 Santiago Nasar

The protagonist of the story. He is killed the day after Angela Vicario's wedding.

Read an in-depth analysis of Santiago Nasar.

 Angela Vicario
The dishonored bride. She becomes a seamstress after being returned home on her wedding
night. She was very beautiful in her youth.

Read an in-depth analysis of Angela Vicario.

 Pedro Vicario
The more serious of the two twins. It is his idea to kill Santiago Nasar. He spent time in the
army, and after being released from prison he joins the army once again.

 Pablo Vicario
He is the twin who insists that the twins go through with the crime. He is betrothed to Prudencia
Cotes, who he marries when he is released from jail.

 Bayardo San Roman

The man who marries Angela Vicario. He comes from a wealthy and prestigious family. When
he arrives in town, he is described as having a slim waist and golden eyes.

 Purisima del Carmen

The mother of Angela Vicario. When her daughter is brought home by Bayardo San Roman,
after he discovers she is not a virgin, Purisima beats her daughter; she is a strict mother.

 Poncio Vicario
He is Angela's father. He used to work as a goldsmith until the strain of the profession made
him go blind. He dies shortly after his twin sons are sent to prison.

 Placida Linero
Santiago's mother. She has a well-earned reputation as an interpreter of dreams. She never
forgives herself for misinterpreting the dream about trees and birds that her son had the night
before his death.

 Maria Alejandrina Cervantes

An elegant whore with eyes like an "insomniac leopard." She eats excessively to mourn
Santiago Nasar's death.

 Prudencia Cotes
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 Pablo Vicario's finance. She says she would not have married Pablo if he had not upheld the
honor of his sister by killing the man who took her virginity.

 Ibrahim Nasar
Santiago's father, an Arab. He seduced Victoria Guzman when she was a teenager. He taught
his son the art of falconry and his love of firearms.

 Victoria Guzman
The Nasars' cook. She violently guts rabbits on the morning of the murder. She had an affair
with Ibrahim Nasar when she was a teenager.

 Clothilde Armenta
The proprietress of the milk shop where the Vicarios wait to kill Santiago. She is an insightful
woman, and can tell that the Vicario twins are tired and are killing Santiago only out of
obligation.

 Don Rogelio de la Flor

Clothilde Armenta's husband. He doesn't listen to her when she warns him about the Vicario
twins' plan. He dies of shock at age eighty-six when he sees the brutal way that the Vicarios
murder Santiago.

 Divina Flor
Victoria Guzman's daughter. Santiago desires her sexually, but Victoria watches carefully to
make sure he does not do anything to her.

 Margot
The narrator's sister. She feels that Santiago Nasar would be a good catch for any girl, since he
is young, handsome, and wealthy.

 Cristo Bedoya
A friend of the narrator's and of Santiago Nasar. He runs all over town at the end of the book
trying to warn Santiago of the Vicario's plan.

 Luis Enrique
The narrator's younger brother. He plays the guitar very well, and goes around with Santiago,
Cristo, and the narrator when they go to serenade Bayardo and Angela on the night of their
wedding.

 Father Amador

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 The local priest, who forgets to warn Santiago Nasar about the plot against him.

 Colonel Lazaro Aponte

The lazy Colonel who fails to prevent Santiago's murder because he is checking on his game of
dominoes.

 Faustino Santos
The local butcher who alerts a local police officer that the Vicario brothers are talking about
murdering Santiago.

 General Petronio San Roman and Alberta Simonds

Bayardo San Roman's parents. Alberta Simonds used to be the extremely beautiful; General
Petronio San Roman and she drive up in a model T Ford. The General is impressively bedecked
with war medals.

 Yamil Shaium
An Arab man who warns Cristo Bedoya about the Viacrio twins' plan to murder Santiago. He
and Santiago have an Arabic play on words that they exchange whenever they meet.

 Flora Miguel
The pretty, but uninteresting woman that Santiago Nasar was betrothed to marry.

 Nahir Miguel
The father of Flora Miguel. He is the one who warns Santiago that the Vicario brothers are
waiting to kill him.

