La Siesta Del Martes

-mother -daughter -priest

-the priest's sister -Carlos Centeno Ayala -Rebecca -the towns people

-la violencia period in colombia -conflict between liberal and conservative party 1948-1958 -fighting in the rural countryside -fought for control of agricultural land

A mother and her daughter are travelling on a train in third class They are dressed in mourning clothes and the girl is carrying a bouquet of flowers They travel in suffocating heat to a remote village When they arrive, they go straight to the parish house and ask to see the priest

When the priest finally appears, he suggests that they wait until sundown. But the mother is firm and determined; the return train leaves at 3:30. The woman's son is nothing more than a petty thief in the eyes of the priest.

The mother, however, sees the matter differently; he had promised her that he would never steal anything that someone else might need to survive, and he had kept his word.

There is a clear delineation of the struggle between stealing in order to survive and dying of hunger. "He was a very good man," the mother concludes. "God's will is inscrutable," says the priest.

The mother asks for the keys to the cemetery to visit her son's grave Her son was killed in the town the week before, when he was trying to break into a widow's home.

Finally they are given the keys and the priest realises the whole town has awoken and is waiting outside to see them Instead of taking the back door, as the priest suggests, the mother and daughter decide to face the crowd of people and make their way to the cemetery.

The priest and his sister, aware that groups of curious people have filled the streets, realize that the woman and her daughter will have to face a hostile crowd on their way to the cemetery. "Wait until the sun goes down," says the priest. "Wait and I'll lend you a parasol," adds his sister.

"Thank you ... we're all right this way," the woman replies in a confident voice. Sure of herself and of the propriety of her actions, the mother and her daughter boldly face the ominous challenge of a hot Tuesday afternoon in the streets of an unfriendly town.

Many questions left unanswered Mother and daughter = out of place > represents a sense of displacement among Colombians during civil war Marginalization of poorer Colombians by the upper classes of their own country the train journey and the town

the dignity and pride of a poor woman in the face of ecclesiastical authority, is evident in the sparse dialogue between the mother and the housekeeper: "I need the priest," she said. "He's sleeping now." "It's an emergency," the woman insisted.

an interview between the mother and the village priest, who controls the keys to the cemetery. The woman's daughter and the priest's sister, who serves as his housekeeper, are also present.

The heaviness of the oppressive afternoon heat stands in contrast to the inner courage the mother demonstrates in the face of both the church and the unfriendly town.

This story outlines the theme of confrontation in a stagnant setting in which change occurs slowly, if at all. Its protracted tension makes it a classic example of the best in Latin American fiction.