid of bad times and the lack of sense with which he squandered the earnings of power in order to have as an old man what he had lacked as a child. (They were poor before.) Her mother advised him to bury money in a safe place so that when the time comes that the people would get tired of him, he will not suffer. Source of money: the owner of immeasurable land and uncountable livestock but also the local streetcars, the mails, the telegraph service, and the waters of the nation, so that every boat that plied the tributaries of the Amazon or the territorial seas had to pay her a rental fee, tax that he collected for every head of cattle Manuela Sanchez- Queen of the Poor which the Patriarch didnt consider beautiful. She asked him for electricity and running water in the dogfight district. After that, he said that he wouldnt talk to poor people anymore. Before his false death, he was always paranoid. He himself made multiple rounds each night, checking the doors and windows. He was also very depressed. He always said, the people love me thats why he wanted to go out in his coach. Maybe the reason for this is he was always lonely, in search of attention, in search of something that would justify his existence. One day, he went to the dogfight district to search for Manuela Sanchez. It seems that he has fallen in love with her and this was tormenting him. He visited her without cease month after month, every day during the dead hours of the heat when he used to visit his mother. He improved Manuelas district. Dogs were killed, houses were painted white. However, Manuela didnt like him. She felt that his attention for her was a misfortune. People believed that the Patriarch would die when a comet arrives. Manuela disappeared during an eclipse. It was foretold that the Patriarch would die somewhere between 107 and 232 years of age. He had been an agile man once. He used to remember the names and problems of his citizens. He repaired machines. People would allow his cocks to win out of fear. They laugh when he laughs, keep quiet when hes silent. His guards would kill citizens whom they think the Patriarch hated. (ex: the man who defeated his cock, even though the Patriarch praised him for being the first to have the courage to defeat him) He did not act that way out of any political calculation or the need for love (days leading to the false death) as was the case in other times but because it was his natural way of being. He inspired fear. He became paranoid when predictions of his death were told. He had nightmares, he wouldnt go out. He liquidated his legislative and judicial apparatus. He exiled his senators, congressmen and magistrates. He killed the woman who predicted his death which would occur between the age of 107 and 125. He did so for he did not want anyone to know the circumstances of his death. All his misfortunes were happening because he believed he hasnt been the director of his destiny the way he was before. He raped Francisca Linero and ordered her husband killed. depressed by the sudden revelation that everyone ended up finding his place in the world, everyone except him A hurricane devastated the country. for the only thing that gave us security on earth was the certainty that he was there It seems like his people love him or if not love, at least there was a sense of security knowing that he was there. not because he was afraid of moving from the seat where he was sitting, as his enemies said, but because a man is like a tree in the woods, mother, like the animals in the woods who never leave their lairs except to eat A foreigner asked him for help in a war but he said that fatherland means staying alive. After the hurricane, he decided to rebuild the nation, taking part in the construction himself.

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Children were held in a dungeon for fear they would tell why the presidential ticket always won. They had hidden the messages of protest and entreaties from all over the world from him. (ex: children were hidden, diplomats were not allowed to meet him) pounding his fist on the table so that they would not see the tremor of uncertainty (when he met with his commandants). He covered up the human rights violation of his armed forces. He ordered the children to be blown up by dynamite and then killed the officers who did it saying there were orders that can be given but which cannot be carried out Experiences as harsh as that confirmed his very ancient certainty that the most feared enemy is within oneself in the confidence of the heart. He feared that the armed forces would betray him. He ordered that those who planned a revolt be shot and their corpses displayed. Nobody knew that he was losing his strength, that he was lonely and that he wanted to escape to a far away land. There were revolts against him. Insurrectionists were throwing stones and flaming balls to the presidential palace but he was not paying them any heed. He blew up the barracks of the rebel soldiers with rigged barrels of milk. There were many political prisoners. He ordered the leper who tried to kill him quartered and displayed in the main square. He killed his right- hand, Rodrigo de Aguilar and had him cooked and served in a banquet. After so many years, he lost his hearing and his memory weakened. He wrote down the few things he remembered to make sure that he would never forget them. Leticia Nazareno taught him to read and write. His mother died. There were 100 days of mourning. He wanted her to be canonized