The Boy Who Played the Sax

By Simone Malacrida

Power, intrigue, love and crime intertwine following more than fifty years of history in the Republic of Aurora, a South American state suspended between agricultural traditions and industrial progress.
The epic of one family, the Coronado, traverses the stages of development of this state and alternates with the social rise of a single person until the final showdown between landowners and drug traffickers, military and revolutionaries, entrepreneurs and politicians.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simone Malacrida
• Release date: Dec 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215564875

Simone Malacrida

Simone Malacrida (1977) Ha lavorato nel settore della ricerca (ottica e nanotecnologie) e, in seguito, in quello industriale-impiantistico, in particolare nel Power, nell'Oil&Gas e nelle infrastrutture. E' interessato a problematiche finanziarie ed energetiche. Ha pubblicato un primo ciclo di 21 libri principali (10 divulgativi e didattici e 11 romanzi) + 91 manuali didattici derivati. Un secondo ciclo, sempre di 21 libri, è in corso di elaborazione e sviluppo.

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Table of Contents

The Boy Who Played the Sax

The Boy Who Played the Sax

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

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SIMONE MALACRIDA

The Boy Who Played the Sax

Simone Malacrida (1977)

Engineer and writer, has worked on research, finance, energy policy and industrial plants.

Power, intrigue, love and crime intertwine following more than fifty years of history in the Republic of Aurora, a South American state suspended between agricultural traditions and industrial progress.

The epic of one family, the Coronado, traverses the stages of development of this state and alternates with the social rise of a single person until the final showdown between landowners and drug traffickers, military and revolutionaries, entrepreneurs and politicians.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The main protagonists of the book, as well as the places described within the borders of the imaginary Republic of Aurora, are the result of the author's pure imagination and do not correspond to real individuals, just as their actions did not actually happen. For these characters, any reference to people or things is purely casual. In the book there are also very specific historical references to facts, events and people. These events and characters really happened and existed.

ANALYTICAL INDEX

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XXI

I

November 4, 1918

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The colors of dawn were about to reach the plain of Horacia, a fertile highland area in the center of a natural basin, enclosed between four now extinct volcanoes of the Andean cordillera.

The capital of the Aurora Republic was ready for the great event.

The clear and clean streets, the flags displayed, the vestments in plain sight along the entire route of the military parade, would have been worthy witnesses of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Republic.

Exactly fifty years earlier, General Horacio proclaimed the independence of this state, after a bloody war that lasted ten years against the neighboring nations, Colombia and Peru.

At the time, Ramon Pablo Coronado was only twenty years old. After the death of his brother Francisco Alfonso, who had actively participated in the war of independence, he remained the only descendant of the Coronado family.

His father, José Guillermo Coronado, was a landowner, one of those who started with a small plot and then saw the birth of a thriving agricultural industry.

José Guillermo felt like a revolutionary, in his own way that is. He understood that the cultivation of coffee, the main agricultural resource in the highlands, had to be accompanied by some other form of income to avoid the periods of crisis which inevitably occur in the cultivation tradition.

He had acquired land beyond the volcanoes, where the tropical climate allowed for the cultivation of bananas and sugar cane.

When the moment had been right, much had been done to support General Horacio and his war of independence.

The victory of the pro-independence troops against the Colombian loyalists and against the Peruvian army battalions had sanctioned the definitive rise of the Coronado family as the main latifundist of the newly established Republic of Aurora.

Ramon Pablo should have continued in the family tradition.

Remember that we Coronado are directly descended from the Spanish conquistador, that Coronado who was in Mexico. A branch of his lineage left for the South and landed in Colombia, where my great-grandfather, Aurelio Fernando, was born, the first to cultivate the fertile lands of Aurora.

Thus José Guillermo had sanctioned the handover with his son Ramon Pablo.

Following independence, and to honor the great general, the capital was renamed Horacia, while the old name of Aurora was given to the republic itself.

The old colonial city, only twenty kilometers away from Horacia, was called Antigua Aurora. There remained the memories of a lavish past, with colonial-style buildings and a finely decorated Baroque cathedral.

