Big Mama's Funeral
description
Transcript of Big Mama's Funeral
Big
head. way special
"Nothing," replied made
miss Communion." up the
the basket and woman. like do toilet, asked. They
were in suspense replied to question: "I to shit."
blind the
good exc1.1Se," murmured, into the kitchen. would convinced it weren't first
in your ever heard swear." mother was coming along corridor opposite direction, her
of
going asked. said "But apparently you
thought long as stones."
Funeral
all the unbeliepcrsJ the afBig absolute sovereign the Kingdom of who Jived ninety-two years, and died in the odor of sanctity one Tuesday
September, whose funeral attended Now to vitals,
recovered its balance; now that Jacinto, smugglers rice planters the prostitutes of Caucamayal wizards of Sierpe, and banana workers
Aracataca folded tents to recover the
exha1.1Sting vigil have serenity,
dent of the Republic and Ministers and all those who reprepublic supernatural most magni
funeral occasion recorded the annals of history have regained control of their estates; now that Holy Pontiff has risen Heaven in body soul; now impossi
ble to walk around in Macondo because of the empty bottles,
the cigarette the gnawed bones, the cans and rags and excrement that crowd which came to burialieft behind; now is the time to a stool against the door and relate
196 M: Mama's Funeral
raising her "And supposing that's the it is. What's so about it?"
the blind woman. "Only that it you first-Friday Big MatTIa's
With both hands Mina picked the spool of thread, scissors, and a fistful of unfinished stems and roses. She put it all in faced the blind "Would you me
to tell you what I went to in the then?" she
both until Mina her own went take a
The woman threw three little keys into the basket. "It would be a she going
"You have me if the time life fve you Mina's This is,for world's trta tUCfJU'llt M4ma,
the in the arms of Macondo, for
full of bouquets thorned flowers.
"What's on?" she last and was by the Pope. " "fm crazy, the blind woman. that the nation, which was shaken its has
haven't of sending me to the madhouse so I the bagpipers of San the
don't start throwing of Guajira, tlle of Simi, the the
(1962) of have up their from and regained their and the Presi
his
sented the and powers on the ficent in
the
up to and and that it is
butts,
the the lean front
to
poultices,
tard leeches, and weak with to seat her her
so could wishes. \vas the
needed to do morning, with
intervention of Farher Anthony had
sonl ill order, ,md to put her worldly
nieces and sole
who around priest, him
hundredth
room. take Mama's
bedroom, it decided that
not have him
last minute, Nicanor, eldest and
khaki and spurred long-barreled
revolver holstered look fur the mansion,
generations
paralyzed In hooks
time had been
slaughtered equipment and awaiting the
mules of
The rest of the living room.
were exhausted inheritance proceedings
lack kept
-';;' ,'- -<- -.",:::-.
Big Mama)s Func1'ai
uncles
until sanguinitywas tormed, turned procreation vicious circle. Magdalena, youngest the nieces, managed
hallucinations, Father Anthony Isabel exorcise head, renounced glories and vanities novitiate of Mission District.
nortis,
without godchildren, of Mama.
imminence stirred exhausting don, accustomed dience, bass the dosed
far-fhmg corners the hacienda. No one was indifferent death. During century, Big Mama had center of gravity, had her broth
parents parents which
real estate, everyone u�ed believing was owner
rain poles, leap she
right she balcony in air, Witll all weight of her beily -
k .
authority her old rattan rocker, she seemed,
the
,
J
198 M: Big Mama's Funeral
Fourteen weeks ago, after endless nights of mus
plasters, and the delirium of her
death agony, Big Mama ordered them in old
rattan rocker she express her last It only
thing she before she died. That the Isabel, she put the affairs of
her now she needed only affairs in order with her nine nephews, her heirs,
were standing her bed. The talking to
self and on the verge of his birthday, stayed in the
Ten men had been needed to him up to Big
and was he should stay there so they
should to take him down and then take up again
at the the nephew, gigantic savage, dressed
in boots, with a .38-caliber
The enormous two-story fragrant from molasses and
oregano, with its dark apartments crammed with chests and the
odds and ends of four turned to dust, had become
since the week before, in expectation of that moment.
