Chapter 5 chapter Five
One Sunday in March, Aureliano Buendía and Remedios Moscote were married before the altar that Father Nicanor Reina had erected in the living room.This was the culmination of four weeks of fear in the Moscotes' house, for little Remedios, though in puberty, had not yet shaken off the habits of childhood.Her mother had lectured her on the changes of puberty, but one February afternoon she still screamed and burst into the room, interrupting her sisters' conversation with Aureliano to show them a chocolate-colored smear on their underwear .So the wedding was scheduled for a month later.There was hardly enough time to teach her to bathe and dress herself, or to understand the most basic household chores.They made her urinate on hot bricks to get rid of the bed-wetting habit.It took them a long time to convince her that the secrets of husband and wife must never be shared, for she was terrified and excited when she heard it, and was eager to discuss the details of the wedding night with everyone she met.This work is quite exhausting, but when the scheduled wedding day arrives, the little girl is as familiar with the world as any older sister.Don Apolinar Moscote took her on his arm as he walked through the streets decorated with flowers and garlands to the sound of firecrackers and the music of several bands.The bride waved and thanked those who blessed her at the window.Aureliano wore a black suit and patent leather boots with metal buckles, the same pair he would wear when he faced the firing squad years later.He greeted the bride in front of the house and led her to the altar, all the while looking extremely pale with a hard ball in his throat.The bride behaved naturally and decently, even when Aureliano dropped the ring while wearing it for her, she did not lose her composure in the slightest.There were whispers all around, and the guests began to commotion, but she still raised her lace-gloved hand, her ring finger remained motionless, until the groom stretched his foot to block the ring before it rolled to the door, and returned to the altar with a red face.Her mother and sisters were so afraid that the little girl would behave inappropriately during the ceremony that they themselves lost their composure and rushed to kiss her.From that day on, she displayed responsibility, grace, and control in the face of adversity.She also thought of saving the best part of the wedding cake, serving it on a plate with a fork in front of José Arcadio Buendía.A huge old man was tied to the trunk of a chestnut tree and curled up on a small wooden bench under a canopy of palm leaves, his blood faded from the sun and rain.He smiled gratefully at her and hummed an incomprehensible hymn as he ate the cake with his fingers.The only unlucky person in the raucous celebration that lasted until Monday morning was Rebeca Buendía.This should have been her joy too.Úrsula had agreed to marry her on the same day when Pietro Crespi received a letter on Friday with the news that his mother was dying.The wedding was postponed.Pietro Crespi set off for the provincial capital an hour after receiving the letter, and on the way missed the encounter with his mother, who arrived in Macondo on Saturday night and was present at Aureliano's wedding He sang a sad aria originally prepared for his son's wedding.Pietro Crespi paralyzed five horses trying to get back to his nuptials in time, but when he arrived at midnight on Sunday, all he could do was sweep away the embers of the wedding candles.It was never found out who actually wrote the letter.Under Úrsula's torture, Amaranta burst into tears and swore an oath to prove her innocence against the altar that the carpenters had not dismantled.
Nicanor, Father Reina was invited from the Marais by Don Apolinar Moscote to officiate at the wedding, an old man stiffened by his humble occupation.His complexion was gloomy, skinny and skinny, but his stomach was round and protruding, and his expression of a good-natured man was more innocent than kind.He had planned to return to his parish after the wedding, but he was taken aback by the spiritual poverty of the inhabitants of Macondo, who acted on their own accord, prospered without restraint, did not baptize their children, and did not celebrate holy days.Considering that no other place in the world needed the Seed of God more, he decided to stay another week to civilize Jews and Gentiles, to legalize cohabitation, and to receive the sacrament of the dying.But no one paid him any attention.They replied that there had been no priest here for many years, and that everyone had always dealt directly with God about their soul problems, and had gotten rid of the pollution of the sin of death.Father Nicanor was tired of preaching in the wilderness and determined to build a church, the largest in the world, with life-size groups of saints and stained glass windows, to get people from Rome to worship God in this godless center .He went around collecting donations with a small copper tray.People gave him a lot of donations, but he wanted more, because the church had to have a bell that could shake a drowning person to the surface.He begged hard until his voice became hoarse and his bones began to rattle.By one Saturday, he hadn't even raised the money to build the door, and he couldn't help but fall into despair.He erected an impromptu altar in the square, and on Sundays he rang the bell, as in the days of insomnia, calling residents to open-air mass.Some were invited out of curiosity, others of nostalgia, and still others lest God should regard their contempt of his agents as an offense to himself.In this way, at eight o'clock in the morning, half the people of the town gathered in the square to listen to Father Nicanor singing the Gospel in a voice hoarse from begging.Finally, as the crowd began to disperse, he raised his hand to call attention.