It was the explorer Orellana who founded the city, when he was on a mission on behalf of Pizarro, and he baptized it with the name of Aurora, as it should have been in the middle of the fantastic state of El Dorado.

There had also been a few veins of gold, but already in the mid-eighteenth century it was exhausted and since then those territories lived mainly on agricultural products.

Going out onto the terrace of his sumptuous home, which overlooked the view of the entire city of Horacia with all its barrios , Ramon Pablo used to have breakfast reading the pro-government newspaper La nacion de Aurora .

That day, the entire edition was in a special format and recalled the events of that memorable victory with the entry of independence troops into the capital and the definitive seizure of power by General Horacio.

The in-depth articles on the following pages told the story of that war, carried out on the heights where Horacio's contingent easily got the better of the Colombian military, to continue the failed attempt to create an outlet towards the Pacific.

Just that move, he discovered the front and started the invasion by Peru, promptly rejected by the withdrawal of the contingent commanded by the general.

Having set aside the ambitions of expansion, the war continued avoiding any attempt at the intrusion of foreign powers to the point of definitively crushing the pro-Colombian rioters placed in the border areas.

The Republic of Aurora was established with a limited territorial extension, very suitable for agriculture and divided into a central area on high ground, where the capital was, surrounded by low-lying and sparsely populated expanses.

Another article on the fourth page instead recalled the launch of the Constitution, of the Parliament made up of one hundred members elected every five years, in conjunction with the presidential elections.

The President of the Republic, directly chosen by the people, ratified a government with a dozen key ministries, while holding military and political powers.

The first president was the same general Horacio who led the nation for three consecutive terms.

At the end of his political and military career, the maximum limit of two consecutive terms was established for the choice of President.

The Conservative Party, which has always been in power, had won all the democratic elections from 1869 onwards and the Coronado family had always been one of the main supporters of the Party, actively participating in the selection of the presidential candidate.

In 1919 there would be a new electoral round and Ramon Pablo began to probe the ground to understand which candidates could be acceptable within the leadership of the Conservative Party.

The other party, that of Progress, had been relegated to the opposition since the birth of the Republic, expressing above all requests from the peasants and the few remaining Indians, who, however, not knowing how to read and write, hardly participated in the electoral consultations.

Ramon Pablo had been a direct witness of all these events, having lived his entire life in favor of the independence of the Republic of Aurora.

For these reasons, he shared the nationalist spirit of the Conservative Party and the blow-ups of General Horacio that stood out in the streets with some slogans that had by now become common feeling:

The Party loves the people. The people love the Party.

The army defends our beloved Republic.

The best Latin American people are those of Aurora.

In particular, Ramon Pablo had inherited from his father that sense of superiority regarding the ruling class of Aurora, considered the best possible among those existing from Mexico to the Strait of Magellan.

That morning Ramon Pablo took longer than usual to have breakfast and read the newspaper. Too many memories crowded into his mind.

His whole life was enclosed in those thirty pages of the special edition.

He had long since relinquished control of agricultural activity and the flourishing industry which, under him, had expanded considerably.

At seventy he considered himself an elderly patriarch dedicated mainly to maintaining political and public relations for the continuation of the Coronado family's business and prosperity.

His son Pedro Miguel, always known as Pedrito, was now forty years old and eight years ago he had taken over the reins of the agricultural empire.

Coronado production was divided equally into four different products: coffee, sugar cane, bananas and cocoa. Of all these products, only coffee and partly cocoa were grown on high ground, near Horacia.

The marketing of the products took place using trucks or trains that departed from Horacia to reach the coasts of Colombia and from here they embarked for the whole world.

The old grievances with such an inconvenient and powerful neighbor, due to independence and war, had been overcome with a commercial agreement that regulated the reciprocal balance of forces in a precise way.

To consolidate the power of the family, Maria Perfecta, the second daughter of Ramon Pablo, seven years younger than her brother Pedro, had married Augusto Alvarez, scion of the second landowner family of Aurora.

Instead of waging a ruthless trade war, Ramon Pablo and the Alvarez patriarch, Don Pepe Alvarez, had agreed on an alliance sealed by the wedding, especially since the two boys were actually in love.

