By Agim Baci
Gabriel García Márquez transforms “The Autumn of the Patriarch” into one of the most powerful novels about the destructive nature of absolute power. Agim Baçi, in this article, focuses on the way the author builds the portrait of Patricio Aragones, a former soldier who initially brings triumph to his fellow citizens, but then turns into the embodiment of a power that knows only itself.
The patriarch is the man who, after needing the country, ends up loving the homeland only for himself. He trusts only General Rodrigo de Aguilar, to whom he entrusts the post of Minister of Defense, the direction of the secret service and the command of the presidential guard. Perhaps precisely because the general lost his right arm dismantling dynamite and no longer poses any threat to him. He is the only man allowed to beat the patriarch at dominoes.
Márquez places the patriarch in a realm of complete distrust, surrounded by people who feed only on interest and who, precisely for this reason, isolate him more and more from reality. In this journey, his “autumn” is built, a season where, one by one, the leaves of normality fall.
"... I will only keep the presidential guard, who are just and brave people, and I will not even appoint a government cabinet, what the hell, just a good Minister of Health, the only one needed in life, and maybe another one who has beautiful handwriting for the letters that will be needed... and I alone am more than enough to command until the comet passes again..."
The dictator goes so far as to fake his own death twice to find out who rejoices, only to then further clear the path to the desert of loneliness.
His play with death marks the darkest phase of power, where perversion becomes the only way to live. Even his mother, Bendición Alvarado, who once proudly exclaimed: “If I had known that my son would become president of the republic, I would have sent him to school,” ends up secluded in a remote mansion, secretly bringing her son tamarind juice as she approaches the end of her life.
Meanwhile, Leticia Nazareno remains the only woman who manages to command the patriarch, without ever possessing him in bed, where he seeks to live only in the spells of his desires and fantasies.
With his unmistakable style, Márquez shows that the expansion of power and isolation from reality always go hand in hand. Every wall that a dictator erects to protect his power becomes yet another wall of his loneliness. This is what happens to those who come in the name of freedom and end up as tyrants.
In the end, only the plague of power remains, bringing the weight of collapse. The windows can remain open, the wind can blow, but it cannot remove the rot. The cows parading in the presidential palace become a metaphor for the banality of unlimited power, where one no longer knows anyone and no one knows one anymore.
“The Autumn of the Patriarch” is not just a novel. It is a poem about human nature, about how dictatorship overwhelms the best instincts and brings to the surface darkness, perversity, doubt and loneliness. The novel is structured as one long sentence, with few punctuation marks, leaving the reader to set the rhythm and meaning, as in life itself.
Masterfully translated into Albanian by Mira Meksi and published by "Onufri", "The Autumn of the Patriarch" remains one of Gabriel García Márquez's greatest works, a living mural of language and thought, where power appears as a force that tries to defeat man, feeding him only with doubt - the source that poisons the human soul.