the long central hall, with on the walls where in
another butchered pigs hung and deer were
on sleepy August Sundays, the peons were sleeping
on farm bags of salt, order to saddle
the to spread the bad news to the four corners the huge
hacienda. the family was in The
women limp, by the
199
matriarchal rigidity had surrounded her fortUne and her name with a sacramental fence, within which married the daughters of their nieces, and the cousins married their aunts, and brothers their sisters-in-law, an intricate mesh of con
which into a
Only the of to
escape it. Terrified by she made her) shaved her ,md the
of the world in the the On the margin of the official family, and in exercise of the
jus pri'f1UJe the males had fertilized ranches, byways, and settlements with an entire bastard line, which circulated among the servants surnames, as employees, favorites, and proteges Big
The of her death the expecta The dying woman's voice, to homage and obe
was no louder than a orgatl pipe in room, but it echoed in the most of
to this this been Macondo's as
ers, her parents, and the of her in the past, in a dominance covered two centuries. The town was founded on her surname, No one knew the origin, or the limits or the
value of her but was to that Big Mama the of the waters, numing and still, of
and drought, and of the district's roads, telegraph years, and heat waves, and that had furthermore a
hereditary over life and property. 'When sat on her the cool afternoon the
erful matron in world.
from the beginning the details of this national commotion, before the historians have a chance get at it.
under his shirt, went to notary.
and squeezed into in tmth, infinitely rich and powerful, the richest and most powand of sleep; they a strict mourning which was thc
culmination of countless accumulated mournings. Big Matna's
occurred
members Anthony
more hundred grandmother, War
fronted of Colonel AmeJiano barricaded April
would not of liquidating, an open skirmish, horde Federalist Masons.
week pain, the doctor maintaind was a
tary his
lifetime establishment in other
had atthritis him
patients calling
installed himself the sick woman
was
three
stimulants, masterful applied site
morning he face having
the His
Funeral
creaking rocker, the great bell the
the inhabitants
Macondo.When plaz;\ in
Mama's house like counn" It memo[v Until
with prolonged carnivals Demijobns
rum \vere placed the sacrificed public
for without
century, Colonel
Aurdiano camped, blood puddings
meat buns, nougats, tod
along trinkets, knick
and tickets. In midst
confusion agitate.d M.una's likeness
festivities and of her birthday, with the thunder
dance at
the pianola with style.
linen
pillows, her with fingers. night
marriages
out balcony,
200 !Vat Big Mama's Funeral
It had not to anyone to think that Big Mama was
mortal, except the of her tribe, and Big Mama herselt prodded by the senile premonitions of Father Isabel. But she believed that she would live than a years, as did her maternal who in the of 1885 con
a patrol Buendia's, in the kitchen of the hacienda. Only in of this year did Big Mama realize that God grant her the privilege personally
in a of During the first of family
her with mustard plasters and woolen stockings. He heredidoctor, a graduate of Montpellier, hostile by philosophical
conviction to the progress of science, whom Big Mama had accorded the privilege of preventing the Macondo of any doctors. At one rime he covered the town
on horseback, visiting the doleful, sick people at dusk, and Nature accorded him the privilege (>fbeing dle father of many anoth
er's children. But kept stiff-jointed in bed, and he ended up attending to his without on them, by means of suppositions, messengers, and errands. Summoned by Big Mama, he crossed the plaza in his pajamas, leaning on two canes, and he in '$ bedroom. Only when he realized that Big Mama dying did he order a chest with porcelain jars labeled in Latin brought, and for weeks he besmeared the dying woman inside and out with all sorts of
academic salves, magnificent and suppositories. Then he bloated toad, to the of her pain, and leeches to her kidneys, lmtil dIe early of that day when
had to me dilenuna of either her bled by the barber or exorcised by Father Anthom' J sabel.