After the death of his wife Benedicta Pacifica, who had died giving birth to Maria Perfecta, that wedding was the first moment of joy for Ramon Pablo.

Don Ramon, it's time to go.

Tuco, the butler of the Coronado house, had remained in the doorway between the large living room and the terrace , reminding the elderly patriarch of the appointments of that busy day.

Thanks to his high social position, Ramon Pablo Coronado would have attended the military parade from the box of honor, the one reserved for the President of the Republic, the ministers, the President of Parliament, the high military and judicial offices.

Together with his family and that of the Alvarez he would have attended the reception lunch in the presidential residence, the Golden Palace.

In the afternoon there would have been various recreational activities for the population, while in the evening the party of high officials would have moved to the Mirador , a place that Pedro Miguel had just bought together with some restaurants and shops in the capital.

The people would have celebrated in the streets and in the bars, downing inexhaustible rivers of rum, the national alcohol par excellence, produced largely by the Coronado and the Alvarez.

Pedro Miguel, who was now no longer referred to by the nickname of Pedrito except by his own father, had already acquired the nickname of Don at the age of forty, due to the immense innovations introduced in agricultural production.

He had invested a reckless amount of capital in machinery to improve the efficiency and productivity of crops, in stark contrast to what Ramon Pablo thought.

There had been heated disputes between father and son, above all for the social implications of that choice.

Ramon Pablo, although aware of being the most influential person in Aurora, still had a close relationship with his farmers and considered mechanization a kind of dehumanization of the countryside.

The results proved Pedro Miguel right.

Not only did production increase dramatically, but the quality of the products also benefited immensely. Under him, the products of the Coronado family became a kind of luxury that foreigners were willing to pay exorbitant prices, especially Americans.

"Dad, gringos are all crazy, they have no idea of the value of money. Let me do it and you'll see."

At the same time, no revolts had broken out among the peasants left without work, above all because Pedro Miguel had taken care to have them studied and had relocated almost all of them, reconverting them to repairing those machinery and carrying out the necessary maintenance.

The Alvarez had started late and still relied on an inconsiderate number of workers, thus giving the Coronado a competitive advantage that was difficult to fill.

Pedro Miguel's physical features mirrored the typical features of the Coronado. His hair, black as ink, was thick and straight, while his eyes were dark as the depths of the oceans.

These two peculiarities were the pride of the beauty of Maria Perfecta, who has always been considered the most fascinating female exponent in the entire history of the family, above all for her stature, greater than that of the Coronado and deriving from her mother's house.

Unlike Don Ramon, Pedro did not have a passion for horses, which he considered a legacy of the past. Conversely, he doted on technological innovations such as automobiles and was one of the few Aurora residents to own one.

The streets of Horacia were not yet ready for motor traffic and Pedro was aware of this, using his Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost model only on special occasions.

November 4, 1918 was one of those special occasions and Pedro took care to get his family ready for the car ride through the streets of Horacia.

His wife Elena wore a fresh linen dress that highlighted her candor and great composure.

They had met when they were young, during those parties that the upper middle class used to have, in the spring season, close to the city, generally in a panoramic place near the woods.

There had been no problems whatsoever between the families and not even between the two young people. Their marriage had been celebrated in May 1903, in the presence of the highest institutional and religious offices of the Aurora republic.

The only regret for the two spouses had occurred only in 1908, after the birth of Manuel Antonio.

The doctors had ruled that, due to the difficulties she had during the birth, Elena would no longer be able to have children.

It was a hard blow for everyone that undermined Pedro's certainties.

Following Ramon Pablo's advice, from the time Manuel was one year old, Pedro's entire family embarked on a journey across the South American continent, starting from the Colombian coast of Cartagena to reach the southern ends of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, going up later the Brazilian state and the Amazon River.

After nearly a year, they returned to Horacia.

The journey had healed psychological wounds and brought new harmony to the family.

Furthermore, thanks to that experience, Pedro undertook the work of renewing the crops that he had seen applied elsewhere.

Manuel, whom everyone called Manuelito, grew up seeing travel and moving around as part of the normal course of events.

As an only child, he would be the future of the Coronado family.

