Tiens, for some reason (our secret French-speaking alliance? An evocation of the shared world of our studies? A form of code, now that French is out of use?) I use French expressions that couldn’t be farther from the world of the Old Man Under the Arches.
“So is this what Mexico’s much-vaunted democratic transition has come to?” he asks me without moving a muscle of his famous mummy face.
“What do you mean, Mr. President?”
“Ah,” he says, his smile falling apart like a mask made of sand. “I forgot that you studied with the Frogs. Monsiour le Presidan!”
He pauses to sip his coffee.
“You know, sometimes, in an effort to keep up my education (since they say education never ends), I play dominoes here in the plaza with a group of Mexican intellectuals who were educated in Germany. Chema Pérez Gay, for example, meets me here, and I say to him, ‘Talk to me in German, even if I don’t understand a damn thing you say. I like that guttural noise. It has an authoritarian ring to it. And anyway it makes me feel philosophical.’ Well, the last time Pérez Gay was here, he said, ‘When the Weimar Constitution opened the door to democracy in Germany for the very first time in 1919, after centuries of authoritarian rule, the Germans stopped wide-eyed at the threshold, like peasants invited into a castle. . . .’ ”
There was no mimicry in the old man’s words. He maintained his somber, penetrating gaze, the circles deep and dark beneath his eyes.
“Well, let me just say that the same thing has happened in Mexico. We’ve stood here wide-eyed, not knowing what to make of democracy. From the Aztecs to the PRI, we’ve never played that game here.”
“Did they do things better before—I mean, in your day?”
“People were given some measure of security. There were rules, and everybody knew them. Everything was predictable. The public was spared the anguish of making their own uncertain decisions. I invented the institution of ‘the sealed envelope.’ All it took was a sealed envelope with signed instructions from me. Whenever a governor, a congressman, a local president received the sealed envelope he did exactly as I said.”
He stopped, looking like a pirate about to attack a galleon from the Indies filled with Spanish gold.
“ ‘Propose the candidacy of X.’ The rest was easy. The candidate I’d selected, the candidate in the sealed envelope, garnered general and widespread support. Woe to the strongman who dared dissent. Woe to the rebellious governor. Woe to the congressman with the independent spirit.”
He licked his crooked teeth.
“They would be eliminated from politics forever. And if any of them dared protest my decision, I’d just remind him, ‘You’ve had your pleasure. Now crawl back to the hole you came from. I’m telling you for the sake of your health.’ ”
Is it possible that someone could deliver such terrible threats so agreeably? Clearly, steely resolve and serenity went together. Lesson learned, María del Rosario.
The Old Man pressed down on his dentures.
“Envelopes sealed, ballot boxes stuffed in advance, carousel voting, and other methods for sending voters from polling site to polling site, raccoons running all the electoral fraud—we performed whatever alchemy was necessary to win an election in advance with double, even triple votes. And in the end there were more votes for the PRI than there were registered voters, what with all the citizens we dragged out of the cemeteries, all the voting booths we stole, and all the dissenting votes that were destroyed—if and when it was called for, of course. And all this, Mr. Valdivia, was presided over by his sovereign majesty the president who, from the Eagle’s Throne, declared to his designated successor, ‘You will be president.’ ”
The parrot said, “I swear to uphold the laws . . .” and then fell silent as if expecting the Old Man to gaze at him with affection, the green, yellow, red, and blue bird perched atop his shoulder, the shoulder of a political pirate.
“. . . the laws of the republic,” the Old Man solemnly intoned.
“The written laws?”
“The unwritten ones, Mr. Valdivia. Think of how easy it was. The unwritten rules of authoritarianism were clear. Just look at the current uncertainty and the chaos it has caused. How could I not feel nostalgic for the calm old days of our benevolent PRI dictatorship?”
Before I could even respond he interrupted himself, raising a stiff finger in the air to keep me quiet.
“In reality, our vices were virtues. But let’s just say that I’ve resigned myself to change. I always knew that the system would come to an end one day. Still, the question remains: What will we replace it with?”
“Everything was better in the past,” I said with melancholy.
“Yes, despite some pretty stupid politicians.”
“Who were the wise ones, then?”
“Not who, my friend, but how.”
“How, then?”
“Everyone kills fleas in their own way, Valdivia. Excessive ambition either fails, or else it comes at a very high price. Some men have made it to the presidency feeling that Mexico owed it to them and then relinquished their positions feeling that Mexico didn’t deserve them, and that’s why they feel they deserve to return to power one day.”
“Are you thinking of someone in particular?”