Nicanor sent for priest. ten best men carried him fi-om the p,lrish hotlse to Big Mama's bedroom, seated on a
Big Mama)s !Vat 201
willow under mildewed canopy reserved
for occasions. The little of the Viaticum in warm
September dawn was the first notification to of
the sun rose, the littie front of Big
looked a flir. was like a of another era. she was seventy,
Big Mama used to celebrate her birthday the most and mmultuous within memory,
of at townspeople'S disposal, cattle were
in the plaza, and ,\ band installed on top of a table played three days stopping. tInder the dusty
almond trees, \\'here, in the first week of me Buendia's troops had stalls were set up
which sold banana liquor, rolls, chopped tried meat, pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, corn
breads, puff paste, longanizas, tripes, coconut rum
dies, with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, and
knacks, cockfights and lottery the of the
of the mob, prints and scapularies Witll Big were sold.
The used to begin two days before end on the day of fireworks and a family
Big Mama's home. The carefully chosen guests and the
legitimate members of tile family, generously ,mended by dle
bastard line, danced to beat of the old which was
equipped tile rolls most in Big Mama presided over the party from the rear of the hall in an easy chair with
imparting discreet instructions with right hand,
adorned rings on all her On that the coming
year's were arranged, at times in complicity \vith the
lovers, but almost always counseled by her own inspiration. To
finish off the jubilation, Big Mama went to the
202 Mama's
the family becalL'>e of
the instability years. The stories celebrations.
functionary
Authority, enjoying even
moment of the so as min Dutch
flounced skin starched cambric old
remembered, hallucination OUt of YOllth, two
were down manorial
afternoon
Castaneda y Montero attended her funeral and
along matted street new and
turned the age twenty-t\vo. medieval
only to past to the
past. remote, on
balcony, afternoons,
Mama her authority exer
cised through Nicanor. tacit promise existed, formulated
tradition, sealed the heirs
declare public merrymaking. at
known that decided not her last wishes
thought seriously
about possibility ing, awakened the Viaticum,
Macon not Mama was
tal but also that she was dying
Her hour her in her linen bed, bedaubed
aloes dust-laden canopy of
one out any life in the respira-
.'
l.1ama's Funeral
tion Mama, rejected was
enough suckle herself, was childless. extreme unction, Father Anthony had help order to her hands, since beginning 1\;lama had dosed. attendance struggle,
dying pressed hand precious stones and fixed
colorless the nieces, "Highway robbers." Then saw Fadler Isabel
implements, conviction "1 dying." Then she took the witb the great diamond and gave Magdalena, novice,
whom belonged since That was
end tradition: Magdalena had inheritance Church.
asked with her last an hour, perfect
mand of her she about conduct instructions disposition of her body,
concerned herself wake. "You have
open," she Jock key, because many
moment later, with the priest, she made confession, sincere detailed, and on rook Communion
presence nieces and was then that she asked them to seat her in her rattan rocker so that she could express her wishes.
had prepared, twenty-four \vritten very clear scmpulous her possessions. Breath-
M: Big Funeral
which was decorated with diadems and Japanese lanterns, and
threw coins to the crowd. That tradition had been interrupted, in part because of the
successive mournings of and in part
political of the last few new generations
only heard ofthose splendid They never man
aged to see Big Mama at High Mass, fanned by some
of tile Civil the privilege ofnot kneeling,
at the elevation, not to her
and her petticoats. The people
like a their the hun
dred yards of matting which laid from the
house to the main altar the on which Maria del Rosario
father's returned
the endowed with a radiant dignity,
into Big Mama at of That
vision belonged then not the familys but also
nation's Ever more indistinct and hardly visible
her stifled by the geraniums on hot Big
was melting into own legend. Her was
The by
that the day Big Mama her will would
three nights of But the same time
it was she had to express
until a few hours before dying, and no one
the that Big Mama was mortal. Only this morn
by the tinkling of did the inhabitants
of do become convinced only that Big mor
had come. Seeing with up to her ears, under the Orien
tal crepe, could hardly make thin
Big M: 203
of her matriarchal breasts. Big who until she was
fifty the most passionate suitors, and who well endowed by Nature to her whole issue all by
dying a virgin and At the moment of Isabel to ask for in
to apply the oils the palms of for the
of her death throes Big had her fists The of the nieces was usdess .. In the
for the first time in a week, the woman against her chest the bejeweled \:I:ith her
look on saying,
she Andlony in his liturgical habit and the acolyte with tht� sacramental and with calm
she murmured, am off ring it to the
to it she was the youngest heir.
