the story. JosT Arcadio Buendia and his family and followers travel south and found the nation of Macondo. Buendia is an innovator, but he becomes so dedicated to science that he is driven mad, leaving his wife, Ursula, to handle the followers thereafter. Macondo is a town to which many people travel. Gypsies are constant visitors, bringing with them new gadgets for sale. Melquiades is their leader, and he writes certain strange manuscripts before his death--he is the first person in Macondo to die.
JosT and Ursula were first cousins, so all their descendants live in constant fear of having a child with a pig's tail--a result of degenerative inbreeding. The first child born in Macondo is JosT's son Aureliano, and he seems to have supernatural powers, the ability to predict the future. Ursula disappears for several months, and when she returns it is after discovering a route to a nearby town. She brings many people ba
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