“I’m thinking of myself. I did nothing to get to the Eagle’s Throne. That was my strong point. I got there with no strings attached, no favors to pay back.”
“A process of elimination of sorts?” I dared to ask, with only a hint of impudence. He didn’t pick up on it.
“I got there just like Jesus,” he said, extraordinarily still, like an icon. “How many prophets and pseudo-messiahs were on the loose in Judea just like the son of Mary?”
Then, out of nowhere, he began to sing a line from an old Spanish zarzuela:
“Ay va, ay va, ay vámonos para Judea. . . .”
At that, the parrot picked up on the tune in his shrill voice. “Ay ba, ay ba, ay Babilonia que marea . . .”
I ignored these eccentricities.
“Yes, but that isn’t the rule, Mr. President.”
“Shut your mouth! Each president creates his own reality, but since the law against re-election forces him into retirement, this reality fades away and historical legend takes its place.”
He looked as if he were swallowing bile. Even the circles under his eyes seemed to be turning green.
“What happens? The ex-president is left with no power, but he’s still surrounded by ass-kissers. He doesn’t have to fool the people anymore. Now his aides want to fool him. They offer him the temptation of revenge. They intoxicate him with the idea that he’s incomparable, a cross between Napoleon and Disraeli.”
“¿Dónde vas con mantón de Manila? ” the parrot began to sing, and the Old Man whacked him so hard that the poor bird nearly went crashing to the floor.
“It’s like the old story about the whale and the elephant. The thing is, the poor slob ends up treating his allies like he treated his enemies. It’s a waste of time. Destroying them isn’t worth the effort. A lot of energy for nothing.”
He let out a sigh that the parrot didn’t dare respond to.
“Better to be alone and respected, even if they think I’m dead.”
There was a pregnant pause, as the Anglo-Saxons would say.
“Look at me here, drinking coffee and playing dominoes. I escaped the sad fate of most ex-presidents. I escaped the vicious cycle. And do you know why, Valdivia? Because I didn’t become president believing I’d be getting into bed with my own statue.”
He smiled as the parrot, having taken his punishment, sat once more on his shoulder.
“Don’t let that one get out. It’s the truth.”
“Mr. President, you were famous for shielding yourself with silence, for answering without speaking, for elevating the gesture into a sign of political communication, for turning the elliptical response into an art form, and the authority of your gaze into gospel.”
I looked him in the eye.
“I don’t want to waste time, Mr. President. I’ve come here for your guidance through the labyrinth of the presidential succession.”
Did I glimpse affection in his expression? Was he grateful for my attention, my respect, my interest? The look in his eyes seemed to say, I’ve known the depths of misery and disaster, and I’m the only one who left the palace without being disillusioned . . . because I didn’t have any illusions in the first place.
“I never became disillusioned because I didn’t have any illusions in the first place,” he said, uncannily echoing my thoughts.
At that moment María del Rosario, your words came into my mind like a flash of lightning: “You will be president, Nicolás Valdivia.”
And I felt dizzy, as if I were on the edge of a cliff, seeing myself reflected in the Old Man. Was that how I’d end up as well, in a café in Veracruz, playing dominoes with a busybody parrot perched on my shoulder?
The vision sent me into a cold sweat in the middle of the sticky heat of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Old Man brought me back to reality.
“Do you think I didn’t know what kind of people I’d have to deal with as president? Damn it, Valdivia, the only cure for a hunchback is death, and in politics there are legions of them, all crooked, all of them incurable. They never straighten out, not even when they die.”
I was uncomfortable now. I scratched my back, I couldn’t help it— the Old Man’s tone of voice was so solemn, so gloomy, even fatal.
“As far as I’m concerned,” he went on, “a politician should be like a Japanese pilot: He should carry pistols but no parachute.”
He made an unusual gesture—a cinematic flourish straight out of an old Tyrone Power movie.
“Between the two extremes of Quasimodo and the kamikaze, I chose to be Zorro. The masked man everyone believes to be perfect.”
Did he sigh? I placed my two hands on the back of my chair.
The Old Man noticed and in a compassionate voice said, “Don’t rush. I haven’t breathed my last sigh yet. Oh, if you only knew how many times I’ve been taken for dead!”
I leaned forward. I took my chance.
“Don’t die on me without telling me first, Mr. President.”
“Tell you what?” the parrot said, as if he’d been preparing for that question all his life.
I had to laugh.
“The secret that you’re keeping.”
He didn’t move an inch. Unexpected or not, my question did not disturb him.
“Nobody should know everything,” he said after a long pause. “It’s not good for the health.”
“Don’t you mean, ‘Nobody can know everything?’ Isn’t that more to the point?”
