The Autumn of the Patriarch

The narrator, still unsure whether the corpse found in the beginning of the novel is the dictator, states that no one is old enough to remember the first death of the dictator (who was actually Patricio). Recounting the lore, the narrator reflects that numerous nameless bodies had been found with signifiers similar to those found on this body. When exploring the house, there was still nothing that could identify the body as the General’s; not his mother’s room nor the bridal bedroom which still housed the many possessions of Leticia Nazareno, a nun kidnapped by the General from a convent in Jamaica and the mother of the only one of his 5,000 children who carried his surname.

The clothes and armor that they find don’t fit the body. Furthermore, some lore says that the General grew in size until he was 100 years of age and grew a third set of teeth by the time he was 150; the body that they find doesn’t match these proportions, but it does have a massive, herniated testicle and feet. The origins of the dictator have been lost to history by the time the narrator finds the body, but oral tradition and mythology says that he was conceived without a father by Bendición Alvarado. She is also of questionable origin. As his only kin, Bendición lived alongside her son in the presidential palace but never quite fit into the regime—and never wanted to. She said that “living in the presidential palace is like living with the lights on all the time” (45). Her resistance to power, both because of her exposure and her son’s paranoia, eventually gave the General cause to move her to her own mansion—particularly after she embarrassed him in front of British marines who’ve come to occupy the territory during war (and eventually flee because of an epidemic). She preferred instead to reside in the servant’s quarters alongside her maids.

The narrative moves back in time to this incident. British marines arrive to occupy the island during wartime and supersede the dictator’s power in his own country. They poke fun at him and even remove his concubines from the palace. It is only when an epidemic takes hold of the country that the marines are forced to leave and the General takes back his power with force. Only his mother reflects on what he was before all this power—and what he’s become since the marines took the power.

The narrator, through Bendición Alvardo’s perspective, reflects on the generals who led the Federalist War, the General included, and their various behavior in the palace. Sometimes they excrete in jars or get drunk or sleep with members of the presidential guards. Several die by suicide or kill each other until there are only six generals left. The General of the Universe kills them in the presidential palace to assuage his fear that they may kill him first. General Saturno Santos gets away, however. It isn’t until years later that he is caught and spared by the General to remain his servant until he dies, largely because the General believes him to be invincible and is impressed by his prowess. Bendición Alvarado continues to live as if she wasn’t as rich as she is, feeling angry with the colonizers who come to make a fool of her son. She assumes that the many trinkets that they trade for tobacco and land are running the presidential coffers dry.

The General’s closest hands—both the minister of health and General Rodrigo de Aguilar—ask the General to meet the most beautiful woman from the most impoverished part of the city: Manuela Sánchez from the dogfight district. The General promises to waltz with her, and then retracts his statement, saying she’s no different than any other woman from a slum. He gives her what she asks for and nothing more, which is running water and electricity. When he retires for sleep after his ritual which consists of covering 48 bird cages, locking three locks on his door, and looking 23 times at the sea through his windows, Manuela Sánchez appears without having undone the locks. In a dream, he attempts to flee Manuela. He wakes up and shouts through the corridors of the palace that it’s eight o'clock in the morning. Though it is still night, the guards and servants adhere, fashioning the palace windows with sheets and stars as necessary to reflect the time that the General demands.

Lovesick, and haunted by this dream, the General goes to the dogfight district to find Manuela Sánchez. He pursues her every day for months thereafter. His visits are chaperoned by the presidential guard (though he doesn’t know it) so he is protected and able to visit Manuela in what he thinks is secrecy. To please her, the General removes everyone from the area and refashions the district with new homes and green lawns for her birthday. The general takes away everything that she has ever known in his pursuit of her, including her home, family, and friends. After an historic comet passes over the sky which was supposed to mark the General’s death, Manuela recognizes her fate: that she is trapped by the love of the General.

The General begs his astronomers to recreate the comet. Since he cannot force a comet, they tell him instead of an upcoming total eclipse of the sun. During the eclipse, Manuela disappears without a trace. Though he thinks that her death might kill him, he knows that it won’t as he is fated to die of natural causes in his sleep in the same position he sleeps in every night: face down on the floor with his right arm under his head for a pillow, somewhere between the ages of 107 and 232.