No One Writes to the Colonel: A Colombian Story
No One Writes to the Colonel: A Story of Waiting
“No One Writes to the Colonel” is the story of a retired colonel who leads a lifetime waiting for a pension, and his wife. They struggle to survive in a Colombia affected by war, repression, and government censorship, while expecting a government pension.
- They survive as they can, selling their last possessions. They also have a rooster, a legacy of their dead son, that needs to be fed. The Colonel is determined to keep it to earn money through cockfighting.
- Time passes, and every Friday the Colonel goes to port in search of news about his pension, but it never arrives. Finally, despair takes hold of him and his wife.
- The structure of the book is linear. The time lag is just a few months, and the end is closed: we know that the pension has not arrived and never will.
It was written by Gabriel García Márquez in 1957. It is a way for the author to state his discontent with the situation Colombia was going through at that time: continuous fighting between the guerrillas formed by the people who fought against the government, especially in the period between 1949 and 1953, which caused many deaths.
- The book shows elements that allow us to see that situation. For example, it talks about censorship. When the Colonel left a paper with a thesis of what has really been happening in the country in the last 10 years, the newspapers did not publish it. There is a curfew at night. Even something that I found very interesting, and quite ridiculous, is when the priest rang the church bells to score the film that would be broadcast on television. If she struck twelve, the meaning was that the film was, of course, not suitable for everyone.
The Colonel’s Character and His Struggle
- About the character of the Colonel, we are not told much. We do not even know his name, and his past is only translucent. He fought on the government side, “he left his skin,” as the book says. He desperately hopes to collect a pension that was promised and which he had been waiting for over 15 years. So, every Friday he goes out to await the boat that brings the mail, but Friday after Friday he does not receive any letter (hence its title, a phrase that speaks out not to correspond). He returns home disappointed.
- His wife, along the narrative, tries to survive, saving in the most amazing ways and taking care of the house’s economy. But this is not enough, and gradually they have to sell their belongings, hiding the fact that they do it to survive, since it is something they are too shy to do. But slowly people are going to discover and pity them.
The Rooster: Symbol of Pride and Economic Hope
- The need for money somehow collides with the Colonel’s pride. He has a cock that belonged to his son Augustine, who was killed earlier. He cares for and maintains it with difficulty, as the book says, taking food from his mouth to give it to the rooster.
- It is not entirely clear what his interests are: if it is the pride of having a beautiful cock that all the people admire, and which can be displayed in cockfighting, or if instead his interests are purely economic. At first, the second option seems more popular, but as the book unfolds, and especially at the end, the Colonel seems more interested in the first option. He even decides that the rooster is not to be sold but used to bet on the fights, which also has an economic purpose. This despair drives his wife almost crazy.