"Wait a moment," he said, "now we shall witness the proof of God's power."
The boy who had just been a deacon handed over a cup of steaming hot chocolate, and he drank it in one gulp.Then he wiped his mouth with a handkerchief from his sleeve, closed his eyes and spread his arms wide.Immediately, Father Nicanor rose twelve centimeters from the ground out of thin air.The move is convincing.For several days in a row, he walked the streets and alleys, and with the help of chocolate, he repeatedly reproduced the proof of his ascension, and a steady stream of alms was received by the sacrificial boy in his pocket.In less than a month, the church was able to start construction.No one doubted the divine origin of this demonstration, except José Arcadio Buendia.One morning people gathered around the chestnut tree to witness the miracle again, and he just watched indifferently.When Father Nicanor lifted off the ground with the stool under him, he just straightened up on the small wooden box and shrugged his shoulders.
"Hoc est simplicisimum," said José Arcadio Buendía, "homo iste statum quartz materiae invenit."
As soon as Father Nicanor raised his hand, the four legs of the stool fell to the ground at the same time.
"Nego," he said, "Factum hoc existentiam Dei probat sine dubio."
That's how it became known that the nonsense that José Arcadio Buendía was uttering was actually in Latin.Taking advantage of being the only one with whom he can communicate, Father Nicanor tries to instill faith in his deranged mind.He sat under the chestnut tree every afternoon and preached in Latin, but José Arcadio Buendía refused to believe in complicated proofs and the efficacy of chocolate, and only asked for a photo of God as proof.Father Nicanor brought him various holy icons, including a replica of a Veronica handkerchief, but José Arcadio Buendía dismissed them all as unscientific. Artifacts are not recognized.Facing his stubbornness, Father Nicanor gave up the idea of evangelizing him, but still visited him every day out of compassion.Now it was José Arcadio Buendía's turn to turn from the defensive to the offensive and try to sway the priest's faith with his rationalist tactics.Once, Father Nicanor came to the tree with a chessboard and chess pieces and invited him to play checkers. He refused because he could not understand how two opponents could still fight when they agreed to abide by the rules.Father Nicanor never thought of it in this way, but he never played checkers again.He was more and more amazed at the intelligence of José Arcadio Buendía and asked him how he had come to be tied to the tree.
"Hoc est simplicisimum," he answered, "because I am mad."
Since then, the priest was worried that his faith would be shaken, so he stopped visiting him and devoted himself to the construction of the church to speed up the process.Rebecca has renewed hope.Her future depended on the completion of the church, for one Sunday when Father Nicanor came to the house for lunch, the whole family talked about the grandeur of the religious service when the church was completed. "The luckiest person is Rebeca," said Amaranta.Rebecca didn't understand her, so she explained with an innocent smile:
"Because your wedding will be the first ceremony after the completion of the church."
Rebecca tried to preempt the comment.Judging from the current construction speed, it will take at least ten years for the church to be completed.But Father Nicanor sees it differently: Given the increasing generosity of the faithful, a more optimistic estimate can be made.Although Rebeca was secretly angry and did not even finish her meal, Úrsula agreed with Amaranta's idea and donated a considerable sum to speed up the construction.Father Nicanor believes that with another donation of the same amount, the church can be completed in three years.From then on, Rebecca stopped talking to Amaranta, convinced that her intentions were not as pure and innocent as they appeared on the surface. "I've shown mercy," Amaranta replied during the heated quarrel that night. "I won't have to kill you for three years." Rebecca accepted the challenge.