the ofa renounced her in favor of the
At dawn Big Ma11la to be left alone Nicanor to
impart instructions. For half in com
faculties, asked the of her affairs. She gave special about the and finally \\<i.th the to keep
your eyes said. "Keep everything of value under and people come to wakes only to steal." A
alone an extravagant and later
in the of her nephews. It
last Nicanor on folios in a
hand, a account of
property,
Reduced its proportions, the real
districts, a\varded
intricate marriages
convenience, the control Mama. that without
which comprised five which not one
three
lives
state : rent. Seated of her
payment lands, her
trom the
collection with
and chickens, and first of the
since hectares.
cumstances it that within boundaries
Macondo prosper,
seat,
property "which pertained
itself Big
paid her, just had to pay her
the citizens
..
with
familiar
solid one bothered
explain, of the had progressively emptied war, lately milking been installed in
Aside from enunlerated, she mentioned in her will three
during
laborious
extraordinary kept generation
generation, each which of
sessions. bedroom, voice dying woman
signature, hearts
beginning
almond trees of
listing of
supreme
dlev raised up on
mental domineering sincere voice, in her memories, the notary this of her invisible
204 M: Big Mama's Funeral
ing calmly, with the doctor and Father Anthony Isabel as wit
nesses, Big Mama dictated to the notary the list of her
the supreme and unique source of her grandeur and authority.
to true estate was limited to
three by Royal Decree at the founding of the Colony; with the passage of time, by dint of
of they had accumulated under of Big In unworked territory, definite borders,
townships and in single
grain had ever been sown at the expense of the proprietors,
hundred and fifty-two families as tenant farmers. Every
year, on the eve of her name day, Big Mama exercised the only
act of control which prevented the lands from reverting to the
the collection of on the back porch
house, she personally received the for the right to live
on her as tlX more thana century ancestors had
received it ancestors of the tenants. When the three
day was over, the patio was crammed pigs, rur
keys, with the tithes and fruits land
which were deposited there as gifts. In reality, that was the only
harvest the family ever collected from a territory which had been
dead its beginnings, and which was calculated on first
examination at a hundred thousand But historical cir
had brought about those
the six towns of district should grow and
even the county so that no person who lived in a house had
any rights other than those to the
house since the land belonged to Mama, and the rent
was to as the government for the
use made of the streets. On the outskirts of dle settlements, a number of animals,
never counted and even less looked after, roamed, branded on
Big Mama's Funeral M: 205
the hindquarters the shape of a padlock. This hereditary brand, which more out of disorder than out of quantity had become in distant districts where the scattered cattle, dying of thirst, strayed in summer, was one of the most supports of the legend. For reasons which no had to the extensive stables house
since the last civil and sugarcane presses, parlors, and a rice mill had dlem.
the items the existence of containers ofgold coins buried somewhere
in the house the War of Independence, which had not been found after periodic and excavations. Along with the right to continue the exploitation of the rented land, and to receive the tithes and first fruits and all sorts of donations, the heirs received a chart up from to
and perfected by generation, facilitated
the finding the buried treasure.
