The Autumn of the Patriarch

The narrator returns to the present moment as the body is prepared for burial and remains unsure whether it’s the body of the General. The news that circulates in the nation still boasts of his immortality and legendary status, despite the decrepitude of both his body and the palace as he neared his death. In his old age, he’d lost his memory and identity, unsure of who he was or where he was, and very few people had access to him before he died.

The General begins to reflect on what little he does remember of his wife and his regime, and on the death of his mother, which he will never forget. Riddled with pustules full of maggots and pus, his mother falls ill and the only person who cares for her is the General. The minister of health tries to diagnose her, who attributes her condition to an old Indian curse. As she dies, she tries to tell the General where he comes from: that he was born in the doorway of a convent, had no lines on his hands which meant he’d be a king, and she doesn’t know who his father is. He ignores her history and denies her death, telling himself and everyone else that she isn’t dying.

When she does die, the church bells ring for 100 days of mourning and her body, preserved by sawdust and ice, is carried throughout the land so that everyone can pay their respects. As she decays further during her travels, servants reconstruct the body secretly until, when visiting poor settlements at the farthest reaches of the nation, people rush the procession in excitement and run the coffin aground. The guards who report this back to the general tell him that her body did not rot nor fall apart once she was freed from her coffin, and she is carried back to the palace by the people who believe her to be a miracle.

Because of her ability to rouse the public as her preserved corpse passes though, the General requests that the Vatican grant her sainthood. He presents a sheet in which she died that reflects her image perfectly, with her hand over her heart. The Church denies his claim, telling him that the sheet is a fraud and the shadow is cheap paint. The General, enraged, has a secret mob attack the nuncio (papal ambassador) appointed to his territory and sends him with enough food for three days on a raft into the sea. This works, and the Church begins the process necessary to canonize Bendición Alvarez as a saint while her body is displayed in the sanctuary of a church. Monsignor Demetrius Aldous, the father appointed to uncover the history of Bendición Alvarez to name her a saint, is thwarted by the guards and the General himself by stories of her goodness. However, the Monsignor learns of her frugality and history as a sex worker. Monsignor does not find her birth certificate but does find three separate certificates for the General. Despite this, Monsignor Aldous does uncover the history of both the General and Bendición Alvarez, and after an attempt on his life, he is brought to the presidential palace.

Once there, the General and the Monsignor talk about what he’s uncovered, and the Monsignor tells the General that the apparent miracles performed because of his mother’s corpse were tricks played by the people. The body lasted as long as it did because his mother was taxidermized. The General and Monsignor agree not to mention anything that they’ve discussed; the Monsignor tells the General that above all, at least his people love him. The Church suspends the case for Bendición’s sainthood, and the people revolt in anger. They burn down anything to do with the Church until the General chooses to appoint Bendición a civil saint of a free and sovereign state apart from the Church and declares war on the Catholic Church.

The General expels all items of faith from the island, save the memory of their Saint Bendición including missionary nuns. One nun, Leticia Nazareno, catches the eye of the General, and he eventually abducts her in a pine box marked Fragile and has her shipped back to him. He keeps her imprisoned in the palace until they eventually sleep together. Their first experience with lovemaking ends in the General tearing his hernia and ejaculating while he excretes feces.