This (Area 2, Room 2, Section 3, Wall B) is the old Police Library. I take a look. I ask to see three or four volumes of the collection of Yearly Reports from the National Police, titled Memorias de Labores de la Policía Nacional.

Sandra Gil, an older archivist who resembles a stern teacher, has just handed me the volumes. She chews gum, loudly. A female colleague comments without addressing anyone in particular:

“There are those of us who think, and those who chew gum.”

The other responds:

“Oh, Lord, illuminate them, or eliminate them.”

From the Yearly Report, 1938, Chapter XXVI: “It has been said that our body is actually a given amount of compressed air that lives in the air. Could it not be said that the soul is an embodied fragment of society that lives in society? . . . A criminal would then be a social microbe.”—Professor G. Tarde, criminologist.

In Chapter XXXI, I find a “Report from the Identification Bureau,” headed by clerk Benedict Tun, “whose participation in the investigation of criminal acts has been invaluable in the most important inquiries carried out by the Police . . .”

Afternoon.

Lunch with B+ in a trendy restaurant. Mediocre food. Then, in my apartment, prolonged lovemaking session, extraordinarily intense and pleasant—at least for me.

Is it possible to know whether it was the same for both of us? I do not think so.

Very brief nap.

Notes

* Mano Blanca (White Hand) was the name of an organization linked to the army and dedicated to the extermination of communists and their sympathizers.

* Recovery of Historical Memory, conducted by the Catholic Church.

† Commission for Historical Clarification, at the request of the United Nations.

Pages Attached to the First Sketchbook

PAGES ATTACHED TO THE FIRST SKETCHBOOK

I keep leafing through the Yearly Reports, while I wait to be allowed to see more interesting documents.

Personal characteristics of criminals apprehended in 1943:

Between 21 and 30 years old: 36%

Single: 81%

Males: 82%

Workers: 28%

Mestizo: 11%

Suicides:

Between 21 and 30 years old: 36%

Single: 70%

Workers: 23%

Mestizo: 96%

I find an entry in Google under the name of Tun. According to an article titled “The Smell of Blood,” by Alfredo Sagastume, Benedicto Tun was also a “bloodhound auditor” during Ubico’s dictatorship and had orders to punish public treasurers who were either over or under in their balances. (Obviously a confusion of names: during Ubico’s era, there was a public accountant named Aquilino Tun, who drafted a proposal for new income tax legislation.) Sagastume also tells us that whenever someone was accused of being a criminal, Ubico’s personal motto was: “Execute him. We’ll find out later.”

Possible expressions:

Historical sadism. Sadistic realism.

Third Notebook: White Cover

Third Notebook: White Cover

Evening.