 Xius
A widower who owned the most beautiful house; he died of sadness because he sold it; the
house held all of his dead wife's possessions.

 Mercedes Barcha
The narrator's eventual wife (and the name of Gabriel García Márquez's real wife). The narrator
proposes to her at Angela and Bayardo's wedding party.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Spanish: Crónica de una muerte anunciada) is

a novella by Gabriel García Márquez, published in 1981. It tells, in the form of a pseudo-
journalistic reconstruction, the story of the murder of Santiago Nasar by the Vicario twins.
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An Introduction to Chronicle of a Death Foretold : Gabriel García Márquez's novel
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, first published in English in 1982, is one of the Nobel Prize
winning author's shorter novels, but past and current critics agree that the book's small size
hides a huge work
of art. According to Jonathan Yardley in Washington Post Book World, Chronicle of a Death
Foretold "is, in miniature, a virtuoso performance." The book's power lies in the unique way in
which García Márquez relates the plot of a murder about which everyone knows before it
happens. A narrator tells the story in the first person, as a witness to the events that occurred.
Yet the narrator is recounting the tale years later from an omniscient point of view, sharing all
of the characters' thoughts. García Márquez's use of this creative technique adds to the mystery
of the murder. In addition, the repeated foretelling of the crime helps build the suspense. Even
though the murderers' identities are known, the specific details of the killing are not Besides its
unusual point of view, the book's themes also contribute to its success. The question of male
honor in Latin American culture underlies this story of passion and crime. As in other García
Márquez works, there is also an element of the supernatural: dreams and other mystical signs
ominously portend the murder. García Márquez's artistry in combining these elements led
critic Edith Grossman to say in Review, "Once again García Márquez is an ironic chronicler
who dazzles the reader with uncommon blendings of fantasy, fable, and fact."

Inspiration[
The novella was inspired by real-life events that occurred to García Márquez's godbrother.
García Márquez heard the story of a young couple that got married in Sucre and, on the day
following their wedding, the groom rejected the bride due to her lack of virginity. The bride was
determined to have had relations with her former boyfriend, who was consequently pursued and
murdered by the bride's two brothers in order to avenge the family's honor. Though many
publications speculated that García Márquez had witnessed the murder firsthand, the writer was
in fact not present during the events, which took place in Sucre in 1951.
There are key differences between the action of the story and what took place in reality.For one,
in the novella, it is never clear whether or not Santiago Nasar had a prior relationship with
Ángela Vicario before her wedding, whereas in real life, the bride had had sexual relations with
her former boyfriend. Additionally, García Márquez chose to make the two assassins in the
novella twins, Pablo and Pedro Vicario. In real life, they were simply brothers. Lastly, in the
book, there is a reconciliation between Ángela and the groom who rejects her, Bayardo San
Roman. In real life, there was no such reconciliation.

Key themes[edit]
The central question at the core of the novella is how the death of Santiago Nasar was foreseen,
yet no one was able to stop it. The narrator explores the circumstances surrounding his death by
asking the villagers who were present during his murder and exploring the seeming
contradiction of a murder that was predicted. The book explores the morality of the village's
collective responsibility in the murder of Santiago Nasar.
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Unlike the traditional detective novel, Chronicle of a Death Foretold doesn't investigate the
murder, which is made clear from the first sentence. Instead, the true mystery is the violation of
Ángela Vicario.
Another key motif is the use of omens and premonitions (keeping in the theme of "foretelling").
The weather, dreams, and nature all provide evidence of what is to come in the novella.

Adaptations[edit]
It was translated into English by Gregory Rabassa and Edith Grossman. The book was adapted
for the big screen in the Spanish language film: Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), an
Italian-French-Colombian co-production, directed by Francesco Rosi, starring Ornella
Muti, Rupert Everett and Anthony Delon. In 1990, Li Shaohong adapted the book into the
Golden Montgolfiere-winning Chinese film Bloody Morning, which centers on Chinese rural
society.[3] In 1995, Graciela Daniele adapted it into the Tony Award-
nominated Broadway musical titling Chronicle of a Death Foretold, which she also directed and
choreographed.
A Romanian short film was made in 2007.