“How straight you are, Mr. Valdivia. Get real. No, it’s not a question of can. It’s a question of should.”
“But we’re running out of time. I’m pleading with you now, like the young man you once were. Don’t send me back to Mexico City empty-handed.”
“I was never young,” he replied with a hint of bitterness. “I had to suffer and learn a lot before I became president. Otherwise I would have suffered and learned during my presidency and that would have been at the country’s expense.”
He looked at me with unconcealed scorn.
“Who do you think you are?”
He paused.
“You have to have lost a lot in order to be someone before and after you wield power.”
“But sometimes it’s the country—not the powerful leader—that loses with all that secrecy, intrigue, and personal ambition. And that’s what I’d call a catastrophe,” I said in the most dignified voice I could muster.
“Catastrophes are good,” said the Old Man, licking his lips like the Cheshire cat. “They reinforce the people’s stoicism.”
“Aren’t they stoic enough?” I asked, somewhat exasperated by now.
The Old Man looked at me with a mixture of pity, sympathy, and impatience.
“Look: Everyone thinks they can lock me up in an old age home. They underestimate my craftiness. But my craftiness is what makes me indispensable. The chitchat I leave to the parrot. You’re here because I know something everyone wants to know, information that could be critical for the presidential succession.”
He narrowed his eyes diabolically, María del Rosario.
“Do you think I’m going to spill the beans and let myself get thrown out in the garbage? Are you an idiot or are you just pretending to be?”
“I respect you, Mr. President.”
“What I said stands. I’m keeping my mouth shut.”
“Believe me, your honesty in no way diminishes the respect I have for you.”
He laughed. He dared to laugh.
“Comrade Valdivia, I believe in the law of political compensation. What I give with one hand, I take away with the other. If I give you what you want, what will I take away in exchange?”
Disquieted, I said, “Are you asking what you can expect from me?”
His response, lightning fast, was, “Or from the people who sent you here.”
“My protection,” I murmured, realizing my stupid mistake as soon as the words came out.
The Old Man who never laughed stopped laughing but didn’t stop smiling.
“Never believe in the improbable. Only believe in the incredible.”
“But you’re offering me neither the improbable nor the incredible. You’re offering me nothing.”
“Oh my goodness. What if I told you Mexico needs hope? Someone to create absolute ideals and relative realities? To fuel the imagination?”
“I’d think you were fooling me.”
“See? And yet I’m telling you the truth, the whole truth. And I’m also giving you the key to my secret, just in case you really do want to know what it is.”
“You’re giving me a pebble, and I want the whole rock, Mr. President.”
“A pebble thrown into the water creates a tiny ripple, but the tiny ripple makes waves.”
Pause. Sigh. Resignation.
“And in the end, all those waves are the same.”
In an instant he recovered the energy that had been sucked out of him, as if the Gulf of Mexico were a giant drain. And that afternoon, perhaps it was. On my first visit, the Old Man had talked of the tide of invaders that had entered Mexico through Veracruz. But tides have to go in, taking some of the land with them, land that’s used up, no longer wanted or needed. What would the tides of the gulf carry away with them now? Everything, I thought, if the Old Man let them. Nothing if he was stubborn enough to stop the ebb and flow of the sea.
“The mist of conspiracy hovers over Mexico and no man’s head is higher than the air he breathes,” he said, and for the first time I detected a dreamy note in his voice—perhaps incongruous and rather unjustified, but dreamy nonetheless. Then he looked away toward the docks, the castle, the water. . . .
“Polluted air, sir.”
“I’m going to tell you one thing,” said the Old Man, his face and tone of voice back to normal now. “If you want to breathe easy, if you want to cut through some of that fog and put an end to all those conspiracies, you need to give the country back its hope.”
“Again?” I asked, resigned.
“I’m talking about a symbol,” the ex-president said, his voice growing stronger. “Cheated, lost, corrupted, this country can only be saved if it finds the symbol that can deliver it the promise of new hope.”
“But for a long time now we’ve given the people new hope—every six years, in fact—and then they lose it. Do you have the key to eternal hope?”
He went silent for some time because he was thinking. Out of courtesy I tried not to look at him. That was when I noticed that the vultures were no longer flying over Ulúa, and I wondered if I’d noticed them in January when I made my first visit to the Old Man. The sense that the vultures weren’t circling overhead may have been something I’d felt before and that now, as if life were a dream, I was feeling for the first time,
having only dreamed it before. Or was it the other way around? Did I feel it first and then dream about it afterward?
“There once was a cat with feet made of rags. . . .” the parrot interrupted, chirping away.