Pietro Crespi is disappointed when he learns that the wedding has been postponed again, but Rebeca proves her devotion to him. "We'll elope when you're ready," she told him.However, Pietro Crespi is not a person who dares to take risks. He is not as impulsive as his fiancée, and he regards respect for promises as a capital that cannot be squandered.So Rebecca took a bolder step.A mysterious wind blows out the lamp in the living room, and Úrsula discovers the lovers kissing in the dark.Embarrassed, Pietro Crespi explained to her that the quality of the new kerosene lamps was to blame, and even helped her install more reliable lighting in the living room.But once again, not knowing whether there was something wrong with the oil in the lamp or if the wick had been blocked, Úrsula found Rebeca sitting on her fiancé's lap.She no longer accepts any excuses.She entrusted the bakery to the Indian woman Vicetación, and she herself sat in the rocking chair to monitor the rendezvous of lovers, lest those tricks that were outdated in her youth should not succeed. "Poor mother," said Rebeca, annoyed and amused as she watched Úrsula yawning and drowsy, "I'm going to die in this rocking chair." Pietro Crespi went to inspect the construction every day, and after three months of a love life under surveillance, finally tired of the slow progress of the project, he decided to pay Father Nicanor to make up the funds needed to complete the project.Amaranta did not panic.Every day, she embroiders or knits with her girlfriends in the porch, chatting and brewing new strategies.She thought that the most effective move, which was to take away the mothballs that Rebecca had put away before she put the wedding dress in the bedroom closet, failed because of a miscalculation.She took the action less than two months before the completion of the church, but as the wedding day approached, Rebeca couldn't wait to try on the wedding dress, much earlier than Amaranta had expected.Rebecca opened the closet, took off the wrapping paper and the lining cloth in turn, and found that everything from the brocade dress, the embroidered scarf to the orange flower tiara had been gnawed into powder by moths.She was sure that two handfuls of mothballs had been put in the package, but the tragedy seemed purely accidental and she dared not blame Amaranta.Less than a month before the wedding, Amparo Moscote generously promised to make her a new wedding dress within a week.That rainy noon, when Amparo came into the house with a pile of foamy fabrics for Rebeca to try on for the last time, Amaranta almost passed out.She lost her voice for a moment, and a stream of cold sweat ran down her spine.For months, she had waited for this moment in terror.She firmly believed that if she could not find a way to obstruct Rebecca's wedding in the end, she would not lack the courage to poison at the last moment when all means were exhausted.That afternoon, Amparo fastened tens of thousands of pins on Rebecca Zhou with endless patience. Rebecca was wrapped in the armor-like forging material and was suffocating with heat. At the same time, Ama Randa messed up her stitches many times and pricked her fingers, but still decided with terrible calm: the date was fixed on the last Friday before the wedding, by adding a dose of laudanum to the coffee.
But an even bigger and irreversible obstacle cropped up, forcing yet another indefinite postponement of the wedding.A week before the wedding, little Remedios woke up in the middle of the night, her internal organs hiccupping and tearing, and the fiery juice burst and drenched her whole body.Three days later, she was poisoned to death by her own blood, and a pair of twins also died in her belly.Amaranta was condemned by conscience.She had prayed desperately to God that something terrible would happen to prevent her from poisoning Rebeca, and she felt guilty for Remedios' death.That was not the obstacle she prayed for day and night.Remedios brought joy to the home.She and her husband cleared out a cottage next to their workshop, decorating it with dolls and toys from their farewell childhood.Her cheerful energy overflowed the walls of the room, blowing like a living breeze through a begonia gallery.She has been singing since morning.She was the only one who dared to intervene in Rebeca's quarrel with Amaranta.She took on the heavy task of caring for José Arcadio Buendía.She brought him food, waited on him daily, scrubbed him with soap and a loofah, removed fleas and lice from his hair and beard, and kept the palm-leaf canopy intact and reinforced it with tarpaulin in stormy weather. .In the last few months, she has been able to communicate with him in simple Latin.When the son of Aureliano and Pilar Ternera was brought home after the birth and named Aureliano José in a ceremony at home, Remedios decided to identify him as her own eldest son.Úrsula was amazed by her maternal instinct.As far as Aureliano was concerned, he found the meaning of existence in her.He worked all day in the workshop, and Remedios would deliver a cup of coffee without sugar in the morning.The couple went to Moscote's house every night.Aureliano and his father-in-law played game after game of dominoes, while Remedios chatted with her sisters or discussed grown-up matters with her mother.The marriage to the Buendías secured Don Apolinar Moscote's authority in the town.He made frequent trips to the provincial capital and succeeded in getting the government to establish a school in the town, which Arcadio, who inherited his grandfather's passion for teaching, took charge of.He persuaded most families to paint their houses blue in honor of Independence Day.At the request of Father Nicanor, he moved Catalino's shop to a remote street, and closed many prosperous but indecent places in the center of the town.He brought back six armed policemen to maintain order, and no one remembered the agreement that no armed men should be in the town.Aureliano admired his father-in-law's work efficiency. "You'll get fat like him too," his friends told him.But sitting and working for a long time made his cheekbones more obvious and his eyes sharper, but it did not increase his weight, nor affected his calm personality. On the contrary, it also deepened the straight line between his lips, which means With solitary contemplation and ruthless resolution.He and his wife succeeded in awakening a deep bond of affection in both families, so that when Remedios announced her pregnancy, even Rebeca and Amaranta took a break from fighting to knit blue sweaters—if the baby was A boy; and a red sweater—if it's a girl.She was the last person Arcadio thought of when facing the firing squad years later.