Big Mama needed three hours to emmlerate her earthly posIn the stifling the of the
seemed to dignify in its place each thing named. When she affixed her trembling and the witnesses affixed theirs below, a secret tremor shook the of the crowds which were to gather in tront of the house, in the shade of
the dusty the plaza . The only thing lacking then was the detailed her
immaterial possessions. Making a efi(1rt-the same kind dlat her forebears made before died to assure the dom
inance of dleir line-Big Mama herself her monubuttocks, and in a and lost
dictated to list estate:
The wealdl of the subsoil, the territorial waters, the colors
206 M: Big Mama's Funeral
traditional man, civil rights, the of
appeal, Congressional recommendation, records, tl'ee beauty queens, transcendental
huge demonstrations, distinguished ladies, punctilious Illustrious
Eminence, the Supeeme Court, whose importation liberal meat purity the
language, setting good example, A111ens South America, the
demcx'racy, shortage th(� asylum, the Communist menace, of
high republican traditions, c1a ses, statements support.
laboriou,> her last breath.
formulas ti:x constituted the moral the pmvcr, loud
and afternoon the inhabitants of the somber
capital picture of a twenty-year-old on
editions, and thought that it new beauty queen. Mama momentary of photograph, enlarged COhm1l1S retouching, her hair caught up atop her ivory comb
diadem linage, captured a \vho Macondo at the beginning
newspaper's morgue many years in the persons , \vas destined
endure in the memory generations. dilapidated buses, elevators at the Ministries, and rooms hung with pale whispered with .vel1-
Big Manta)s Funeral 207
eration and about personage sultry,
in
few had
word. passers-by misgiv
All chtlrch belJs tolled dead. The
Republic, taken surprise by the news when
way to commencement exercises cadets, sug
gested Minister, in own
of he conclude his speech with minute
of had
who v,.·as aftccted urban feelings if
through purifying filter,
from car in momentary to certain vision
silent consternation Only
remained Cathedral f()J' nine
days offuneral rites. At beggars
newspapers shelter of columns
dle starnes Presidents, lights Congress
lit. When President his moved
of capital mourning, Ministers funereal garb, standing, paler more
usual. that night and the following ones would later
identified a histork lesson. Not because the Chris
tian which inspired most public
power, but also because abnegation with dissimilar
judgments conciliated in com
mon goal of burying body. Big had guaranteed and political
by of the full forged CI rtificates formed. estate. The
expired.
of the flag, national sovereignty, the parties, the rights of the nation's leadership, right
hearings, letters of historical elections, speeches, young proper gentlemen, militaly men, His
goods was forbidden, ladies, the problem, the of
a the free but responsible press, the of public opinion, lessons of
Christian ITlorality, 111c of foreign exchange, right of the ship state,
the cost of living, the underpriviJeged of political
She didn't manage to finish. The enumeration cut
ofr Drowning in the pandemonium of abstract which twO centuries had jus
tification of family's Big Mama emitted a belch
That distant and saw the woman the first
page of t11e extra was a
Big lived again the youth her to four and with needed
abundant skull with an
and a on her lace collar. That by street photographer passed t11rough
of the century, and kept in the tor section of unidentified to
of future In the in the in the dismal tea
decorations, peopk
!!lIEt
respect dle dead in her
malarial region, whose name was unknown the rest of the
country a hours before-before it been sanctified by the
printed A fine drizzle covered the with
ing and mist. the for the Pre$i
dent of the by on his
the for the new
to the War in a note his hand on the
balck the telegram, that a
silent homage to Big Mama.
The social order been bru-;hed by death. The President
of the Republk himself, by as
they reached him a m aged to perceive
his a but a extent brutal
the of the city. a few low cafes
open; the Metropolitan was readied
the National Capitol, where the
wrapped in slept in the the Doric
and silent of dead dlC of
were the entered office, by the
vision the in his were waiting for
h.iim dressed in and solemn
than The events of
be as only of
spirit the lofty personages of of the which
interests and conflicting were the the illustrious For many years
1-1a111a the social peace harmony of
her empire, virtue three trunks of electoral
which part of her secret men in
L
1
208
and younger,
rights suffrage
century. She traditional power the
over common transcendence divine
peace, canonries, benefices,
and watched associates, she had to resort maneuvers or election traud
obtain troubled partisans,
the highest
honors t()r President Republic had consult
with his advisers in graviIY of the Palace and paved
whidl had served the garden of dark cypresses
himself our of love in the Colony. Despite coterie
press uncertainty
full awareness historical
he decreed nine mourning, and posthumous honors Mama rank heroine who died fatherland on field
he it morning to his national
vision network, the trusted that the funeral
Big Mama would for the world.