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Chapter 1

On the morning of his murder, Santiago Nasar wakes up at 5:30 AM, hungover from the
wedding the night before and apparently unaware of the danger he is in. He is excited to see the
Bishop, who is supposed to visit the town that morning on his riverboat. Santiago has had a
pleasant dream about walking through a grove of trees, but upon waking he feels “spattered
with bird shit.” His mother, Plácida Linero, a skilled interpreter of dreams, later recalls to the
Narrator that she saw nothing ominous about the dream. The Narrator adds that the people
who saw Santiago that morning remember finding him in a cheerful mood, telling those he met
that it was a beautiful day. Despite this detail, however, not everyone can agree on what the
weather was like on the fateful morning. Some think it was radiant day, while others remember
it as overcast and funereal.
Santiago rises and dresses in a formal outfit of white linen. When Santiago is working in the
country, the narrator informs us, he carries a gun, but he leaves it behind today. In fact, his
house is filled with guns, but he keeps them under lock and key, a safety precaution his late
father, Ibrahim Nasar, taught him. He goes searching for aspirin and wakens Plácida
Linero in the process. He tells her about his dream, and she informs him that anything
involving birds is a good omen. He waves goodbye to her casually and heads to the kitchen.
It’s the last time Plácida Linero sees her son alive.
In recounting Santiago’s final encounter with Plácida Linero, the Narrator tells of his own
encounter with her, decades after Santiago’s murder, when he decides to interview her about the
incident. The Narrator finds her in the exact same spot Santiago found her on that fateful
morning. Now, the Narrator explains, she is alone, deeply aggrieved, and suffering from an
“eternal headache.” She mistakes the Narrator for Santiago as he walks through the door.
5
The Narrator returns to the day of Santiago’s death. In the kitchen, Victoria Guzmán, the
cook, and her teenaged daughter, Divina Flor, are hard at work. Victoria is gutting rabbits.
Divina Flor serves Santiago coffee with a shot of cane liquor. When she comes to collect the
empty mug he grabs her by the wrist and tells her she must be tamed. Victoria Guzmán, waving
a bloody kitchen knife, tells Santiago to keep his hands off her daughter. The narrator explains
that Ibrahim Nasar seduced Victoria when she was younger, and that Santiago has plans to do
the same to Divina Flor. Victoria, now angry, proceeds to gut the rabbits with ferocity, which
she knows disgusts Santiago.
Santiago, having finished his breakfast, walks to the front door of the house, accompanied
by Divina Flor. The Narrator describes the house: it is a huge, converted warehouse,
originally bought by Santiago’s father, Ibrahim Nasar. The front door of the house opens onto
the town square, while the back door opens onto the docks, where the Bishop is meant to arrive.
Santiago exits through the front door. Given that he is going to see the Bishop, this is unusual
and, as the Narrator explains, later causes the Visiting Magistrate to give the door the pulpy
title “The Fateful Door.” There is a simple explanation for his action, though: Santiago always
exited through the front door when he was dressed up. Before he exits, he grabs Divina .
Against her mother’s instructions, Divina leaves the door unlocked “in case of emergency.”
As it turns out, the Narrator explains, both Victoria Guzmán and Divina Flor know
that Santiago Nasar is about to die—earlier, a beggar had stopped by and told them the news.
Victoria later explains that she didn’t warn Santiago because she thought the threats were just
drunkard’s talk. Divina Flor, however, confesses that her mother wanted Santiago to die. For
her part, Divina explains, she was too terrified to say anything. When Santiago grabbed her
wrist, she says, his hand felt “frozen and stony, like the hand of a dead man.”
Across the square, in Clotilde Armante’s milk shop, Pedro and Pablo Vicario, twin brothers,
lie in wait. They are the men who are going to kill Santiago Nasar. Each clutches a knife
wrapped in newspaper. Seeing Santiago leave his house, they begin to get up, but Clotilde, who
knows their plan, begs them to leave him for later, out of respect for the Bishop. Miraculously,
they listen, and sit back down.
The docks are crowded with people waiting for the Bishop. Many have brought gifts: roosters,
because the Bishop loves cockscomb soup, and loads of wood. Despite the excitement, the
Bishop passes by on his steamboat without stopping, delivering a blessing from afar. Santiago,
who is at the docks, feels a little cheated, because he contributed to the loads of wood and
helped pick out the best roosters. However, Margot, the Narrator’s sister, recalls finding
Santiago in a good mood when she ran into him at the docks. She finds him walking arm in arm
with his friend, Cristo Bedoya, with whom he had been carousing at the wedding the night
before. They are speculating about the costs of the wedding, which they agree must have been
astronomical.
Margot, who has a slight crush on Santiago Nasar, invites him to breakfast. Santiago agrees
but says he must go home first, to change clothes. Margot insists that he must come at once,
without returning home first. Santiago waves her off. Cristo Bedoya remembers Margot’s

