1. Rosa The Beautiful

"never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own." p.11 - premonition as "spoiler" or foreshadowing - the techniques of storytelling are made real - #genre #magicalrealism

"Barrabás arrived on a Holy Thursday... had the lost look of a hapless, utterly defenceless prisoner" p.11 Barabbas - pardoned by the crowd - Pilate's handwashing - a refusal of #responsibility, #sacrifice. Why is he described as hapless and utterly defenceless here - who else in the text is described as such and what does Barrabás' death and skinning take from this? Latinization of the name - also according to the Wikipedia article the word is possibly also used for Bandit or Revolutionary?

Beneath these funereal sheets the celestial retinue resembled nothing so much as a roomful of furniture awaiting movers, an impression that the candles, the incense, and the soft moans of the organ were powerless to counteract. Terrifying dark bundles loomed where the life-size saints had stood, each with its influenza-pale expression, its elaborate wig woven from the hair of someone long dead, its rubies, pearls and emeralds of painted glass, and the rich gown of a Florentine aristocrat (p. 11)

#ritual #anachronism use of #assonance/alliteration - weighs the words down, slows them, gives the illusion space to breathe before bringing it back into the real with sickness, death, false-power, and dead empires. Is this more #foreshadowing - Rosa's death in sickness, Niveá and Severo's death, the sock with the jewels Clara leaves for Blanca, Count De Satigny
Somber and extravagant, perhaps an association with the century/ past that is being left behind, or of the "magic" that Esteban I think explains later is what Communism is missing in order to win in South America?

"pierced by arrows, and dripping with blood and tears like a suffering homosexual, whose wounds, kept miraculously fresh by Father Restrepo's brush, made Clara tremble with disgust" p.12 "miracle" as the result of commitment/ dedication - Clara would later do the same for the Big House On The Corner - flowers, the garden.

the priest was blessed with a long, incriminating finger, which he used to point out sinners in public, and a tongue well schooled in arousing emotions... 'And there is the shameless hussy who prostitutes herself down by the docks!' he accused Doña Ester Trueba, disabled by arthritis and a devotee of the Virgin del Carmen, who opened her eyes wide, not knowing the meaning of the word or where the docks were p.12

is that the first mention of any of Esteban's family? Interesting that his mother is not initially identified as such, just as a character in the congregation, even though her son is already engaged to Rosa. The narrative at this point comes from Clara's perspective - establishing the emotional power dynamic early - throughout, Esteban is frustrated by his inability to own either Rosa or Clara emotionally - Intimate Authoritarianism The Ideology of Abuse