on the basis of a shroud carrying her image. The nuncio told him that it was just the work of a painter. After being beaten by the public, the nuncio was sent away on a raft so that the whole world will know what happens to foreigners who lift their hands against the majesty of the nation. The Patriarch declared a war against the Holy See so they agreed to canonize her. They sent Monsignor Demetrius Aldous to scrutinize her life. The Patriarchs guards tried to kill him (against the Patriarchs orders) in order to prevent his finding out about Bendicion Alvarados past. Aldous told the Patriarch that his assistants/ ministers paid some people to pretend that they experienced miracles because of his mother. Furthermore, it was found out that they stuffed the body with rags and removed the hair to sell it. However, Aldous told him that his people loved him. He felt sad because he didnt have his mother with him. When the public protested against Romes decision, the Patriarch declared the civil sainthood of Bendicion Alvarado, he declared war against the Holy See, he ordered the expulsion of priests, nuns and religious people, and he expropriated all the properties of the church. Leticia Nazareno was of the nuns he ordered to be banished. His escorts abducted her in Jamaica. The Patriarch died on one August Monday. Flashback: Before the rule of the Patriarch, the nation was in a state of disorder and uncertainty. He allowed the return of the nuns to the country upon Leticias request. He also allowed the reopening of churches. (under Leticias influence) Emanuel- name of the Patriarchs son with Leticia The Patriarch didnt want to get married. better dead than wed However, he agreed when Leticia asked him. (secret wedding) Leticia became scandalous, insulting vendors in the market and taking their goods whereas her son was serene, affectionate and well-mannered. The Patriarch didnt know about his wifes scandals. Ruben Dario- poet who visited the country. The people didnt know for sure if the Patriarch was still in the presidential palace. There were rumors that he has succumbed to senile mysticism. Leticia Nazareno controlled him (made him read the newspaper, taught him table manners, made him attend cabinet meetings, replaced death by quartering by electric chair, etc.) He approved orders that Leticia had given. Her family came and was given the monopolies of salt, tobacco and drinking water which he used to give to his commanders. (thats why they hate Leticia) The only advice he gave him (his son) was never issue an order unless you're sure it's going to be carried out. He fell in love with poetry, the glory and splendour it brought to his imagination. There was an attempt to kill Leticia and his son. (their limousine was rigged with dynamite) He made her cancel all public appearances, got rid of her relatives privileges and put a limit on the infiltration of the clergy into the business of state. Leticia and his son have been eaten by stray dogs (from Scotland) at the market. (on a Wednesday) Mauricio and Gumaro Ponce de Leon- two of the perpetrators of the crime

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After Leticias death, he sent his officers to live in the ministries so that he was alone in the palace. He was somber and gentler, even indifferent to the news of the arrest of his wifes murderers. He ordered that the brothers Mauricio and Gumaro Ponce de Leon be executed by quartering. He hired Jose Ignacio Saenz de la Barra to find the real assassins of his wife and son. (an invisible service of repression and extermination) Jose Ignacio Saenz de la Barra sent him the 918 heads of his fiercest enemies. The Patriarch reproached himself for his submission to the only mortal who dared treat him like a vassal because de la Barra wouldnt stop killing. But he couldnt do anything; he was mesmerized by de la Barra. He became nostalgic, thinking about those years when the house was teeming with people. Saenz de la Barra explained to him impassively that you aren't the government, general, you are the power. Because his officers did not involve him in affairs of the state; they did not consult him. He felt that he was useless. August 12- the centenary of his rise to power We had even extinguished the last breath of the hopeless hope that someday the repeated and always denied rumor that he had finally succumbed to some one of his many regal illnesses would be true, and yet we didn't believe it now that it was, and not because we really didn't believe it but because we no longer wanted it to be true, we had ended up not understanding what would become of us without him, what would become of our lives after him. The narrator had sexual relations with the Patriarch when she was a young girl? (at 14). Two military men of the highest rank appeared at my parents' home with a suitcase bulging with solid gold doubloons and in the middle of the night they put me aboard a foreign ship along with my whole family and orders never to return to the national territory. The country had many debts but he wouldnt give up the sea (better dead than sold the sea). The schoolgirls that passed by his house are not really schoolgirls but whores paid by his officers. His officers would do anything to satisfy him. But, they didnt inform him about matters of state. He didnt know about the new school and he was not consulted when the palace was renovated. It was as if he was invisible. People would no longer ask him to heal them or drive the hurricanes away. As the