grave inconveniences. structure
those \vhich statutes,
in formula which wonkl permit President of attend The upper strata
politics, financiers lived through entire alarm. In Congress, century
�1bsrract oil paintings National Ileracs
proportions, while harsh rime, people
of rattan
plasters, they pure, distilled Interminable filled with word." words, words,
which the made prestigious the printed Until, endowed with a
sense reality assembly of aseptic lawgivers, the historic blahblahblah by the reminder that Big Mama's
their 1040 shade. the tace that
of while formulas adduced, viewpoints
reconciled, amendments burial.
much that discussions the ders, and blew like an omen pontific.il ,lpartments Castel Gandolfo. Recovered from the drowsiness of August, Supreme Pontiff
M: Big Mama's Funeral
her service, her proteges tenants, elder and exer
cised not only their own of but also those of electors dead for a exercised the priority of
over transitory· authority, predominance of class the people, the of wis
dom over human improvisation. In times of her domi· i
nant \:vilJ approv('d and disapproved andI I sinecures, over the welfare of her even
if to clandestine in order to it. In times, Big Mama contributed secredy t()r weapons for her but came to the aid of her victims in public. That patriotic zeal guaranteed
her. The of the not needed to
order to weigh the his responsibility. Between reception hall the little patio
viceroys as a cochh'c, there was an interior where a Portuguese monk had hanged
the last days of his noisy ofbemed.ued officials, the President could not sup
a slight tremor of when he passed that Spot after dusk. But that night his trembling had the strength of a
premonition. Then the of his destiny
dawned on him, and days ofnational for Big ar the befitting a
had for the the of battle. As expressed in the dramatic address which he delivered that compatriots over the radio and tele
Nation's Leader rites for set a new example
Such a noble aim was to collide nevertheless with certain The judicial of the country, built
Big Mama)s Flmerai M: 209
by remote ancestors of Big Mama, was not prepared for events such as began to occur. Wise Doctors of Law, certified alchemists of the plunged into hermeneutics and syllogisms search of the the
the Republic to the funeral. of the clergy, the days of
the vast semicircle of rarefi(�d by a of legislation, amid of and busts of Greek thinkers, the vocation of Big Mama rcached unheard-of her body filled with bubbles in the Macondo September. For the first spoke
her and conceived of her without her rocker, her afternoon stupors, and her mustard and saw her ageless and by legend.
hours were resOlmded throughout Republic,
by spokesmen of the word. of in that
was interrupted corpse awaited decision at in the No one batted an eye in of eruption of common sense in the pure atmosphere the written law. Orders were issued to
embalm the cadaver, were
were or constitutional were made to
pertuit the President to attend the
So had been said the crossed bortraversed the ocean, through the
at of the torpid days the
Was at the window watching the lake where the divers were searching for the head of a decapitated young girl. For the last few weeks, the evening newspapers had been concerned with
Death
the universe was to prolong the waiting for many
daguerreotype
Throne
centuries
was
tanning
things in
...