Úrsula ordered the doors and windows to be closed for mourning and no one was allowed to enter or leave unless absolutely necessary.She also asked not to speak loudly for one year, and placed a daguerreotype photo of Remedios in the place where the body was kept for vigil. A black sash was tied obliquely on the photo, and an ever-burning lamp was lit in front of it.Since then, the children and grandchildren have kept the lights on. Facing the little girl in the photo in a pleated skirt, white boots, and organdy bowknot, they can't help being confused, and it is difficult to connect her with the standard portrait of her great-grandmother. stand up.Amaranta assumed the care of Aureliano José.The child she had raised as a son would share her loneliness and assuage her guilt about the laudanum mistakenly dropped in Remedios's coffee because of her mad prayers to God.Pietro Crespi entered the house lightly, wearing a hat tied with black gauze, and met Rebeca silently in a black dress with long sleeves reaching her hands, her heart seemed to be bleeding secretly.At this moment even the idea of reconsidering the date of marriage will be considered disrespectful, and the relationship between lovers will stagnate forever, reduced to a burnt-out love that no one cares about anymore, as if the couple who turned off the lights for a kiss in the past have been abandoned and succumbed. The despotic power of the god of death.Lost in direction and dashed in hope, Rebecca starts eating dirt again.
After many days of mourning, the cross-stitch activities have resumed. One afternoon, at two o'clock in the afternoon, someone suddenly opened the door in the dead heat.The pillars of the house trembled, Amaranta and her girlfriend embroidering in the gallery, Rebeca sucking her fingers in the bedroom, Úrsula in the kitchen, Aureliano in the workshop, even the lonely girl under the chestnut tree. José Arcadio Buendía felt the house tremble to the ground.The person who came was a big man with extraordinary stature.His thick chest and back could barely squeeze through the door.On his bison-like neck is a statue of the Virgin of Rescue, his arms and chest are covered with mysterious tattoos, and the copper bracelet of the "Baby of the Cross" amulet is tightly wrapped around his right wrist.His body was tan from the weather, his short hair stood up like a mule's mane, his jaw was firm, and his eyes were sad.His belt was twice as wide as the horse's girdle, and his boots had leg guards and spurs, and the heels of the boots were nailed with iron palms.He carried a few worn-out duffel bags through the living room and the living room, and appeared like a storm on the begonia corridor, so startled that Amaranta and her girlfriends were motionless and the embroidery needles stopped in the air. "Hi." He said in a tired voice, threw the bag on the sewing table, and walked straight to the depths of the house. "Hi," he greeted Rebecca, who was petrified as he passed her bedroom door. "Hello," he said to Aureliano, who was engrossed in his work at the workbench in the workshop.He didn't stop by anyone, he went straight to the kitchen, where he stopped for the first time, ending his journey from the other side of the world. "Hi," he said.Úrsula froze for a moment, looked into his eyes, then uttered an exclamation, threw her arms around his neck, weeping and screaming with joy.He is Jose Arcadio.He was as destitute as when he left, and Úrsula had to pay him two pesos for the horse.His Spanish was tinged with sailor's slang.When his family asked him where he had been, he replied, "Over there." He put a hammock in the room arranged for him and slept for three days and three nights.After waking up and eating sixteen raw eggs, he went straight to Catalino's shop. His extraordinary figure aroused curiosity and panic among the women.He asked for music and offered cachaça to all.He made a bet that he could arm-wrestle five men at the same time. "It's impossible." Those people couldn't help sighing after they were sure they couldn't shake his arm, "He has a 'cross baby'." Catalino didn't believe in this kind of wrestling, and bet twelve pesos that he couldn't move the counter .José Arcadio lifted the counter from its place, raised it over his head, and placed it on the street.It took eleven men to move it back.In festive frenzy, he displayed his incredible cock on a counter, criss-crossed in red and blue and covered in multilingual tattoos.The women crowded around him hungrily, and he asked who would pay the highest price.The richest one offered twenty pesos.He also proposed that all the women draw lots together, ten pesos a lot.It was an exaggerated price, and the hottest girl earned only eight pesos a night, but all the women agreed.They wrote their names on fourteen slips of paper, put them in a hat, and each drew one.Finally, there are only two cards left, and the winner will be generated among them.
"Another five pesos each," suggested José Arcadio, "and I'll let you two share."
