23 de junio de 1980

23 de junio de 1980 marks the birth of Rosario Iturzaeta’s twin daughters and the death of one of them, turning a night of anxious waiting into a family crisis that is then concealed. Across two passages bearing the same date, the story moves from Juan’s desperate prayer during a storm in Elizondo to his inconsolable grief and Manuel Hidalgo’s falsified death certificate. The date holds together the birth, the loss, and the first acts of concealment without resolving every uncertainty surrounding the newborn’s death.

A dangerous birth kept private

The labor unfolds at home during a fierce storm. Earlier that evening, at about nine, Rosario had asked Juan to take their other little girls to her mother’s house. They lingered to watch older boys lighting bonfires in the streets. Rosario, meanwhile, had called Manuel Hidalgo, her doctor. More than three hours passed; the couple had left the room only to fetch candles after the electricity failed, and by the time Juan retreated to the bathroom the house had been silent for over an hour after Rosario’s terrible screams.

Juan prays on his knees by candlelight, choosing the bathroom because he is ashamed to be seen frightened and in tears. His vigil is shaped by what he knows about the pregnancy: it is a twin pregnancy, which carries risks, yet Rosario had refused Manuel’s recommendations to go to hospital or even have an ultrasound. She had decided to give birth at home, as in her previous pregnancies, and had not allowed Juan to tell his family that they were expecting two babies. The secrecy leaves Juan alone with his fear while the birth proceeds behind a closed door.

The announcement and the loss

When Juan is summoned from the bathroom, his face is red-eyed and distorted by candle shadows. He asks whether Rosario is all right. The answer initially seems reassuring: Rosario and both babies are said to be well, and the twins are described as two healthy, strong girls. Juan smiles and asks to see them. That brief assurance is set against the later passage, also dated 23 de junio de 1980, in which he sits in the living room holding one newborn while he cries uncontrollably. The date’s two scenes therefore preserve the sharp reversal between the promise of two healthy children and the family’s encounter with a dead infant.

Manuel sits opposite Juan, pale and shaken, looking from the sleeping baby in Juan’s arms to the tears falling onto her blanket. Juan asks what happened inside the room. Manuel blames himself, recalling that he had recognized Rosario’s depression but had not done enough or insisted that she give birth in hospital. Juan’s question about what Manuel will do now shifts the crisis from private grief toward a consequential choice: whether the death will be reported truthfully or explained away.

Examination and concealment

Fina Hidalgo, Manuel’s sister, argues that the infant’s death can be classified as sudden infant death syndrome. She says she has examined the body and found no signs of violence; although it appears the baby suffocated, she presents cot death as common among newborns, particularly in their first hours. Manuel rejects her explanation. Her argument also places pressure on him: reporting the death, she warns, could bring police and press attention, expose his failure to treat Rosario’s symptoms, damage his career, and devastate the family.

Manuel goes to the kitchen, where the small body lies wrapped on the table beneath a cloth. When he uncovers the infant, he sees the purple color associated with asphyxia and redness on the small nose that he recognizes as evidence of pressure. He takes a form from his medical bag, folds down its first page, writes sudden infant death syndrome as the cause, and signs it. The falsification is not presented as an easy act of conviction: after looking again at the dead child’s face, he turns away and vomits into the sink. The signed certificate converts Fina’s proposed explanation into an official record, even as Manuel’s reaction registers his distress and his awareness of what the body has shown him.

Significance of the date

The date gathers three distinct thresholds into one night: the arrival of the twins, the death of one newborn, and the creation of a false account of that death. The storm, power failure, candles, and Juan’s isolation establish the circumstances of the home birth; the later living-room and kitchen scenes reveal its consequences. Rosario’s refusal of hospital care and her insistence on keeping the twin pregnancy from family members form the immediate background, while Manuel’s decision to sign the certificate carries the concealment beyond the house and into medical documentation. The date is thus not merely a marker for a birth. It identifies the point at which a private tragedy becomes a secret sustained by a doctor’s signature.