Samantha Powell
Period 2A
4/21/11
Work Count: 1165
Letter to Bayardo San Roman: an example of one of the letters Angela Vicario sends to
Bayardo San Roman in A Chronicle of a Death Foretold
In the novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Angela
Vicario can be considered the main character since she is the most quoted character in the
novel. However, she remains an enigmatic and mysterious character throughout the
novel. Transition? Relevance of following quote is a bit unclear Even as a young girl the
narrator describes her as, “having a helpless air and a poverty of spirit that augured an
uncertain future for her"(32), despite the fact that she was the most beautiful of her four
sisters and therefore would have the greatest chance of marrying.
In this assignment, I will be writing a letter by Angela Vicario to Bayardo San
Roman. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Angela writes a letter to Bayardo once a week,
but none are in the novel. The narrator describes the multiple letters as “fiancée’s notes,
then they were little messages from a secret lover, business papers, love documents” (94).
For mine, it will be of the love document variety. I will have Angela explain her reasons
for not wanting to marry Bayardo, why she decided not to fake her virginity like her
friends told her to, and how she understands the events that took place now.
When the narrator finally sees Angela twenty-three years after the murder, he
describes her as “understanding her own life” (89) and a “mistress of her fate” (93). The
letter I will write will be at the time when she is just starting to understand her life. It will
also convey that every act she did on the night of her marriage was of her own free will.
Even though at times her character seems very weak in the area of her personal free will,
the night of her marriage seems to be a point where she breaks free from that and takes
control if her life and starts to live by her standards.
A motif in Chronicle that Marquez uses is magical realism. In my letter I will use
magical realism in the same was Marquez did, which is to use mystery to convince the
reader that the view you are seeing is actual reality. I will also incorporate many of the
novels themes in to my letter such as honor and ritual. The letters themselves are
examples of ritual in the novel, as is the way Bayardo courted Angela. Since Angela
disproves of the way she was courted, this is another theme of going against culture,
personal growth, and self-honor. I will also include these themes as they relate to
Angela’s growth as a character.
Identify examples from your letter in which you include the devices stated above—
magical realism, honor, ritual etc.
Querido Bayardo,
I’m not sorry. That I wasn’t a virgin I mean. I’m also not sorry I couldn’t bring
myself to fake it, for lack of better words. Even before I made up my mind to tell you, I
couldn’t have gone through with it. From me, it was unexpected. My sisters and I were
never let out as young women and no other man had shown interest in me. I considered
killing myself, but I didn’t have the courage. Telling my mother the truth was also
another option, but I was talked out of it. I made myself believe I could fake the stain of
honor. I put on the veil and orange blossoms like any other bride would. I convinced
myself that I could go through with this and that I could actually get you drunk enough to
believe I was a virgin with a Mercurochrome stain. My cousin says it was because of I
decency I possessed.
You really should have properly courted me instead of integrating with my family
like you did. We might have been able to avoid this whole situation. How? Perhaps
allude to how the detached courtship made Angela feel? I tried with my family;
admittedly, it was a weak effort and didn’t work much. “Love can be learned too” (35)
are the exact words my mother used. Love was the best argument I could find against you
that might have made a difference. The way you just decided you were going to marry
me; arrogant and too much of a man for me wouldn’t have been very good arguments,
especially considering the way I was raised. My sisters and I were brought up to be
perfect wives; we were raised to live with any man who would marry us, with all his
imperfections and needs, we were raised to suffer. The man who took my virginity wasn’t
like you. I saw him that night of our wedding. I know it became a public event, but he
was one of the original party who had been invited. I sometimes wonder what would have
happened if either of us had legitimately felt remorse. It wasn’t a long romance or
anything like. In fact, it was very brief encounter, but it was long enough.
My family would hear none of my objections to you. We didn’t come from
money like yours did. We had modest means and lived a modest lifestyle. Who was I to
refuse what you could offer me? Strangely, I felt free when you returned me. It was then I
fell in love with you. Any hint as to WHY she fell in love at this moment? I realized that
my whole personal nightmare was over. I was no longer frightened, but at peace. Even
when my mother beat me for dishonoring the family, I wasn’t frightened. She was the
only one who was legitimately angered at me. Pablo and Pedro were angered at the man
who had dishonored me, and by extent of family, them as well. They believed that he was
to blame; my mother believed I was at fault. I believe all she wanted was for me and my
sister to have more than she did and I went and it threw it all away for myself. To her, I
must have seemed like an ungrateful shit. She definitely approved and pushed for our
marriage.
To me, it was perfectly understandable. I simply didn’t want to live in a life that
was based on a lie. My whole life, I had been living as someone who wasn’t me. I made
up my mind to die as a whole person rather than live as a half of one. As soon as the
moment of death came, that’s when I fell in love with you. Somewhere I appreciate the
irony, but you really were all I thought about after you returned me. I’m still not sure why
I couldn’t deceive you. I mean to say, I had every personal reason, and a listened to those
most of all, but I also considered the fleeting thought of you in my mind. All my previous
thoughts contradicted the single one of you.?? You were a reason to endure my mother’s
fiery anger. You shouldn’t have had to been married to a dishonored dishonorable? bride.
But like I said, I tried to stop it.
With Love,
Angela