Chronicle of a Death Foretold
By
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Cultures around
the world are ever changing. Many different incidents or scenarios have caused
changes, whether it has been natural disasters, war, or the result of interaction
with other cultures. Traditions and rituals have been lost, but new ones have
been created in replacement. Some say that the changes that have occurred are
for the better, but there are others who would vehemently disagree. It is impossible to say that one culture is
better then another, but we can say for certain that no culture has remained completely
intact. The fictional novel, Chronicle of
a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez deals with the Latin American
Culture over the past century. To generalize Latin America into a specific
culture is an unfair statement, seeing as every country in Latin America holds
a unique culture. And yet, this is still a poor, false generalization because
within each of these countries, there are groups of people whom form
communities of their own culture. Nonetheless, all of Latin America holds a
unique form of interaction and thinking that can be separated from every other
culture in the world. There are key characteristics that that defines all of
Latin America that any foreigner would be able to see in just mere seconds of
being immersed in the culture, such as the undeniable lively spirit of the
people or the way they greet one another. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is able to
depict the Latin American culture in the early 19th century, and
serves as a perfect way to show just how much Latin America has evolved and
what aspects of the culture has remained intact.
A Chronicle of a Death Foretold takes
place in a town where everyone knows everyone, and everybody knows everything
about just anybody who inhabited this small Colombian coastal town in the
1920’s. Gabriel Garcia uses a journal like writing style to recount a murder that
occurred many years ago. The narrator is veiled in secrecy, his name never
being revealed. The cause for his investigation is because he wants to find out
what really happened on the day of the murder. The narrator questions all the
people of the village who witnessed the crime, jumping back and forth from the
present to the past, to both prior and after the murder day. This style of
writing is extremely important to the plot of the book, because every interview
exposes more details about the crime. Exposing what had been hidden about the
murder does not necessarily develop the underlying truths of the crime, as much
as it served as a window into why people of the village acted the way they did.
Baynardo San Roman, a handsome young man full of character and charm, but most
importantly money, was courting Angela Vicario, the antagonist of the
story. Angela came from a proper, rigid
family who not only very strongly believed in the customs and traditions of the
past, but were instilled to follow them as well. Baynardo and Angela’s wedding
was the most extravagant wedding party and they invited everyone in the village.
After five hours of marriage, Angela revealed to Baynardo that was she was no
longer a virgin, resulting in him immediately returning her to her family. At this time, having a daughter returned to
her family is perhaps the biggest embarrassment a family could face. Angela is
forced to reveal who stole her purity, and she tells them it is Santiago San
Roman. Santiago was a wealthy, respected young man, a descendent from the Arab
immigrants. In order to restore her honor, Angela’s two older twin brothers,
Pedro and Pablo, set out to kill him. On the day of this murder, the whole
village knew Santiago San Roman was going to be killed; the only person who
didn’t know was Santiago himself. All through the book, the narrator is trying
to find out why no one warned Santiago and why the authorities did not do
anything about it. Throughout the recounting of the event, no new facts about
the truth are revealed, however, the narrator gains a greater understanding of
the culture he grew up in. Slowly, the narrator begins to pick out ideas of his
culture such as honor, machismo, and sexism, all of which seemed so natural
before, is now being questioned and found flawed.
To have honor in
the North American Culture is to maintain integrity, but the definition of
honor varies in different cultures. As previously mentioned, this story took
place in the 1920’s. The definition of honor in Latin American culture then has
many differences to nowadays, and even then it was different amongst men and women.
Men had honor when they worked hard, had money and if they were respected. Controversially,
a woman’s honor was dependent on her purity only. The roles of the men and women in society
were brought together in their family to create the ultimate, traditional
family. The Vicario family was perceived as picture perfect. “The brothers were
brought up to be men. The girls had been reared to get married.”(pg. 31)
Disgrace was not only brought to Angela Vicario when returned to her family,
but most importantly her whole family, especially her mother, Purisima del
Carmen. As a mother in the society of Latin America, a mother typically stays
at home, makes sure that her children are brought up correctly and is second to
her husband, this was strictly followed in the past. “She devoted herself with
such spirit of sacrifice to the care of her husband and the rearing of her
children that at times one forgot she still existed” (pg. 31). Purisima del
Carmen had devoted everything to her children’s well bringing and the shame of
Angela’s return fell solely on her. A common form of punishment then and still
occurs now, is punishment through beating. A person with greater authority and
respect creates the illusion of themselves of being more powerful through
strength, which is why so many cases of physical abuse is seen in Latin America.
Latin America has an above world average for assault and murder rates. The
perception of having honor was so important in that past, a person without
honor in society was someone of the lowest class. In fact, the fiancée of Pablo
said she would have not married him had he not killed Santiago. It is important
to note that because Pablo and Pedro Vicario’s father was blind, it left them
to be the men of the house, and thus, forcing them to kill Santiago. Had they
not killed him, what the village would think of their family would linger. It
is easy to subconsciously come to a conclusion that the villagers approved of
the murder of Santiago. If the villagers didn’t approve, wouldn’t it have been
stopped? Or was it because Santiago was of a higher class that no one believed
he could have been murdered. Class and honor in this culture played hand in
hand.
