Summary of The Secret Plagues
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ScribdTranslationsSummary of The Secret Plagues
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ScribdTranslationsSUMMARY OF THE SECRET PLAGUES
Juan Manuel Roca
The book brings together fourteen stories whose plots are very varied and talk about diverse
themes, these are:
In the café
It is a painting by Madame Ginoux, which is located in a museum and where
She looks smiling sitting at a table in a café in a brothel, behind her there is a table.
of billiards and he is talking about what he feels and sees from himself (a picture, after all).
It tells how Van Gogh mixed colors while painting, and it also talks about Simón.
Bolívar, his family, and his stubbornness... All from the wall of the museum.
The walls have the word
He speaks of the hands of a man named Calderón, who had arthritis and his hands were
twisted and tells how this man walked around at night painting walls and making
graffiti and slogans in a clandestine manner and to whom it had been assigned in his new
I work to cover the walls full of graffiti with lime. I knew what each one of them was like.
walls and the story that each wall told.
In the story, there is mention of the statue of Simón Bolívar that is near the capitol and
remember some parts of the history of this character and tells us how still
bronze dress continues living stories from this place.
He says that the walls are memories that hold secret stories.
The Dialogue of the Antipodes
Here we are told about a man named Isidoro León, who was fond of stories.
of holiness and mysticism and of whom they said was a lunatic.
One day he wrote a letter to Brother José Manuel Macías where he expressed his opinion to him.
various writings that I had read about different characters and saints and I told him about
his personal desires and interests and how he vented in a mirror that recruited
his dreams.
Similarly, in the same village lived a man named Johnnes Kauffmann, who wrote
a letter to his friend Claude Seignolle who compiled the 'gospels of the devil' that
they narrated stories since the time of the Inquisition and in this letter he was telling him how he
they were passionate about these topics.
It concludes by saying how these 2 characters had never met, and that despite
that their passions were opposite; some speak to the devil to be heard by God.
The man who did not read detective stories
It starts with a dialogue between a retired journalist named Ferguson and a writer of
police stories called Mr. Graziano, who told him that murderers do not read the
police stories.
Between meetings, the writer told Ferguson a story that was
writing, but he always withdrew quickly. One day he went out and Graziano followed him and
he killed him by stabbing him with a knife, then, dying, he asked him if it was true that
the murderers did not read crime stories and he replied that they did not read them but they did
they wrote and thus he knew how to bring his story to an end.
The episode of the ubiquitous
It speaks of a little man called 'the poetaster' who had the gift of
ubiquity and it could be seen everywhere at the same time... the truth seemed more like a
history and I could not relate it to a social event in my country.
The secret plagues
Here the author talks about stray bullets that kill innocent people in a manner
indiscriminate and involving slaps and pinches, which I believe are physical and moral violence that
has been lived in the country.
Who fears the libero?
This story is about a man named Anzoátegui, who was a soccer player that now
in his old age he walked with a limp because years ago the black Díaz had made him close a
metal door over his legs, so Mr. Anzoátegui was looking for him to
to bury his knife in him, but one day he saw him and decided not to do it since he saw him very old and
defeated, more than him, and it was better to let life do its thing, just like in his own life
which she already felt was entering its final moments.
The man who was searching for his smile
It is about a man who lost his smile as a result of several events that took it away.
blurring. He was searching for her diligently but could not find his. He eventually found
another, but he only wanted his, as he was not able to pretend it. The day he died his
the girlfriend questioned the loss of her smile as it evoked that she had never had it.
stopped smiling at him.
The Chronicles of Forgetting
In this tale, the author speaks about a friend of his, a chronicler and poet, who had a great
talent for reconstructing the stories of the people who committed suicide in the high place of
Tequendama. It speaks of how these stories were chronicles of oblivion as time went by.
that these people would be forgotten, just like the stories he wrote. José Aicardi
died in an accidental event while heading to the Tequendama Falls and not in a
suicide due to the demons of alcohol, as I had written in one of my poems.