“A symbol that will offer new hope.”
“Again?”
Silence.
I dared to speak for him.
“You’ve just said it. Mexico needs a symbol. Have you got one?”
He nodded his graying head. His receding hairline lent a noble air to his features. He looked up.
“Haven’t you wondered why the vultures aren’t flying over Ulúa today?”
Now I was the one to respond without words. I shook my head. “I had a very foolish and tactless government minister working under me. My advice to him was this: ‘Be careful. You’ve been accused.’ ”
“Of what, Mr. President?”
“Of telling the truth.”
He went silent, María del Rosario.
I think I understood, María del Rosario.
“The moment still hasn’t arrived?”
“No. Not yet.”
“What message shall I take to the capital?”
“When the coyotes howl, howl along with them. You don’t want people thinking you’re a cat.”
“Do you want me to tell you again?” the parrot chanted.
“Thank you, Mr. President. Is that all?”
“No. One more thing. But it’s for your ears only, Valdivia.”
“I’m listening.”
“My only regret is that I know every last story, and yet I’ll never know the full story.”
He turned to look at San Juan de Ulúa.
“I’ll summon you again for a visit, young man. When the moment arrives.”
The sun-drenched palm trees were nowhere to be seen in the deep circles around his eyes.
“Meanwhile, I can offer you the title for a novel that has yet to be written.”
I waited for him to speak.
“The Man in the Nopal Mask.”
45
GENERAL CÍCERO ARRUZA TO GENERAL MONDRAGÓN VON BERTRAB
General, if anyone respects hierarchy it is I, your loyal servant Cícero Arruza. Forgive me for being insistent. This time I’m sending my faithful assistant Mauser with a tape for you of my voice so that you can hear out loud my sincerity and my anguish. Now is the time, my general. Things are boiling over and this is our opportunity for action, to make the things you and I want happen. The one thing we can’t have is a power vacuum, but we’re heading straight for that cliff. Ask yourself this: When was the last time the president was seen in public? I can tell you, I’ve been keeping track. The beginning of January, when he read his address and got us into this mess with the gringos. For three months we haven’t seen the so-called head of state’s face! If that isn’t the famous power vacuum we’ve all talked about, it’s a hell of a hole. Holes, holes, everything in life is holes. Crawl out of a hole, get into a hole, shit down a hole, stick it up someone’s or let them stick it up ours . . . I’m going to be frank with you, General. Either we act now or they’re going to stick it to us both. You’re waffling, I can tell. I can tell you’ve even distanced yourself a little from your loyal subordinate Cícero Arruza. What’s the matter? Isn’t it kind of late to suddenly discover the kind of man I am? Forgive the frankness. I’m back where I was, at a bar, General—you know what they say, we only win battles in the bar and in bed. Do you remember that man from Tabasco, González Pedrero, who made our lives hell with “the dart of truth”? Wasn’t it González Pedrero who said that the Mexican Revolution may have left a million men dead, but that they’d died in bars during shoot-outs and not on the battlefield? I tell you that just to remind you: You know who I am, you know where I come from, and you know what I’m capable of. And I’m reminding you because I want you to be certain of one thing: Put the violence on my tab. The deaths are on me. . . . I’m not going to hide anything from you, General, I want you to know who you’re dealing with so that you won’t be cheated on like the husband in the song who asks, “Whose gun is this? Whose watch, whose horse whinnying in the stable?” . . . Sorry about my voice. Whenever I drink I always feel the urge to sing. . . . Remember who’s on your side. . . . I once told you, didn’t I, how much I miss real violence—not those little exercises where we bust up meetings by letting loose mice or pouring piss down from the balconies. Let me remind you of my credentials, for your peace of mind. As regional commander in various states of our union, General, I finished off the malcontents as well as the rebels in a single stroke of pure genius. I disposed of the opposition leaders in Nayarit by slipping Benzedrine into their rum and Cokes while they were celebrating some supposed electoral victory. They’ve got nothing to celebrate anymore. The opposition candidate in Guadalajara disappeared quietly at a building site for the metro. Building site, my ass, General. More like a grave site . . . I eliminated those annoying university students ten years ago by locking them up in a laboratory full of infected rabbits. And people don’t mess around when it comes to hunger, you know. . . . As for those rebels in Chiapas, I ordered them to be shot in a laundromat in Tuxtla Gutiérrez just because I knew the blood would contrast so well against those white sheets. . . . When the Yucatán tried to secede from the federation again, backed up by official and popular support, I made the whole bureaucracy disappear (don’t ask me where they ended up), and then I invited the townspeople to visit the empty government offices. There wasn’t a soul there.
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