This had obvious consequences from childhood. Not only did he have to educate himself privately as all the children of the upper middle class did, but he always accompanied his father during the main moments related to family affairs.

For now, don't talk and listen.

Thus Pedro instructed Manuelito who, like a good son and aware of being a sort of predestined one, carried out his father's instructions to perfection.

Manuelito was often at his grandfather Ramon Pablo's house. She got on well with him. Between them there was that typical bond between grandfather and grandson that transcends the age difference.

Ramon Pablo told the past stories of the Coronado family, the birth of the Republic of Aurora, the deeds of General Horacio and his great-grandfather José Guillermo.

Manuelito was enchanted as only children can do.

In his head, he made comparisons with those heroes of ancient Greece or the conquest of the American continent and wondered which person his grandfather described was Ulysses or Achilles, Pizarro or Cortes.

Compared to his three little cousins, the sons of Maria Perfecta Coronado and Augusto Alvarez, Manuelito was not only the eldest, but his grandfather's favorite.

Ramon Pablo recognized in him the true spirit of the Coronado, while he could not say the same about Remedios, Benito and Ruben.

He had fought hard to have his grandchildren given the double name, but Don Pepe Alvarez had imposed the law of his family:

A single name, as befits the Alvarez.

Manuelito paid no attention to his grandfather's complaints and shared the hours of play and entertainment with his younger cousins.

Remedios, two years younger , was the only girl in the group and felt responsible for the health of her little brothers, as if she were taking their mother's place.

Benito saw in Manuelito his idol and model to inspire himself and continually lent himself to being his sidekick, while Ruben almost always remained out of the game, given the six-year difference with Manuelito.

Only when Ruben was old enough to participate in the raids of the other three children, would he actually join the group.

That Monday, November 4, Manuelito dressed all the way, as befits a perfect ten-year-old boy from the most exponent family of Horacia.

He climbed into the back seat of the Silver Ghost, just before Pedro and Elena left the house.

Pedro, proud of his car, headed towards the historic house of the Coronado, located on the Cono Sur hill, the highest in Horacia.

He knew very well that his father Ramon Pablo would have refused to get into the car, taken as he was with the fight against modernism. She would have to convince him.

Few were left to fight against modernity, among them, in addition to Don Ramon, Don Pepe and the bishop of Horacia stood out.

Manuelito, entering his grandfather's house, used to go immediately to the terrace to enjoy the view of the city.

He lived exactly at the foot of the Cono Sur hill, where the residential district of the Gran Casa merged with the economic and financial center of Horacia, the so-called Moneda.

From his room, Manuelito could not admire that panorama which spanned the entire fertile plain and which reached as far as the two volcanoes to the north.

That child's curiosity was always fueled by his grandfather's stories about the constitution of the city and the different buildings.

The Cathedral of the Virgin and the Golden Palace stood out in the center, like two complementary architectures looking at each other.

The Church and Power symbolized what the Coronado respected about the earthly world.

Good morning Don Ramon.

Elena was always the first to greet her father-in-law.

Good morning dear. Bye Pedro.

Pedro walked over to his father and straightened his suit, making the handkerchief stick out more prominently and tightening the knot in his tie.

Manuelito was already on the terrace and contemplating the city in the early morning, while everyone was preparing to attend the party.

He would have liked to scrutinize every single person who, leaving the house, would have poured into the Gran Corso Central, the main street of Horacia, the one that led to Plaza Aurora, where the Cathedral and the Golden Palace were.

Come on dads, get in the car. We have to go to the Mirador which is on the other side of the city, at the top of the Barrio Alto and then go back down to the center. You know very well that only with my Rolls will we be able to make it in time.

Ramon Pablo had, somehow, to agree with his son.

He would settle next to Manuelito, to the delight of his nephew.

All along the route that separated Villa Coronado from the " Mirador ", people greeted Don Ramon by bowing and taking off their hats.

Manuelito was delighted to be able to sit next to such an important person and thought about how powerful he would become once he became an adult and with the command of the Coronado family in his hands.

He had always been raised with that fixed thought. On the other hand, the entire future of the Coronado lay in that slender figure of a child.

The " Mirador " was a very spacious room, with a large entrance and a monumental entrance, embellished with columns in the Greek style.

