Maria Alejandrina Cervantes—Commentary—Chronicle of a Death Foretold

“I dreamed that a woman was coming into the room with a little girl in her arms, and that the child was chewing without stopping to take a breath, and that half-chewed kernels of corn were falling into the woman’s brassiere. The woman said to me: ‘She crunches like a nutty nuthatch, kind of sloppy, kind of slurpy.’ Suddenly I felt the anxious fingers that were undoing the buttons of my shirt, and I caught the dangerous smell of the beast of love lying on my back, and I felt myself sinking into the delights of quicksand of her tenderness.” (89-90).

Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, the voluptuous, tasteful, tender prostitute in Chronicle of a Death Foretold has more significance than meets the eye. Firstly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the author of the book, uses magic realism in context with the character of Maria Alejandrina Cervantes in order to convey the notion of irony. After all, Marquez does indeed eulogistically portray whores as members of the upper classes. Throughout the book, there is a cynical tone and deathly images that lead to accentuate the negative effect of Santiago Nasar’s death on the society. Noting Santiago Nasar’s impact on the town, the book may be considered a symbol of the end of the world. This quote (referring to “I dreamed…out of my life.” [Marquez, 89-90]) amalgamates the motifs of dreams and magic realism regarding Maria Alejandrina Cervantes through the use of literacy devices to manifest a eschatological postulation of the apocalypse, assuming that Santiago Nasar is a symbol of Jesus Christ.
Dreams in the book are quite significant yet vaguely linked to any set concept. The author presents the audience with one of the narrator’s dreams, “I dreamed that a woman…kind of slurpy.” (89-90). The woman addressed in this quote is presumably Maria Alejandrina Cervantes seeing