6
insistence as strange, and later wonders if she knew he was in danger. Margot tells the Narrator
she had no idea, however.
The Narrator admits it strange that Margot didn’t knowSantiago was in danger, as so many
townspeople knew by then. The Narrator finds it even stranger that his mother didn’t know.
Though she is a homebody, the Narrator’s mother always seems to maintain secret threads of
communication with the other townspeople.
Margotheads home by walking along the riverbank, where crowds of people have brought out
food to offer up to the Bishop—in vain, however, as the Bishop passed by without stopping.
Now no longer distracted by the bishop’s arrival, the townspeople begin to discuss the other
great news of the hour: Angela Vicario, the bride who was married the night before, has been
returned to her parents by her husband, the dashing Bayardo San Román, after he discovered
that she was not a virgin. Now Pablo and Pedro Vicarioare out to kill Santiago Nasar, who
they allege is responsible for deflowering their sister. Margot overhears their conversations and
rushes home.
Back home, Margot sees that the Narrator’s Mother has set an extra place at the breakfast
table for Santiago Nasar. Margot, confused and distraught, tells her to take it away, and then
begins to explain the terrible news she’s heard. Her mother seems to know what Margot is
saying before she’s even said it, and flies into a panic. Hoping to warn Plácida Linero, she
rushes out into the street, trailing Jaime the toddler and cursing under her breath about
“lowlifes.” She hears a great commotion coming from the direction of the square. A passerby
tells her that it’s too late: Santiago is dead.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Chapter 2
The Narrator begins by recounting the arrival of Bayardo San Román, the man who
marries Angela Vicario. Bayardo first appears, apparently at random, on a steamboat coming
up the river. He is the richest, best-dressed, most dashing man the town has ever seen. He
claims to be a track engineer, but remains fundamentally mysterious to the townsfolk. The
Narrator, who is in college when Bayardo arrives, hears about him through his mother’s letters,
which are filled with praise for the man. When the Narrator returns home for Christmas and
finally meets Bayardo face to face, he finds him overly serious, not quite as charming as
everyone claims, and fundamentally sad.
There is some confusion in the public memory about how and when Bayardo San
Román decided he wanted to marry Angela Vicario. Some claim that Bayardo, sitting on the
porch of the boarding house where he was staying, saw Angela Vicario with her mother across
the square, and declared right then and there that he was going to marry her.
Others say that Bayardo San Román first sawAngela Vicario at a charity bazaar. A music box
was being raffled off. Bayardo bought all of the raffle tickets, won the music box by default,
and later snuck into Angela’s bedroom to leave the music box for her as a gift. Thinking this
indecent, Angela’s mother, Purísima del Carmen, sent her sons Pedro and Pablo to return the
gift to Bayardo. The twins returned later that night, however, drunk, with Bayardo in tow, and
still carrying the music box they were supposed to get rid of.
7
The Narrator describes the Vicario family. They are poor and extremely conservative—the
matriarch Purísima del Carmen “looks like a nun.” Angela is the youngest of four daughters,
one of whom is dead; when Bayardofirst arrives, the Vicario women are “still observing a
mourning that [is] relaxed in the house but rigorous in the street.”
While Pablo and Pedro Vicario are raised to be men, the daughters are taught to be good
wives, trained to embroider, sew, and make paper flowers. Angela is the prettiest of the
daughters, but she has a “poverty of spirit” that does not bode well for her eligibility. It thus