He does it for a living.He sailed around the world sixty-five times with a group of stateless sailors.The woman who slept with him in Catalino's shop that night took him naked to the ballroom, and let everyone watch him from forehead to back, from neck to toe, without a trace of skin or tattoos on his whole body.He failed to integrate into the family.He sleeps during the day, and goes to Fireworks Lane to gamble on strength at night.On the rare occasions Úrsula drew him to the table, he was charming and amiable, especially when he recounted exotic adventures.He had been shipwrecked and drifted in the Sea of Japan for two weeks, feeding on the corpses of his companions who died of sunburn. The flesh was marinated in seawater and baked in the sun again and again, with a sweet taste.On a sunny noonday in the Bay of Bengal, their boat killed a sea dragon, and they found a crusader's helmet, buckles, and weapons in the belly of the dragon.He had seen Victor Hughes' pirate ghost ship in the Caribbean Sea, the sails were torn apart by the wind of death, the mast was eaten away by sea cockroaches, and it could no longer find its way to Guadeloupe.Úrsula sat at the table and wept as if she were reading letters from home that never arrived, José Arcadio's tales of heroism and misfortune. "There's so much room in the house, my son," she sobbed, "so much food to feed the pigs!" But deep down, she couldn't put the boy who was taken by the gypsies for lunch with this A giant who can eat half a suckling pig and fart can wither flowers.The rest of the family felt the same way.Amaranta could not hide her disgust at hearing him hiccup like a beast during the meal.Arcadio had never learned the secret of his own parentage, and he hardly paid any attention to his questions, which were intended to win his favor.Aureliano tried to relive the old days when they shared the same room and regain the tacit understanding of boyhood, but José Arcadio had forgotten it, because there were too many things in the sea life that filled the memory .Only Rebecca was conquered by him as soon as she met.Seeing him pass her bedroom door that afternoon, she had thought that Pietro Crespi was nothing more than a hipster punk compared to this masculine embodiment who exhaled like a volcano and shook the whole house.She looked for any excuse to approach him.On one occasion, José Arcadio looked her up and down and said to her, "You are very feminine, little sister." He sucked his fingers hungrily, and even calluses formed on his thumb.She vomited green fluid mixed with dead leeches.She stayed awake at night, shivering with fever, struggling with delirium until the early morning hours when the whole house shook with the return of José Arcadio.One afternoon when the whole family was taking a nap, she couldn't take it anymore and went to his room.She found him in shorts, lying awake in a hammock tied to posts with cables.She stared at the huge body with intricate floral decorations in shock, and couldn't help but want to step back. "I'm sorry," she argued, "I didn't know you were here." She lowered her voice so as not to wake anyone else. "Come here," he said.Rebecca complied.She stood in front of the hammock, sweating coldly, feeling her internal organs tangled, while Arcadio stroked her ankles, then her calves, then her thighs with the pads of his fingers and murmured: "Little sister, Ah, little sister." A force as strong as a tornado but amazingly precise lifted her up to the waist, tore off her underwear three or two times, like tearing apart a bird, she had to hold on so that she would not die on the spot.She thanked God for her life, then lost her mind, immersed in the unbelievable pleasure born of unbearable pain, thrashed and struggled in the steaming mud of the hammock, and the spurted blood was absorbed by the mud like blotting paper .
Three days later, they were married at five o'clock Mass.José Arcadio had been to Pietro Crespi's shop the day before and had seen him giving harpsichord lessons to his students, but he hadn't called him aside to avoid them. "I'm going to marry Rebecca," he said.Pietro Crespi turned pale, handed the piano to the students, and announced the end of the lesson.When they were alone in the hall full of musical instruments and winding toys, Pietro Crespi said:
"She is your sister."
"I don't care," José Arcadio replied.
Pietro Crespi wiped his forehead with a handkerchief that smelled of lavender.
"It's against the laws of nature," he explained, "and it's not allowed by the law."
It was not Pietro Crespi's reasoning that José Arcadio lost his patience, but his pallor made it all the more irritating.
"To hell with it," he said, "I've come to tell you not to bother asking Rebecca any more."
But his brusqueness softened when he saw Pietro Crespi's moist eyes.
"Well," he changed his tone, "if you really like our family, there will be Amaranta."
In his Sunday homily, Father Nicanor declared that José Arcadio and Rebeca were not brother and sister.Úrsula regarded this as an inconceivable faux pas for which he would never forgive.When they returned from church, she forbade the couple from entering the house.To her, they were dead.So they rented a hut across from the cemetery where the only furniture was José Arcadio's hammock.On the wedding night, a scorpion got into the slipper and stung Rebecca's foot, which made her tongue numb, but this did not prevent them from spending a shocking honeymoon.Neighbors panicked at the cries that woke the neighborhood—eight times a night, three times during naptime—and prayed that the unbridled passion would not disturb the sleep of the dead.
