No One Writes To The Colonel

"It's the first death from natural causes we've had in many years." 

The stories in this collection take place in the late 1950s, a time period called La Violencia in Colombia. These years were characterized by civil war and extreme, widespread violence, particularly in the countryside. In Macondo, violence has become the norm and it's more likely for a person to get killed than to die of old age. 

"They look like the shoes of an orphan." 

The colonel says this about his patent-leather shoes, which, though in better condition than the ones he usually wears, don't fit him as well. Though he and his wife live in poverty, the colonel tries to maintain the public appearance that they do not. 

"For nine months, they had spent that money penny by penny, parceling it out between their needs and the rooster's." 

Just as the colonel continues to wait for his pension despite all evidence that it will never arrive, the colonel chooses to wait for the rooster to pay off instead of selling it for cash in hand. The little money the colonel and his wife do have comes from selling their dead son's sewing machine.