David Unger - The Mastermind

Carlitos and Mercedes — a handsome, well-mannered couple — are from Buenos Aires and are rumored to be related to one of the junta chiefs. Carlitos is getting a degree in international relations while Mercedes, a blond, blue-eyed former TV newscaster, is studying sociology. They are interested in how the military manipulates the media at home, and they mourn the arrest of poets and painters for simply being the children of well-known opposition leaders. They have a lovely daughter named Valentina, also with blond hair and blue eyes, and enough money to hire a full-time nanny so they can pursue their studies. They are waiting for civilian rule to be reestablished before returning to Buenos Aires. Guillermo also finds Mercedes — Meme — attractive.

Catalina is the daughter of a famous Chilean poet who wrote a memorable poem about a helicopter that, crashing into the Andes, symbolized the overthrow of President Allende.

Mario is a bad Uruguayan poet whose father died suddenly and whose family fortune was swindled by his caretaker uncle in Montevideo. Mario has sad eyes and digs into his bag of tricks to try and seduce every girl he can.

And then there’s chubby Ignacio, a Peruvian Communist architect who lost a hand designing homemade bombs near El Cuzco, and who fled the military by sailing down the Amazon on a raft. He is helplessly in love with the even chubbier and religiously American socialist Hope Wine (everyone calls her Deseo Vino), who often hosts the most elaborate of dinner parties. Within six weeks of meeting one another, Ignacio and Hope get married, assuring he will never be deported.

From their friends, Guillermo and Rosa Esther learn new names for traditional Guatemalan vegetables — choclo for elote or maize, palta for aguacate — and eat canned erizos (sea urchin) with pisco or aguardiente. There’s always plenty of cigarettes, lots of dancing, endless political arguments, and harmless kissing across couples, as can happen when people in their midtwenties are ruled by liquor and hormones.

Rosa Esther allies with Mercedes, who also shies away from too much physical intimacy. They are always the first to tell the others to quiet down.

New York becomes an endless fountain of pleasure and culture. Guillermo and Rosa Esther live happily for over a year distracted by both the richness of their studies and their adventures, far away from the pettiness and the boredom of life in Guatemala City.

But Günter suffers a stroke in early December, barely three months into his second year at Columbia. Between attending final classes and finishing semester-long research, Guillermo calls home two or three times a day to get reports from his mother. At first he feels a bit of relief. Despite some mild paralysis, the stroke doesn’t seem serious — mostly a warning that his father must sell La Candelaria and retire. But two weeks later, as Guillermo is finishing his finals and making plans to fly home with Rosa Esther for the Christmas holidays, his father dies suddenly from a second stroke, a blood clot that loosened in the carotid artery and went directly to his brain.

His death is awful, but the timing couldn’t be better. Guillermo’s sister Michelle has already gone back to be with their mother and make the funeral arrangements. Guillermo and Rosa Esther arrive just in time for the wake at the Funeraria Morales in Zone 9 and the simple burial in the Cementerio General.

Guillermo stays in the aerie of his childhood home to help his mother, while Rosa Esther spends time with her grandmother and sister in their house near the Union Church. The prodigal son fulfills his filial duties during the month-long winter break. He must reward Carlos and the few remaining employees for their years of service and close down the store near El Portal. La Candelaria has, at this point, lost nearly all of its business to the fancier, more hip lighting stores in the malls, and the best Guillermo can do is get forty-three thousand quetzales for all the remaining merchandise. The downtown store has always been leased — a miracle, because at this point it would be impossible to sell the building for anything other than a huge loss.

After Michelle returns to San Francisco, Guillermo is able to sell his parents’ house in Vista Hermosa and set up their mom in one of the high-rises off Avenida Las Americas in Zone 14, close to the Gran Centro Los Próceres. He feels that she will be safer and better taken care of there. With the money his father has saved over the years, he hires her a chauffeur and a live-in maid. She will be well provided for, because Guillermo finally understands that there is a payoff to all his father’s money-pinching. He has left his wife with oodles of cash.

But three weeks later, on January 6, the day of the Epiphany, the maid discovers that Lillian has simply died in her sleep. She is sixty-eight years old. An autopsy is required by law, and indicates there has been no foul play in her death. No trace of drugs, no unusual illness. With nothing left to live for, she has simply up and died. Guillermo pleads with his sister not to come back. What for? For a second burial? He ends up burying her in Verbena Cemetery; thirty of her friends, most of whom Guillermo never knew, attend the funeral.

So within three weeks he has lost both his parents. He is more stunned than grieved. Rosa Esther doesn’t know what to say or do to quell Guillermo’s loss. She has lived her whole life without the support of parents; she does not understand why Guillermo suddenly starts crying at odd moments. She seems angry at his tears, walking away rather than embracing him. Guillermo begins to feel a greater distance from her. Maybe he doesn’t really need anything from her. Not anymore.

Certainly not their usual sex habits.

Only Guillermo can understand Lillian’s death. The night before she died he had a dream that the Angel of Death flew over his bed and sprinkled droplets of poison on his face. He survived by keeping his mouth shut. The dream is a premonition that he will be constantly stalked by death. He is not frightened. Forewarned, he will live his life vigilantly, but will have a long life.

* * *

Guillermo and Rosa Esther return to New York for the final semester at Columbia. These have been happy years for them, he with his studies and freedom, and she with the variety in her life. The subway costs thirty-five cents — there is music, art, theater, and literature everywhere in this city, and despite occasional muggings they are living in peace. When they get together with their friends, the others complain more vociferously of the violence in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay. They express fear for the safety of their relatives, but also for themselves. They have been vocal in criticizing their homegrown dictatorships from abroad and are fearful of spies.

In truth, they live with the tense knowledge that their student visas are about to expire. By July 1 all of them must return to their homelands. None of them are ready — they’ve grown comfortable with the peace the United States offers them.

To stay beyond the two years of his academic visa, Guillermo applies for a postgraduate fellowship at New York University’s business school. He wants to study banking and finance but is rejected. And with the death of his parents, Rosa Esther is more intent on returning to Guatemala to spend time with her own familiy. She wants to be around should her grandmother become sick.

“This is our reality,” Rosa Esther says to him. “The fun’s over.”

“I don’t want to go back.”

“Well, I do. And if I return, you do too.”

He glares at her, realizing that the love and respect he had for her has turned to something else. He recalls what he said to Juancho when the latter challenged his marriage.

It’s not yet time for a divorce, but he’s ready to push the envelope.