Aureliano was the only one who cared about them.He bought them some furniture and sent money until José Arcadio regained his composure and began to work the vacant land that adjoined the courtyard of his house.Amaranta could never shake off her resentment for Rebeca, despite the fact that life had brought her more satisfaction than she could have dreamed of: Úrsula, not knowing how to wash away the shame, offered to have Pietro Crespi every day. Still came home for lunch the following Tuesday, and the latter overcame his setbacks peacefully and with dignity.Out of respect for the family, he still wore the black veil on his hat and was happy to approach Úrsula, bringing her exotic gifts: Portuguese sardines, Turkish rose jam and, once, a fine Manila Big shawl.Amaranta always received him with kindness and hospitality.She figured out his preferences, ripped the thread off his shirt cuffs, and gave him a dozen handkerchiefs with his initials embroidered on his birthday.Every Tuesday after lunch, she embroidered on the porch, and he accompanied her, enjoying herself.For Pietro Crespi, this girl whom he had always treated like a little girl was a new discovery.Although she lacks charm in appearance, she has rare sensibility, can appreciate the beauty of everything in the world, and also contains an unknown tenderness.One Tuesday, what everyone expected sooner or later would happen: Pietro Crespi proposed to her.She didn't stop what she was doing, she waited for the hot red tide in her ears to recede before she spoke, her calm voice showed her maturity.
"Certainly, Crespi," she answered, "but only when we know better. It's never good to be too hasty."
Úrsula was perplexed.Despite her fondness for Pietro Crespi, she was still not sure whether his decision after his long and troubled relationship with Rebecca was morally good or bad.Others had no such qualms, and in the end she had to accept the matter as a fact beyond judgment.Aureliano was the backbone of the family, and his opinions were mysterious but unquestionable, which added to the confusion of Úrsula.
"Now is not the time to talk about marriage."
Úrsula did not understand the meaning of this statement until a few months later, but it was the most honest opinion Aureliano could give at that time, not only concerning marriage, but also for all matters other than war.Facing the firing squad himself, he would still be unable to comprehend how a series of subtle but irresistible accidents had led him to that conclusion.Remedios' death did not cause the shock he had feared, but more like a kind of brooding anger, which gradually turned into a sense of loneliness and passive frustration, similar to the feeling he had felt when he accepted his fate and chose to be celibate.He re-immersed himself in work but retained the habit of playing dominoes with his father-in-law.In that home that was silent because of the mourning, the evening conversation deepened the friendship between the two men. "Marry again, Aurelito," his father-in-law said to him, "I have six more daughters to choose from." On the eve of the election, Don Apolinar Moscote traveled frequently, and once returned, he was the leader of the country. The political situation is worrying.Liberals have decided to go to war.Aureliano, who at that time was completely ignorant of the difference between liberals and conservatives, was briefly introduced by his father-in-law.Liberals, he said, were Freemasons, unscrupulous Masons, who advocated the hanging of priests, civil marriage and divorce, the recognition of equal rights to illegitimate and legitimate children, and attempts to divide the country into a federal system that would deprive the highest authority of its powers. .Conservatives are different. They obtain natural authority directly from God and take it as their responsibility to maintain public order and family morality. They are the defenders of Christianity and the authority of the authorities, and they will never allow the country to split and engage in self-government.Out of humanitarian sentiments, Aureliano liked the Liberals' idea of illegitimate children, but he couldn't understand how something invisible and intangible could lead to war.In his opinion, it was a bit of a big deal for his father-in-law to send six soldiers with live ammunition for the election, led by a non-commissioned officer, to this small town without the slightest political enthusiasm.Soldiers not only entered the town, but also went door-to-door collecting shotguns, machetes and even kitchen knives before distributing blue ballots with the names of conservative candidates and red ballots with the names of liberal candidates to men over the age of 21.On the eve of the election, Don Apolinar Moscote himself read out a proclamation prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and gatherings of more than three people who are not from the same household for forty-eight hours from midnight on Saturday.The election went smoothly without incident.At eight o'clock on Sunday morning a wooden box was set up in the square, guarded by six soldiers.Voting was completely free, as Aureliano could testify, and he and his father-in-law supervised almost the whole day, making sure that each voted only once.At four o'clock in the afternoon, a military drum sounded in the square to announce the end of the voting, and Don Apolinar sealed the ballot box with a label bearing his signature.That night, while playing dominoes with Aureliano, he ordered the sergeant to open the ballot box and count the votes.The number of red ballots and blue ballots is about the same, but the non-commissioned officer only keeps ten red ballots, and the rest is made up with blue ballots.Then they resealed the ballot boxes with new labels and sent them to the provincial capital early the next morning. "The liberals will definitely go to war," Aureliano said.Don Apolinar did not take his eyes off his dominoes. "If you mean the ticket exchange, they won't," he said. "They've left some red ones so they don't mind." Aureliano understood the opposition's disadvantage. "If I were liberal, I'd be fighting over the votes." The father-in-law glanced at him over his glasses.
