One Hundred Years of Solitude: Chapter 11  Summary & Analysis

The marriage of Fernanda del Carpio and Aureliano Segundo is nearly broken up when Aureliano Segundo allows Petra Cotes to dress as the Queen of Madagascar and takes her picture. When Aureliano Segundo married Fernanda del Carpio, Petra Cotes remained unthreatened, and indeed Aureliano Segundo returned to her immediately after his honeymoon ended. When he returns to her, naming her the lifetime ruler of Madagascar, she can tell this extravagant act of reconciliation proves he feared losing her. She can see that he is intent on keeping up the charade of his marriage, and so she keeps as a souvenir of him in her home only the patent leather boots that he wants to buried in, insuring that he will need to return at some point, if only for the boots.

Fernanda is out of her element in Macondo. She had been raised in an insular city. Her sickly mother speaks only of the prosperous past, telling her daughter that they are rich and powerful and that one day she will be queen, despite evidence to the contrary. At twelve, she is sent to a convent for school, but she refuses to mingle with the other girls, thinking herself better than them. Eight years later she returns from the convent to her nearly empty home to weave funeral wreaths. Her trip to Macondo is her first time out of her home city and it opens her eyes to all that her parents have hidden from her throughout her life.

After the carnival, Aureliano Segundo has little to go on in his search for Fernanda. Eventually he finds her inside the home that bears a sign advertising funeral wreaths. With her she brings her trousseau, a candelabra, a silver service and a gold chamber pot. She carries a calendar that allows for sex on only 42 days of the year. Fernanda insists on two weeks of abstinence with her new husband, and when she finally permits him into her bedroom, he finds her in a modest nightgown with a hole to allow penetration. Aureliano Segundo exclaims that the garment is the most obscene thing he has ever seen.

Shortly before their first child is born, Fernanda realizes that her husband still secretly visits Petra Cotes. Aureliano Segundo claims he must visit her so that the animals will remain fertile, and in time she is convinced of this reasoning. Fernanda is not embraced by the family though, as she refuses to assimilate. Amaranta speaks in gibberish to Fernanda, insulting her and making fun of her way of speaking, until they stop speaking to one another. Fernanda insists on formal meals where they pray the rosary beforehand. She insists the candy business is put to a stop.

When Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo’s first daughter is born, Fernanda asks that she be called Renata, but Úrsula has already decided on Remedios. They compromise on Renata Remedios, with Fernanda calling her Renata and the rest of the family and town calling her Meme. Fernanda talks constantly and reverently about her saintly father. Each Christmas, he sends them life-size stone statues, the last of the family’s possessions. On the tenth Christmas, they open the large box to discover a lead chest sealed shut. Inside is the dead Don Fernando, Fernanda’s father.

A jubilee is held by the government for Colonel Aureliano Buendía, but none of the family attend. Seventeen men arrive to Macondo for the celebration. Aureliano Segundo throws them a party. Colonel Aureliano Buendía is skeptical of the men claiming to be his sons, at first, but he gives them all a gold fish before they leave. Aureliano Segundo offers the opportunity for all of them to stay and work for him, but only Aureliano Triste takes him up on the offer. On Ash Wednesday they attend church with Amaranta and receive the sign of the cross on their foreheads. The marks prove permanent for the seventeen half-brothers.

Aureliano Triste sets up the ice factory his grandfather had dreamed of on the edge of town. He looks for a home for himself and inquires about the house in the square where Rebeca and José Arcadio (I) had lived. When he breaks down the door, he finds Rebeca still alive inside, aiming a pistol at him. She mistakes him for the ghost of her dead husband and tells him to get out. When he tells the rest of the family about this, Úrsula can’t believe that Rebeca, who she had forgotten, is still alive. Amaranta is the only one who knew Rebeca survived, her hatred of her adopted sister as strong as ever. Aureliano Segundo attempts to return Rebeca to the Buendía house, but she insists on remaining in her home.

When the sixteen sons of Colonel Aureliano Buendía return in February, Aureliano Triste recruits them to help repair the outside of Rebeca’s house. She tries to pay them with coins that are no longer in circulation. On another visit of the sons to Macondo, a second son, Aureliano Centeno, remains behind to help Aureliano Triste and significantly increases the production of ice. Aureliano Triste declares that they will need to bring the railroad into Macondo so that he can sell ice to the surrounding towns. Úrsula thinks the idea of the railroad is as fanciful as her husband’s vision of solar warfare, and again, deems time to be running in a circle.

Aureliano Segundo donates the money needed to develop the railroad. Aureliano Triste leaves to enact his plan and Aureliano Centeno invents sherbet. A whole summer goes by with no word from Aureliano Triste, until the sound of a whistle shakes the town. Aureliano Triste waves from the newly arrived yellow locomotive.