Aura: Compañera Fiel e Inevitable

Carlos Fuentes died yesterday.

In my twenties I read Aura.  This is a very short story, with Time, History, and Death, all put together imaginatively and elegantly.

The title of this note translates to: Aura: Faithful and Inevitable Companion.

All through our lives we are together with our death; which faithfully, and inevitably, will take us away one day.

 In the story, the main male character, Felipe Montero, falls in love with a green eyed, and young beauty, Aura; to find out at the end of the story, that she was his death, who came to claim him, into a world without time. Also in the story, there is an old lady, Consuelo, that at the end again, we find out, is like a vampire, who stays alive, with the life force of young people. Reading the manuscripts written by Consuelo's husband, she is revealed, to Felipe, as a Mexican beauty, married to a French officer, from the 5 de Mayo, 1862, Mexico French War, who discovers a way to stay alive, for over a hundred years.

Felipe turns into the French officer, and Aura into Consuelo, to relive their never ending love affair, through the bodies of beautiful young people.

The image of a young man, making love to an old hag, is very disquieting.

This short story was banned  in some schools by the conservative Mexican party PAN. I'm not voting for these Catholic Prudes!

R.I.P. Carlos Fuentes and his Faithful Companion, and Lover: Aura.