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.