Above them was a neon sign visible from a considerable distance.

Inside, there were numerous tables where people could consume all kinds of food.

The kitchen worked constantly to churn out the culinary specialties typical of the Republic of Aurora, among which there was no shortage of beef cooked with corn or chicken with cocoa or rice creamed with unripe coffee beans or black bean flour.

At the bar you could order drinks, from natural fruit juices to alcoholic ones, among which there was, and could not be otherwise, a vast assortment of Coronado rums.

A stage had been set up at the back of the venue on which various singers could perform.

The " Mirador " was certainly a respectable proscenium, if only for the high-ranking audiences in the parterre.

Those who wanted to make their way quickly enough, aimed for an evening in that club, however, running the risk of being struck down for life if the performance turned out to be a disaster.

Generally the singers performed on the most crowded evenings, almost always on Fridays or on the occasion of special holidays.

To accompany them and to entertain them throughout the rest of the week, Pedro had recruited a group of three musicians. So next to the pianist, whose black instrument always sparkled in full view on the stage, there were a trumpeter and a cellist.

Someone had suggested to Pedro to reinforce that musical band to give space to modern sounds from the United States, such as jazz.

It will mean that I will hire a saxophonist and a percussionist, he had let slip one evening the previous week.

For Manuelito that place had something magical, due to the skillful interlocking of lights and environments.

It seemed to be the ideal habitat for wizards and fairies.

The child had already understood how, during those evenings, his father concluded important deals and how music and food were a good way to start business negotiations and agreements.

Ramon Pablo scrutinized the room with the clinical eye of someone who knows a lot and who considered that as a pastime and not the main activity.

Ramon Pablo was only at ease viewing the crops, reviewing the coffee plantations, banana groves and sugar cane expanses, to then follow the production process right into the raw material refining factories and finally see the product finished, the one placed on the market.

This was to him the heart of the Coronado empire, the source of all wealth.

Stay true to the land, he always told Manuelito.

Despite his advanced age and his retirement from the family business, he always paid great attention to the state of the lands he owned and their productivity.

For his part, Pedro was a great administrator and owner with modern visions. All this guaranteed a strong continuity in the sign of the Coronado family.

The visit to the " Mirador " in the early morning was by no means accidental. All the preparations for the evening party had to be made.

Almost all the ministers and many important members of Parliament would have spent the evening there, sipping some Coronado vintage rum, such as the Gran Riserva 1900 or the delicate Don José, the first rum obtained in 1910 with the mechanization of crops and which Pedro had dedicated to his grandfather José Guillermo.

Pedro was overseeing every little detail. It had to be perfect.

The musical band was complete and that morning would be enriched by two new elements.

The percussionist had already been chosen, thanks to the musical instincts of the pianist, Alfredo Jimenez, a handsome thirty-year-old who had learned to play from an early age.

The choice of saxophonist seemed more difficult.

It's a fairly recent tool. Few know how to play it decently. Only one person showed up. It's the one over there at the back of the club.

Alfredo Jimenez said to Pedro.

He will have to be a good one. I don't hire a person just because they're the only one who showed up.

Pedro was quite annoyed by that situation.

He was used to being able to choose and not be cornered. He could have easily postponed and postponed it to another day, but he was convinced that a musical band should have five members.

Pedro approached the boy decisively. He looked very young.

Tell me, how old are you?

Eighteen, Don Pedro.

And since when do you play that instrument?

For ten years.

Pedro looked him up and down.

He was dressed anonymously in a gray linen suit and white shirt. His hair was glued to his scalp and pulled back.

The clean-shaven and pointed face put more emphasis on his youth.

On the table was the case where the instrument was stored. A very worn greenish box, a sign of years of hard work and study.

Let me hear what you play.

The boy took the case and opened it.

He took out the instrument, obsessively polished and in a perfect state of maintenance.

He tested the mechanical functioning of the keys, the stem and the bell, then got up and took center stage.

The melody played was extremely delicate and the notes did not linger too long.

Despite this, the effect was harmonious and everyone felt transported by an indescribable feeling.

Pedro looked at his wife Elena. She seemed ecstatic.

