42 pages • 1 hour read
Carlos Fuentes, Transl. Alfred J. MacAdamThe Death of Artemio Cruz
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1962A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
A 71-year-old Artemio Cruz (narrating in the first-person present tense) wakes up in a hospital bed. The year, though it is not stated, is 1960. Next to him are his wife, Catalina, and their daughter, Teresa, who is reading the newspaper her father owns. Padilla, Cruz’s trusted secretary, arrives with a tape recorder to record their conversation, as he does for all Cruz’s business dealings. Cruz is in acute pain, and he notices each physical sensation despite the fact that he is losing his memory. He remembers a turbulent plane ride from Sonora to Mexico City on a day when he had several conversations with Mexican government officials with whom he used to do business in real estate, natural resources (such as mines and timber), and the newspaper that Cruz owns. The narration shifts to second-person self-talk as Cruz’s disparate memories suggest that he took advantage of the poor conditions of peasants after the Mexican Revolution to charge high-interest loans on land. Cruz also leverages his newspaper to print libelous materials about his political opponents.
Chapter 1 Summary: “1941: July 6”
A third-person narrative picks up in 1941 with Cruz in the back of a limousine, reading the newspaper. Meanwhile, Catalina and Teresa are shopping in a high-end boutique whose owner dotes on them while privately mocking them for their short legs. Catalina and Teresa are preparing for Teresa’s wedding and lamenting that Cruz is not helping with the preparations. Afterward, they have a decadent breakfast before returning to their home in Las Lomas.
Cruz drives through the familiar streets of Mexico City to a meeting with American officials. Cruz successfully convinces them to bribe him by means of a tax if they want to do business in Mexico. Cruz and his young secretary, Padilla, have lunch at a new restaurant. Cruz quizzes Padilla on what he is learning at university, to which Padilla responds that he studies Marxism.
Back in the present-day in the hospital, Cruz recounts other fragmented memories, including crossing a river on horseback. He orders Padilla to record him, while Catalina and Teresa feign concern for him despite their obvious disapproval. Cruz fades in and out of consciousness and pictures himself being buried in his own coffin. He believes that he will die satisfied, having fulfilled his potential and achieved his destiny.
Chapter 2 Summary: “1919: May 20”
Cruz recalls the circumstances surrounding his first encounter with his wife, who is the daughter of a wealthy landowner, Gamaliel Bernal. Cruz decides to visit the town of Puebla where the Bernal family lives. Cruz’s connection to the Bernals is that he knew Gamaliel’s son, Gonzalo, when they were imprisoned together during the war. When Gamaliel receives Cruz, Cruz announces the death of Gamaliel’s son Gonzalo with feigned grief. Cruz recounts their experience in prison together, painting Gonzalo as an idealistic and committed soldier, dedicated to the revolution. Gamaliel invites Cruz to stay for dinner in his well-appointed home. Gamaliel introduces Cruz to his daughter, Catalina, who receives Cruz suspiciously. Cruz flirts with Catalina by caressing her toes under the table. Though she is reluctant, Catalina is resigned to the fact that, with her brother dead, her fate is entirely in the hands of her father.
It is later revealed that Cruz visits a priest before visiting Bernal. It is the priest who directs Cruz to visit Bernal, explaining that he has a marriageable daughter. The priest also reveals that, though Bernal is rich in land, he has amassed significant debt, owing to a peasant strike. The priest also remarks that Cruz would be a fine candidate to revive Bernal’s fortune, whereupon Cruz directs himself to the family home.
Introduction-Chapter 2 Analysis
The novel’s stream-of-consciousness narration is marked by three distinct narrative voices. The pattern of the voices in the opening chapters (excepting the introduction, which contains no third-person section) recurs in each subsequent chapter of the book. Each chapter opens with third-person sections that recount specific instances at various times in Cruz’s life. The events of these sections take place during one discrete year. This narration is the most traditional among the three, as it offers a third-person omniscient perspective without Cruz’s own editorializing. The third-person section gives way to a first-person section, wherein Cruz articulates the discomfiting physical sensations he experiences as his body rapidly and perceptibly decays. The final, second-person section is the least traditional of the three narrative modes, as it reports scattered memories of Cruz's life from his own perspective, evaluated in retrospect, in conversation with himself.
Each these narrative voices accompanies a different tense: The third-person sections are in the past tense, the first-person sections are in the present tense, and the second-person sections are in the future tense. This unconventional use of the future tense, coupled with the equally rare second-person narration, signals the novel’s willingness to experiment with unconventional modes of storytelling.
Alternating among three narrative voices reinforces the notion that reality is a matter of perception, and the three shifting tenses mirror the way thoughts and memories take shape in a person’s mind. Particularly, the second-person sections demonstrate how human beings are people are inclined to justify their actions in retrospect, however flagrant or morally questionable these actions may be.
The backdrop of the Mexican Revolution adds to the tragedy of Cruz’s life. Though materially successful, Cruz’s present state of decay, in addition to being a memento mori (reminder of the inevitability of death), suggests that the ruthless and extortionary acts he committed for personal gain at the expense of Mexico’s common people were in vain, as his wealth will not accompany him in death.
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