Part 2, Section 4, " Rosenda" Summary

Ixca goes to visit the Rosenda Pola, the dying mother of Rodrigo Pola, who tells him her entire life story just before she passes away. She tells him how much the city has changed; streets that were once small pastel-colored, and easy to understand have now turned to streets filled with riffraff and vomit. Her own life followed a similar course; her childhood days of dolls and candy ended when one day Gervasio Pola, an army colonel, rode up "ready with seduction on a black horse." Soon after their marriage, he left her alone and pregnant with Rodrigo. He was captured and put in Belen prison, while she endured an unhappy pregnancy alone, knitting baby clothes and worrying about him. Her family was always two, never three, she remarked: first her and Gervasio, then her and Rodrigo...