years go by, people didnt care if the presidential limousine was passing, theyve become indifferent. They didnt fear him anymore. He was nostalgic, he was wondering what happened to his city. He didnt recognize it anymore, even his self. There were no explosions at night which made him feel alive. He didnt give orders anymore. The people didnt know if he was still alive or what he looked like because as he grew old, his officers take over the government. He just stayed at his house. De la Barra recorded his thoughts and used it to address the people on the radio every Wednesday. There was an insurrection against de la Barra. He asked the Patriarch to stop it because he hasnt anyone left but him. The Patriarch told him that he got the people. He didnt know that the country was in a crisis because at that time the only contact he had with real life was the reading of the government newspaper which they printed only for him. They were deceiving him to keep him the captive of his own power in the senile backwater of the hammock under the ceiba tree in the courtyard. Once again, after the death of de la Barra, he tried to lead again. He declared martial law when a plague of yellow fever devastated the city. His ministers wanted him to ask the help of the Marines or sell the sea in order to revive the nation. (the regime wasn't being sustained by hope or conformity or even by terror, but by the pure inertia of an ancient and irreparable disillusion). He begged the people to protest but they didnt want to for they want something to happen. They were not blinded by the Patriarchs irrepressible passion to endure. He decided that its better to sell the sea than allow the Marines in the country. To his commanders: except that you don't dare and never will dare kill me because you know that afterward you'll have to kill each other every day in the newspapers of the regime we saw his fictionalized photographs at civil and military audiences in which they showed him to us with a different uniform according to the character of the occasion, every year for so many years on the major holidays of the nation's anniversaries we would hear the repeated harangues on the radio, he was present in our lives as we left home, as we went to church, as we ate and as we slept, when it was public knowledge that he could barely make his way along with his rustic hiker's boots in the decrepit building General Lautaro Munoz- the president before the Patriarch. Munoz fought against the British fleet. so that was the whole mess, damn it, so power was that house of castaways, that human smell of burned horses, that desolate dawn of another twelfth of August just like all the others was the date of power, mother, what kind of a mess have we got ourselves into, suffering the original upset The Minister of Health told him to choose who would succeed him.

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He hid little rolled pieces of paper in the cracks in the walls to help him remember. He had a man arrested for he couldnt remember where he had seen him before. It wasn't worth the trouble having lived so many splendid days of glory if he couldn't evoke them to seek solace in them and feed himself on them and continue surviving because of them. He didnt want to show his sickness in front of his subordinates. better dead than humiliated He was aware that he lacked love. he knew himself to be hated by those who loved him most And then one night, death arrived, calling him Nicanor. he had begun to glimpse that one doesn't live, God damn it, he lives through, he survives, one learns too late that even the broadest and most useful of lives only reach the point of learning how to live, he had learned of his incapacity for love in the enigma of the palm of his mute hands and in the invisible code of the cards and he had tried to compensate for that infamous fate with the burning cultivation of the solitary vice of power he had known since his beginnings that they deceived him in order to please him, that they collected from him by fawning on him, that they recruited by force of arms the dense crowds along his route with shouts of jubilation and venal signs of eternal life to the magnificent one who is more ancient than his age, but he learned to live with those and all the miseries of glory as he discovered in the course of his uncountable years that a lie is more comfortable than doubt, more useful than love, more lasting than truth, he had arrived without surprise at the ignominious fiction of commanding without power, of being exalted without glory and of being obeyed without authority when he became convinced in the trail of yellow leaves of his autumn that he had never been master of all his power, that he was condemned not to know life except in reverse, condemned to decipher the seams and straighten the threads of the woof and the warp of the tapestry of illusions of reality without suspecting even too late that the only livable life was one of show, the one we saw from this side which wasn't his general sir, this poor people's side with the trail of yellow leaves of our uncountable years of misfortune and our ungraspable instants of happiness, where love was contaminated by the seeds of death but was all love general sir, a comic tyrant who never knew where the reverse side was and where the right of this life which we loved with an insatiable passion that you never dared even to imagine out of the fear of knowing what we knew only too well that it was arduous and ephemeral