Strange Pilgrims

Strange Pilgrims is a compilation of short stories by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Though it was first published in 1992, the stories were written sporadically throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Though their plots are not connected, they are closely related thematically. Each story involves one or more characters who are separated from home (in either a geographical or emotional sense) and are forced to adapt to a drastically new life. Through their stories, Marquez shows that “foreignness” is a complex and poorly understood measurement of human belonging. The stories are partly informed by Marquez’s own exile from Colombia, where he was born.

The introductory story is titled “Bon Voyage, Mr. President.” It concerns the aftermath of the reign of a ruler of a Latin American country who is only referred to as “Mr. President.” In his seventies, and recently overthrown, he adjusts to a life in exile in Martinique. Developing painful symptoms in his abdomen, he travels to Geneva to see a doctor who specializes in such problems. The doctor runs some tests and tells him that his symptoms stem from a spinal disorder. He recommends surgery, disclaiming that it might leave him permanently paralyzed or dead. Before deciding, the President speaks to an ambulance driver, Homero Rey. Homero tries to scam him by selling him shoddy health and funeral insurance. No longer rich, the President has to sell his deceased wife’s jewels to pay for his operation. Homero decides he likes the President, and he and his wife, Lazara, take care of him once he is able to move out of the hospital. The President moves back to Martinique, his symptoms unchanged. Eventually, he resumes his old identity as a politician and returns to his old country, determined, this time, to reform it.

Another story, “The Saint,” concerns Margarito Duarte, a Colombian from a tiny community in the Andes who travels to Rome when he attempts to convince the Church to make his daughter a saint. Margarito’s wife died just after giving birth to their daughter. The daughter died in childhood after a severe fever. Eleven years later, when she would have been eighteen, the villagers exhume the bodies from the cemetery in which she was buried to make room for a new dam. They are startled to discover her body intact and, stranger still, as light as a feather. The villagers save their money to send her body to Rome along with Margarito. The narrator encounters Margarito in Rome, where they happen to stay in the same boarding house. Margarito’s attempts to have his daughter sanctified fail, and the narrator parts ways expecting never to see him again. However, two decades and four papacies later, the narrator runs into Margarito again and learns that he is still petitioning the Church to make his daughter a saint. The narrator decides that the person worthy of sainthood is actually Margarito, who dedicated his life to having his daughter recognized.



The final story in the collection, “The Trail of Your Blood in the Snow,” is a distinctly modern tragedy. It begins during the honeymoon of Nena Daconte and Billy Sanchez, who each come from elite Colombian families. Though they were married only a few days before, they have been expecting a child for several months. Nena slices her finger open on a thorn on a rose stem, and the tiny cut begins to bleed uncontrollably. As Nena quickly loses blood, Billy rushes her to the emergency room in Paris. The hospital has limited visitors’ rights, so Billy is unable to see his wife for the first week. He retreats to his hotel, where he agonizes over his powerlessness.

Billy tries to reach Nena sooner than the hospital has allowed. He is stopped by security and kicked out of the hospital. He desperately contacts the Colombian embassy asking for their help, but they are unable to circumvent French hospital policy. Finally, the day comes when Billy is allowed to see his wife. He enters the hospital but is unable to track down Nena. He catches sight of the doctor who first checked on her and demands to know where she is. The doctor apologizes that Billy was not informed of the death of his wife, who bled to death less than three days after her admission. The staff was not able to find Billy to tell him, so they contacted Nena’s parents, who immediately planned the funeral and sent for her body. Billy leaves the hospital in a blind rage, already beginning to plot his revenge.

Strange Pilgrims is made up of a mosaic of settings, moods, and plot progressions, each of which reveals a distinct attitude about the condition of being foreign. Marquez demonstrates that the identity is too capacious to adequately account for with any number of narratives, and expresses great sympathy for characters that fall victim to different forms of ignorance.