,JIIIJk
Funeral
of
announced of
continued conventional symbols,
themselves
momentous
in
administrative
Public
.,
210 M: Big Mama's Funeral
nothing else, and the Supreme Pontiff could not be indifferent
to an enigma located such a short distance from his summer
residence . But that evening, in an unforeseen substitution, the
newspapers changed the photographs of the possible victims for
that of one single twenty-year-old woman, marked off with
black margins . "Big Mama," exclaimed the Supreme Pontiff,
recogIDzing·instandy the hazy which many years
before had been offered to him on the occasion of his ascent to
the of Saint Peter . "Big Mama," exclaimed in chorus the
members ofthe College of Cardinals in their private apartments,
and for the third time in twenty there was an hour of
confusion, chagrin, and busde in the limitless empire of Chris
tendom, until the Supreme Pontiff installed in his long
black limousine en route to Big Mama's fantastic and far-off
funeral. The shining peach orchards were left behind, the Via Appia
Antica with warm movie stars on terraces without as yet having heard any news of the commotion, and then the somber promontory of Castel Sane Angelo on the: edge of the Tiber. At dusk the resonant pealing of St. Peter's Basilica mingled with the cracked tinklings of Macondo. Inside his stifling tent across the tangled reeds and the silent bogs which marked the boundary between the Roman Empire and the ranches of Big Mama, the Supreme Pontiff heard the uproar of the monkeys agitated
all night long by the passing of the crowds. On his nocturnal itinerary, the canoe had been filled with bags of yucca, stalks of green bananas, and crates of chickens, and with men and women who abandoned their customary pursuits to try their luck at sell
ing at Big Mama's ftmeral. His Holiness suffered that night, for the first time the history of the Church, from the fever of insomnia and the torment of the mosquitoes. But the marvelous dawn over the Great Old Woman's domains, the pri-
Big Mama's M: 211
meval vision of the balsam apple and the iguana, erased from his memory the suffering his trip and compensated him for his sacrifice.
Nicanor had been awakened gy three knocks at the door which the imminent arrival His Holiness. had taken possession of the house. Inspired by successive and
urgent Presidential addresses, by the feverish controversies which had been silenced but to be heard by means of
men and congregations the world over dropped everything and with their presence filled the dark hallways, the jammed passageways, the stifling attics; and those
who arrived later climbed up on the low walls around the church, the palisades, vantage points, timberwork, and parapets, where they accommodated as best they could. In the
central hall, Big Mama's cadaver lay mummifYing while it waited for the decisions contained in a quivering mound of telegrams . Weakened by their weeping, the nine
nephews sat the wake beside the body an ecstasy of reciprocal surveillance.
And still more days. In the city-council hall, fitted out with four leather stools , a jug of purified water, and a burdock hammock, the Supreme Pontiff suffered from a perspiring insomnia, diverting himself by reading memorials and orders in the
lengthy, stifling nights. During the day, he distributed Italian
candy to the children who approached to see him through the window, and ltmched beneath the hibiscus arbor with Father Anthony Isabel, and occasionally with Nicanor. Thus he lived for interminable weeks and months which were protracted by the waiting and the heat, until the day Father Pastrana appeared with his drummer in the middle ofdle plaza and read dle proclamation of the decision. It was declared that Order was
disturbed, ratatatat, and rata
tatat, had prerogatives, Mama's funeral,
tatat,
day had In the crowded with f(xkis, lottery and men snakes
wrapped which definitively life; tied little where crowds and unrolled sleeping dapper Authori
There were, moment:
washerwomen Jorge,
VehL the fishermen Cienaga, shrimp fishermen from TaSd]era, the salt it'om
the tine the musicians Pelayo,
from Sabanas dandies from the of Magda
lena, the from addition enumerothers,
veterans camp-the Marlborough at their with and
claws and teeth--GverCc1mc centenarian of Mama
President of their veterans'
pensions the\' had little which swelter
snn,
out Dignified, their
cutaways hats, and hi:; Ministers, Supreme
Fzm·(;ral
traditional and representatives Banking, appearance around and chubby, President Republic paraded
eyes crc)wds who him gurated without W,18 and nov;'
the archbishops gravity ministry, military
with armored medals, Nation exuded unmistakable
second rank, mcmrning national been
Stripped their by universal queen:
the qneen, the me,il queen, the kidney
bean queen, the 255-mile-long-string-of-ig1.lana-eggs the who are account
interminahle.
from reality turnbuckles, Mama thar 1l1( H11ent too
absorbed in formaldehyde eternity magnitude the splendor which had
the insomnia was fulfilled t(Jrty-eight which symbols the paid Pontiff himsdt whom she delirium
orriage, with honored his
Supreme Dignity funeral in
discern covetous the
212 M: Big Mama's Funeral
that the President of the Republic,
in his power the extraordinary ratatatat,
which permitted him to attend Big ratatatat,
tatatat, tatat.