May Plaza
In this story, the author mentions women who have their missing children.
those who gathered in Plaza de Mayo many years ago and despite the time their
you have not been able to silence
The board
It is a meeting where all its members express their opinions about their power and status and where
the author describes each of them and concludes by referring to a common character as
a peasant takes a shot and dismantles the assembly of those egocentric men.
Merry Christmas Mr. Amézquita
In this story, the loneliness of a violinist with a good position is reflected.
economics falls into the vice of alcohol when an ambitious merchant arrives, and little by little
he is losing everything, even magically his chimney, his window, and in short everything with which
He used to tell. His addiction was so great that he did not realize it led him to ruin and exile.
This book makes a comparison with the government's rule of the country, which without us realizing it
is taking away our things.
The escape of the vampire
This story is based on Johannes the Obscure, the nickname of Count Dracula, who is a
vampire. Johannes comes from Italy and decides to move to Colombia, and after the
insistent curiosity of Charon about why this drastic change decides to answer him: the
the idea of spilled blood in heaps seduced him and concluded it was the perfect space for
someone like him. Someone who was more bone than flesh itself. The character lives in
Colombia, between 1948-1956 where violence ruled the country. The subject
The main theme of the book is the mockery related to the violence that provoked a lot.
of blood and this in turn "an infinite feast" for the character.
Harangue of the resentful
In this story, the author unloads resentment towards his father who has just passed away.
who his children feared more than loved. His name was Jacob and he was a man of
high relationships, who was an alcoholic and had bought a newspaper with the money that
had stolen from his brother's inheritance.
Biography of Juan Manuel Roca
He was born in Medellín on December 29, 1946. He is an important writer, poet, and journalist.
and Colombian essayist who has stood out for his immense contribution to cultural journalism
from his land.
For 17 years, he has been coordinating one of the poetry workshops offered by Casa Silva.
He is one of the most recognized talents of contemporary Colombian poetry. To
emigrating from poetry to narrative, Roca produces surprising results: it is worth noting
the wonderful use of language to build stories of ordinary people, full of
images that give the narrative a poetic dimension.
As a child, he moved to Paris with his parents to return in his years of
youth and founding the Sunday Magazine of "El Espectador". Moreover, he collaborated with the
creation of 'Clave de Sol' and 'La Sagrada Escritura', a magazine and a cultural newspaper.
On the other hand, he has always been connected to poetry appreciation workshops in Bogotá.
Roca has received important awards for his career, among which are the
Eduardo Cote Lamus awards and short story awards from the University of Antioquia; journalism,
Simón Bolívar Award and the Casa de América of American Poetry. In 1997, the University
del Valle was awarded the Honorary Doctorate in Literature.
Some of his most well-known works are: 'The Secret Plagues and Other Stories', 'Moon
"Of the blind" and "The pianist of the land of waters". Poems: "Letter in the mailbox of the wind",
"Monologue of José Asunción Silva“, "Revelation of Silencethe secret plagues.
PERSONAL OPINION
All the stories within the book are critiques from the author towards society.
Colombian.
I could deduce that the book is called that because you talk about negative situations of our
country, as if they were plagues, which seem secret because we leave
getting used to them or simply because we don't want to see beyond the situation.
I see how in the book the author criticizes the violence that our country has lived in since ages.
previous ones up to the current one, as the history of the country has not been easy and has been lived through
a lot of violence, indiscriminate deaths due to armed wars and also to the
physical and moral violence that Colombians have experienced and which to everyone at some point
moment has affected us and likewise the author.
In my opinion, it is a book that uses language as a tool to criticize the negatives.
of the Colombian Society, showcasing and highlighting real-life situations.
I enjoyed the book, although in some parts I had to reread or ask about.
some facts to make it more understandable what the author wanted to say, like
for example, in the meeting that seems to be the congress, the senate, or something similar where
Everyone speaks but for their own interest, without realizing that in the end, it is the community that decides.
from the people, although this can be given many other explanations.