Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Santiago Nasar wakes up early on the day that he will be killed. He rises early to wait for the arrival of a boat; onboard is the bishop. The previous night, Santiago dreamed about “a grove of timber trees” (1). Now, he is nursing a headache as he slept “little and poorly” (2). People will not quite remember whether the weather is cloudy or fine on the morning of Nasar’s murder. They will all agree that he was in a good mood. Santiago is dressed in white linen clothes. He wore the same outfit to a wedding the previous day.

Santiago visits Plácida Linero, his mother, to ask for aspirin. He is a pale, slim man and an only child. His parents married for convenience rather than love. From his mother, he is said to have inherited a sixth sense. From his father, he inherited a love for guns, horses, and falcons. Like his father, he typically sleeps with his gun “hidden in his pillowcase” (3), but on this particular morning he removes the bullets and leaves the gun on his nightstand. Santiago’s father had Arab ancestry; he and his father would speak in Arabic to one another. The death of Santiago’s father caused Santiago to lose faith in his academic pursuits. He dropped out of school “to take charge of the family ranch” (6).

According to Victoria Guzmán, the weather was clear on the day of Santiago’s murder. She was in the kitchen, preparing rabbit meat. She works as a cook in Placida’s home. Santiago enters the kitchen and is served a cup of coffee and liquor by Victoria’s daughter, Divina Flor. Santiago drinks such a coffee “to bear the burden of the night before” (7). As she takes the cup from Santiago, he unexpectedly grabs her arm and tells her that the time has come for her to “be tamed” (8). Victoria dismisses him, brandishing her bloody knife. She claims that she will never be “tamed” while she remains alive. When she was an adolescent, she had an affair with Santiago’s father. Both Victoria and her daughter have heard the rumors in town that someone plans to kill Santiago. They both dismiss the rumors as untrue, however.

The “earthshaking bellow of the steam boat” (9) wakes everyone in the house. Santiago is led to the front door by Divina. Unusually, Santiago uses the front door of the house. He only uses this door—which is usually locked—on “festive occasions” (10). On his way out, Santiago sexually assaults Divina, as “he always did when he caught [her] alone in some corner of the house” (12). She feels an urge to cry. According to Divina, the moment Santiago exited the house, the boat horns stopped, and the cockerels started to crow. Unseen by Santiago, someone has slipped an envelope under the door. Inside, an unnamed person warns him that he may be murdered. The envelope will not be found until “long after” (13) the murder.

As Santiago and his family walk to meet the bishop, two men wait for him in the local milk shop. They are twins named Pedro and Pablo Vicario; they intend to murder Santiago. They are “hard-looking, but of a good sort” (14). Still dressed in their dark wedding suits from the day before, they hide their knives in old newspapers.

A crowd has gathered on the dock with presents to give to the bishop. Though the crowd is waiting for him, the bishop never steps off the boat. He stands on the deck, making “the sign of the cross” (16), until the boat sails away. He chats to his friend about the cost of the wedding and “the wildest party the town had ever seen” (17). Margot—the narrator’s sister—speaks to Santiago. She invites him to her house for breakfast. She is attracted to Santiago and feels happy for Santiago’s fiancé, Flora Miguel. Santiago accepts the breakfast invitation but insists on returning home first to change into “his riding clothes” (18). Everyone on the dock seems to know about the rumors concerning Santiago’s murder. Most of them believe the rumors are nothing more than gossip. They consider it to be “impossible” that he has not been warned.

On the dock, Margot speaks to people who have visited the home of Angela Vicario, the sister of the twins, Pedro and Pablo. The previous day, Angela married Bayardo San Román. When the time came to consummate the marriage, however, Bayardo returned Angela to her parents’ home. He declared that “she wasn’t a virgin” (20), so he could not marry her. Margot cannot imagine how Santiago has become embroiled in this scandal. She returns home and talks to her mother, Luisa Santiaga. Margot tells her mother about the rumors concerning Santiago’s murder. Luisa visits Plácida to share these ominous rumors. As she walks to Placida’s house, however, a person runs past and announces that “they’ve already killed him” (23).