The great arrived. streets ('.H"ts, hawkers of fried and stalls, with
around their necks who peddled a balm would cure erysipelas and guarantee eternal in the mot
plaza the had set up their tellL';
their mats, archers cleared the ties' way. they awaiting the supreme the
of San the pead fishers from Cabo de 1a from the
the sorcerers from Mojajana, miners
Manaure, the accordionists from VaUedupar, horsemen
of Ayapel, ragtag from San the cock breeders from La Cueva, the improvisers de Bolivar., the Rebolo, oarsmen the
shysters Monpox, in to those ated at the bl�ginning of this chronicle, and many Even the of Colonel Aureliano Buendia's Duke of head, the pomp of his furs tiger\ their hatred Big and those of her line and came to the funeral to ask the the Republic tor the payment of
which been waiting for for sixty years, A before eleven the delirious crowd was
ing in the held back by an impemlrbable elite force of war
riors decked in embellished jackets and filigreed morions,
emitted a powerful roar of jubilation, solemn in and top the President of the Republic
the delegations tl'om Parliament, the Court,
Big Mama's M: 213
the Council of State, the pa11:ies the clergy, and of Commerce, and Industry made their
the corner of the telegraph office, Bald the old and ailing of the
before the astonished ofthe had seen inau knowing who he who only could
give a true a,,'Count of his existence. Among enfeebled by the of their and the men
robust chests with the Leader of the the air of power.
In the paraded the will be. of
qin a serene array of crepe,
ueens of all things that have or ever
earthly spkndor for the first rime, they marched by, preceded the the soybean queen, the green-squash queen, banana yucca queen, the guava queen, the coconut
queen, and all others omitted so as not to make this
In her coffin draped in purple, separated bY eight copper Big was at
her to realize the of her grandeur. All she dreamed of on
balcony of her house during her heat-induced by those glorious hours during all the of age homage to her memory. The Supreme
in her imagined floating above the gardens of the Vatican in a resplendent C011-
quered the he u a plaited palm tan, and with the greatest the world.
Dazzled by the show of power, the common people did not
the bustling which occurred on rooftop of
house agreement was grandees'
wrangling the into the street
shoulders grandest which through the
did notice grandees passed trai n
street. one noticed that nephe\JV"s, godchildren, servants,
\vas taken out, dismantled nails out planks, and up the toundations divide house. only thing \vhich not anyone
(,.- .;
of that was the thunderous which crowd loose tourteen exaltations,
were the those aware
understand that witnessing birth new
Now Supreme Pontiff ,1scend Heaven body his fulfilled,
RepUblic could down govern according judgment, the all things that been will
marry birt11 to sons, ,lnd the common people set tents where
,veil pleased in Mama, them
PO\:<"CT to had a
onl) someone to lean against doorway to tell story, and fi)f generations,
did not know the Mama, tomorrow,
Wednesday, come and will up the hmcral, and eyer.
Erendira Her Heartless
the Rllbassa
The Incredible and Sad '"Tale of Ilillocent and
Grandmother
Translated fnrm Spanish fry Gregm-y
214 M: Big Mama's Funeral
tile when imposed on the town and catafalque was taken on the
of the of them alL No one saw the vigilant shadow of dIe buzzards followed the cortege Ill,sweltering lime streets of Macondo, nor they that as
the they left a pestilential of garbage in the No the
and proteges of Big Mama closed the doors as soon as the body and the doors, pulled the of
thl� dug to up the
The was missed bv amid the noise .. .'
flUlcral sigh of relief the let vI/hen days of supplications, and dithyr'lmbs over, and romb was sealed with a lead plinth. Some of present were sufficiently as to
they \verc the of a era. the could to in .md
soul, mission on eard1 and the President of the sit and to his good
,md queens of have or ever be
could and be happy and conceive and give many could up their
the\ damn the limitless domains of Big because the only one \\"ho could oppose and had suHicienr
do so begun to rot beneath lead plinth. The thing left then was for a stool the
tillS lesson eXanlp1e fumrc so that not one of tile world's disbelievers would be left
who story of Big because the garbage men \'vill s\veep
garbage from her foreyer
(1962)