This whole novel
has revolved around the scenario of how the Vicario family lost their honor and
kills in order to get it back. However, another important character that lost
their honor is Baynardo San Roman.
Although the novel does not directly mention that Baynardo lost his
honor, it is implied. After Baynardo returns Angela to her family, Baynardo
enters into something that seems like a state of depression. The man that was
once so highly respected was pitied. This man could control anyone and have
anyone he wanted, failed in one area where he should have succeeded most.
Baynardo became so emotionally weak that his family had to come to the village
and take him away. What made Baynardo’s situation worse was that he was not
able to find a way to restore his honor. He knew that when Santiago died,
Angela would be able to restore his honor and she would be able to remarry, but
as a man, he lacked the sense of protection that Angela received. A man in
Latin American culture needs to protect the family. He needs to be powerful,
confident, and portray masculinity, this is also known as machismo.
The term
Machismo is commonly known and used to define men. It is a term boys from a
very young age are taught to portray. It starts by telling the boy that he
needs to be strong, that boys don’t cry, and boys aren’t supposed to be in the
kitchen. This term is viciously drilled in the minds of the males that for the
Latin American culture, Machismo seems to be the only shoes that every young
boy feels the need to fill. Yes, in the past few years the idea of Machismo has
been dying out, but compared to for example North America, the difference is
more than evident. The concept of Machismo is not only found in Latin America
but all over Asia and Africa. In the
Middle East, men have always played a role of strength and superiority. Only
the men filled important roles in the village, the market, politics, armed
forces, farming, and the women had very limited options to chose from, in the
book it was shown that a women was either the care taker of the house or a
prostitute with the exception of Clotilde Armenta who helped her husband in his
shop. The concept of Machismo is the cause of why so much division between men
and women in society exist. In the words of Clotilde Armenta “the height of machismo”
(pg. 63) has allowed males to feel
empowered and take advantage of women. For example the male feels the needs to
demonstrate to his fellow friends that he is able to fulfill his desires this
means that he is able to go seek relationships outside of the marriage or while
being single he is permitted to be in many relationships at a time (2). An
important example in the book is the brothel that the narrator, Santiago and
all of that male age group in the village would go to. Maria Cervantes was the
most requested women in the village “It was she who did away with my generation’s
virginity. She taught us much more than we should have learned.” (pg. 64). Women
of the village knew where their spouse or sons were going to but they weren’t
allowed to say anything. For a woman, to be with a man before marriage or
during marriage is prohibited and this was the case of Angela Vicario. The term
machismo allows the males to feel that absolute control over the women because
the women are dependent on the male in all aspects of her life. There are three
things that the women in a household have control over based on the novel, the
maids ( if any), what will be cooked, and raising of their children. It is
because of machismo that the abuse rate and crime rate in Latin America is an
average of 25 percent greater than the worlds average (3). Yet the divorce rates
in Latin America is one of the lowest, because of two very important reasons,
the fear that is instilled in women and the catholic religion.
Religion plays a
very important role in Latin America and this is evident in the novel. The same
morning of the murder the bishop was coming into town. The twins were forced to
postpone their pursue of murder till after the bishop left. The people of the
Latin America have great respect for their religious beliefs, a common form of
showing this demonstrated in the novel is through sacrifice of the best their
best animals or offerings of whatever they have. This is still a common
practice in Latin America and it goes to demonstrate how important religion is
in the lives of these people. Most marriages like Angela’s and Baynardo’s
wedding is done under the catholic vows, so which means that if a divorce is
ever to occur they will not be allowed to remarry under the catholic church. In
the eyes of a women a divorce would mean that they most likely will not receive
any help financially in the up bringing of their children and that they are unlikely
to find someone willing to remarry with them. Therefore, for most women divorce
is never an option. Fortunately thanks to the globalization, the idea of
machismo is dwindling away and women have more opportunities to study and have
careers.
I enjoyed this
book because it offers the reader the opportunity to compare how the Latin
American culture has evolved. Based on the book I am able to pick out many
aspects of the Latin American society that I have witnessed such as machismo,
and compare it to my grandparents who are still very instilled in the
traditions of the past, and then compare it to my parents who have drifted away
from much of these traditions and finally my generation in which I feel
privileged to not have to had endure such division between the males and
females. More and more women have the opportunity to go to university and are
taking careers once only done my men.
As Latin America
grows many of the traditions and ideologies of the past and evolved; however, I
question to what extent will Latin America change. From my point of view all of
Latin America seems to idealize the United States and want to transform into
the perfect commercialized world they see the U.S as. I hope that this desire
these nations have does not drift them away from the attachment they hold to
their religion, their festivities, nor to take away the tight knitted
communities like the one depicted in the novel. The Latin American culture is
so unique which is why so many tourists are attracted to it. I hope in the
future that the Latin American culture will be able to maintain its integrity
but evolve for the better.
References:
(1)Gabriel Garcia Marquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa, Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Vintage
Books: 1982. Print
(2)“Machismo Sexual Identity” <http://www.stanford.edu/group/womenscourage/Repro_Latin/ekobash_HIVmachismo_Latin.html>
Web. 16 Jun. 2012
(3) Caroll, Roy “Rampant violence is Latin America's 'worst epidemic'”. The
Gaurdian. 8 Oct.2008. Web. 16 Jun. 2012
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