"Ah, Aurelito," he said, "if you're a liberal, you wouldn't mind exchanging tickets even if you were my son-in-law."
It wasn't the election results that really stoked public outrage in the town, but the soldiers' failure to return confiscated weapons.A group of women approached Aureliano and begged him to get back the kitchen knives from his father-in-law.Don Apolinar Moscote explained to him very veiled that the soldiers had taken away the confiscated weapons as proof that the Liberals were preparing for war.Aureliano didn't comment on it, but Gerineldo Márquez and Magnifico Bisborough were talking about the chopper incident with other friends one evening and they asked him if he was liberal or When conservative, he didn't hesitate.
"If I had to be anything, I'd be a liberal," he replied, "because conservatives are liars."
The next day, at the request of a friend, he visited Dr. Alilio Noguera for a liver pain that did not exist.他甚至不知道自己为什么要这样做。阿利黎奥·诺格拉医生几年前来到马孔多，带着一药箱无味的药丸和一块无法令人信服的行医招牌：“一钉入，一钉出。”其实那只是伪装。那副平庸医生的无辜外表下隐藏着一个恐怖分子，借着及膝的高筒靴遮住相伴五年的脚镣在踝部留下的疤痕。他是在参加联邦派的第一次起事时被捕的，后乔装改扮逃往库拉索，被迫披上他在这个世界上最憎恶的衣服——教士袍。漫长的逃亡岁月过去，从加勒比海各地来到库拉索的流亡者带来令人振奋的消息，他大受鼓舞登上走私贩的帆船，随身带着一瓶瓶纯由白糖制成的药丸和一张他自己伪造的莱比锡大学文凭，出现在里奥阿查。但他随即失望得痛哭起来。联邦派的激情在流亡者口中被描述成一触即发的火药桶，其实早已沦为对选举的渺茫幻想。怀着受挫的苦涩，以及寻找一处安稳地方养老的渴望，这位冒牌的顺势疗法医生逃到了马孔多。他在广场一侧租下间小屋，在这摆满空药瓶的斗室里过了几年，生计全仰仗那些已经试遍所有医药，最后只靠糖丸聊作安慰的病人。在堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特有名无实的统治期间，他那煽动者的天性一直无用武之地。追忆往昔，与哮喘作斗争，他的日子一天天过去。大选的临近使他重新找到了起事的机会。他与镇上缺乏政治素养的年轻人建立联系，暗暗展开教唆工作。票箱中出现大量红色选票，堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特归因于年轻人的追新猎奇，但其实是他计划的一部分：强迫自己的门徒投票，好让他们认清选举不过是一场骗人的闹剧。 “唯一有效的，”他说，“就是暴力。”奥雷里亚诺的大多数朋友都为铲除保守秩序的念头所鼓舞，但没人敢拉他下水，这不仅因为他与里正的关系，也和他孤僻遁世的性格有关。另外众所周知，他在岳父的授意下投了蓝色选票。因此他表露自己的政治态度纯属偶然，为不存在的病痛去求诊更是完全出于一时的好奇心。猪圈般的陋室里蛛网横斜，樟脑味扑鼻，他见到的是一个浑身灰尘颇似蜥蜴的人，喘息间肺里呼啸作响。医生一言不发，先把他领到窗前，检查下眼睑。 “不是这里。”奥雷里亚诺按照人家事先所教的说道。他用指尖按住肝部，加了一句：“是这里疼得让我睡不着觉。”于是阿利黎奥·诺格拉医生推说阳光太强，关上了窗，随即向他简洁地解说为什么刺杀保守派是一种爱国行为。连续几天奥雷里亚诺都在衬衣兜里揣着小药瓶，每两个小时取出一次，倒出三粒药丸在手上，然后放进嘴里慢慢含服。堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特嘲笑他竞信任顺势疗法，但那些知情人都把他当成又一个加人的同伴。几乎所有建村元老的儿子都参与其中，但没人知晓他们所酝酿的行动的具体内容。然而有一天医生向奥雷里亚诺吐露了秘密，他终于弄清了密谋的详情。虽然当时他确信铲除保守党政权刻不容缓，但这一计划仍令他不寒而栗。阿利黎奥·诺格拉医生是个信奉个人暗杀的狂热分子，他的方案可归纳如下：将一系列个人行动汇成一次全国范围内的总攻，铲除当局官员及其亲属，特别是孩子，以达到将保守主义斩草除根的目的。堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特，他的妻子和六个女儿，自然全在目标之列。
“您不是什么自由派，您什么派也不是，”奥雷里亚诺波澜不惊地对他说道，“您就是一个屠夫。”
“这样的话，”医生同样平静地回答，“把药瓶还给我。你不再需要了。”
六个月后，奥雷里亚诺才得知医生当时曾宣布他已无可救药，说他性格被动、生性孤僻，是个感情用事、没有前途的家伙。他们担心他会泄密，试图困住他。奥雷里亚诺打消了他们的顾虑：他不会说出一个字，但在刺杀摩斯科特一家的晚上，他们将会看见他守在门口。他表现出不容置疑的决心，那计划只得无限期推延。就在这段日子里，乌尔苏拉询问他对皮埃特罗·克雷斯皮和阿玛兰妲成亲的意见，他于是回答说现在不是谈婚论嫁的时候。从一个星期前开始，他就在衬衣下藏着一把老式手枪，并监视着自己的朋友们。每天下午他与何塞·阿尔卡蒂奥和丽贝卡喝咖啡——他们的家开始有些样子了——从七点起跟岳父玩多米诺骨牌。午饭时他会与阿尔卡蒂奥聊天，后者已经长成一个身材魁伟的少年，因战争的迫近越来越兴奋。在学校里，比阿尔卡蒂奥还要年长的学生跟刚学会说话的孩子混在一起，自由派的激情在那里传播开来。他们谈论着枪毙尼卡诺尔神甫，将教堂改成学校，实现自由恋爱。奥雷里亚诺试图抑制他的狂热，劝他要小心谨慎。阿尔卡蒂奥听不进他冷静的说理和对现实的客观估计，当众斥责他性格软弱。奥雷里亚诺等待着。终于，在十二月初，乌尔苏拉惊慌失措地冲进作坊。
“开战了！”
实际上，战争三个月前就开始了。整个国家都进入戒严状态。唯一及时获悉情况的人是堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特，但他连自己妻子都没告诉，直到一支小部队突然赶到控制了镇子。他们用骡子拖着两门轻型炮，在拂晓前悄无声息地入驻，把军营扎在学校。下午六点开始实施戒严。这次搜查比前次更加严格，挨家挨户连农具也没收了。他们把阿利黎奥·诺格拉医生拖出来，绑在广场上的一棵树上，未经审判就地枪毙。尼卡诺尔神甫试图凭借腾空的神迹令军方折服，结果一个士兵用枪托给了他一下，打破了他的脑袋。自由派的群情汹涌在无声的恐惧中沉寂。奥雷里亚诺面色苍白，沉默寡言，继续和岳父玩牌戏。他明白堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特尽管还拥有镇上军政首领的头衔，实际上又一次沦为傀儡。所有决策都由一位上尉作出，他的部队每天都要征收一笔特殊的治安税。在他的命令下，四个士兵把一个被疯狗咬过的女人从家中强拖出来，当街用枪托活活打死。军事占领两星期后的一个星期天，奥雷里亚诺走进赫里内勒多·马尔克斯家，像往常一样从容地要了杯不加糖的咖啡。只剩下他们两人在厨房里时，奥雷里亚诺的声音里平添了一种此前从未有过的权威。“叫小伙子们准备好，”他说，“我们要开战了。”赫里内勒多·马尔克斯无法相信。
“用什么武器呢？”他问。
“用他们的。”奥雷里亚诺回答。
星期二午夜，在一次近乎疯狂的行动中，二十一个不到三十岁、用餐刀和尖铁棍武装起来的男子由奥雷里亚诺·布恩迪亚率领，奇袭军营，缴获武器，并在院中将上尉和四个杀害那女人的凶手枪毙。
当夜，在行刑枪声响起的同时，阿尔卡蒂奥被任命为镇上的军政首领。那些已成家的起义者甚至没有时间与妻子告别，只能任由她们从此自生自灭。黎明时，在摆脱了恐惧的镇民的欢呼声中，他们出发去投奔革命军将领维多利奥·梅迪纳，据最新消息说他的队伍正在马纳乌雷一带活动。出发前，奥雷里亚诺把堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特从衣柜里请了出来。“您不用紧张，岳父，”他说，“新政府会保证您本人和您家人的安全。”堂阿波利纳尔·摩斯科特很难将眼前脚踏高筒靴、肩挎步枪的阴谋家与晚上和他玩多米诺骨牌到九点的那个人联系起来。
“这真荒唐，奥雷里托！”他喊道。
“一点儿也不荒唐，”奥雷里亚诺回答，“这是战争。另外请不要再叫我奥雷里托，我现在是奥雷里亚诺·布恩迪亚上校。”
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