He will make many conquests if he manages to untie my wife like this, Pedro said to himself.

At the end of the piece, the twenty people present at the " Mirador " applauded loudly.

Manuelito had been amazed by the sounds coming from that instrument. He hadn't heard anything like it before.

Pedro approached Alfredo Jimenez and they talked something.

You did well with the classical and romantic pieces.

Pedro ruled.

This was a dedication to the ladies present.

The only woman in the club was Elena.

That joke could have irritated Pedro and led to the boy's non-hiring.

Pedro thought about it for a moment; instinctively he would have thrown him out of the club. No one could afford to make those jokes or allusions to his wife.

Then he meditated on the business and on how that easy way could have a positive effect on the revenues of the " Mirador ".

At the suggestion of Alfredo Jimenez, he asked him for something more modern and livelier.

The boy looked hesitant.

He took two steps forward and dropped to his knees. He brought the saxophone to his mouth and played the first notes.

It was something never heard before, a mixture of syncopated rhythm and sudden speed, with accelerations and virtuosities of all kinds.

Manuelito was constantly staring at that boy's hands that were moving wildly.

How did he not make mistakes? Where did those sounds come from? Where had he learned them?

The boy moved around the club, moving to the rhythm of the music. He took the stage to perform the finale of that piece.

This time no one applauded. Everyone had been amazed by that music and hadn't had time to think rationally.

Alfredo Jimenez asked:

Boy, what piece did you play?

The young man promptly replied casually.

I don't know, I made it up by mixing some melodies I had heard and improvising on the spot.

The pianist smiled.

If you don't know what it is, then it's jazz! Welcome on board.

Alfredo Jimenez, transported by the enthusiasm instilled by the music, had forgotten who was the boss and who had the final decision.

He turned to Pedro and asked:

Don Pedro, what did you decide?

Pedro scrutinized his wife and son. Both would have taken him on the fly, but he had to somehow clip the wings of that young man.

Demanding and obtaining respect is the priority for a Coronado, he remembered well those words of his grandfather José Guillermo.

Boy, what's your name?

Carlos Rafael Rodriguez.

It had the double name, just like the Coronado liked.

Okay Carlos Rafael, you are on a trial basis for tonight. If you make a good impression, you'll get a permanent contract to play here at the Mirador .

The boy seemed visibly satisfied.

Thank you Don Pedro, I won't let you down.

Carlos Rafael was so elated that he didn't even ask how much the salary was. Any amount to start on that stage would have suited him.

Pedro turned to Alfredo.

Have the tailor take your measurements; that boy needs a suit. Tonight I want to see him in the band's ordinance uniform. We can't afford him to go on stage with those four rags he's wearing.

The pianist turned to a boy who was keeping the place in order and told him what Don Pedro had just ordered.

There was no time to waste and the tailor would have to work during that morning and afternoon, missing the military parade and the party in the streets of Horacia.

Ramon Pablo had been out of the club for some time before Carlos Rafael began his musical performance.

Pedro turned to Elena:

It's time to go, Dad must be getting impatient. He can't wait to get on the authorities' stage and watch the party.

Pedro called Manuelito who had approached Carlos Rafael to admire that musical instrument up close.

Manuelito hurry up. We have to go.

The child greeted that boy and placed himself on his father's right, crossing the monumental exit of the " Mirador ".

Ramon Pablo was already sitting in the car.

Pedro, let's get going. We've wasted enough time in this place already.

The old patriarch did not see the point of that visit and that place.

Before Pedro put the Silver Ghost in motion, Ramon Pablo said in an argumentative tone:

What did we come here to do?

Dad, I had to hire someone. I found a boy who plays the sax.

Ramon Pablo did not understand and retorted:

But what does this have to do with the future of our family?

Pedro started the engine and the roar of the Rolls drowned out any further words.

II

spring-summer-autumn 1919

––––––––

How likely is that scenario?

Very likely, Don Pedro. I'd say more than an eighty percent chance.

Don Evaristo Pernambuco, a well-known Colombian shipowner, downed his glass of rum diluted with lemon juice in one gulp.

He was the main person responsible for transporting the products of the Coronado which, from the ports of