strikes everyone as strange that Bayardo wants to marry her.
Still, the Vicario family is excited when Bayardo expresses interest. Pura Vicario(Purísima) is
less excited, but agrees to arrange the marriage if Bayardo properly identifies himself. Bayardo
does so by producing his entire family. His father, General Petronio San Román, is a war hero
of note. The townspeople recognize him from pictures they’ve seen in the news. The whole
family, of course, is filthy rich.
After this revelation, it seems that Angela Vicario is the only one left who is apprehensive
about the marriage. She doesn’t love Bayardo, and has had no say in the matter. It is a short
engagement, however, due to Bayardo’s urgings.
Bayardo asks Angela which house in the town she likes best. She answers casually that the old
widower Xius’ house is her favorite. Upon hearing this, Bayardo approaches the widower Xius
and asks to buy the house along with all its furnishings. Xius says it isn’t for sale: he’s keeping
it all if only for the memory of his beloved wife. But Bayardo is persistent, eventually offering
him an incredible amount of money—in cash. Xius can’t refuse, and, with his eyes filled with
tears of rage, he agrees to sell the house. Dr. Dionisio Iguarán tells the Narrator that the
episode was so upsetting for poor Xius that it eventually killed him.
Meanwhile, Angela Vicario grows increasingly worried. She shares her secret—that she isn’t a
virgin as everyone thinks—with her female friends. They reassure her that most women have
had sex by the time they get married, and that their husbands are either too clueless or too
mortified to put up a stink about it. In addition, they teach her a few tricks she can employ to
fake her virginity, such as using mercurochrome to stain the conjugal sheets. Angela is
heartened by their counsel, and calms down a bit about the coming wedding.
The wedding ends up being the largest the town has ever seen, thanks mostly to Bayardo’s
extravagance. Still, Pura Vicario insists on hosting the reception on the terrace of her own
modest house, right by the pigsty where Pablo and Pedro slaughter their hogs. Bayardo’s
family, accompanied by many people of note, arrive by boat, bearing lavish gifts. The
Narrator, Santiago Nasar, and Cristo Bedoya attend together. Santiago Nasar obsessively
tries to calculate the cost of the wedding, and exchanges quips to that effect with Bayardo.
Eventually Bayardo and Angela take their leave of the party and head to the widower Xius’
house, but before doing so Bayardo instructs the guests to keep on partying in his absence.
Here things get hazy for the Narrator. He remembers only flashes: his sister the
nun drunkenly dancing, Dr. Dionisio Iguarán escaping on a boat so as not to be seen by the
Bishop the next morning, people tripping over poor old blind Poncio Vicario, the Narrator
8
himself proposing to Mercedes Barcha, an offer she takes him up on fourteen years later.
Eventually the Narrator, his brother Luis Enrique, Santiago Nasar, and Cristo Bedoya end up
at María Alejandrina Cervantes’brothel. Pablo and Pedro Vicario are there as well, and all
six of them drink and sing together.
Back at the Vicario household, things are much quieter. However, in the middle of the
night, Pura Vicario is awakened by a knock on the door. It’s Bayardo San Román. Angela
Vicario is standing beside him, her dress in tatters. To Pura they look like ghosts. Bayardo
refuses to enter. He pushes Angela into the house, gives Pura a kiss on the cheek, and thanks
her, calling her a “saint.” Surmising what has happened, Pura flies into a rage, and savagely
beats Angela. She summons Pedro and Pablo back to the house. Pedro, ever the assertive one,
asks Angela who took her virginity. She wastes no time in telling him: it was Santiago Nasar.