Florentino ends his sexual relationship with América Vicuña

Florentino ends his sexual relationship with América Vicuña as he turns his attention toward Fermina Daza, exposing the cost of treating a young dependent as an incidental part of his private life. His decision is not a clean break: he announces that he will marry, withdraws from their familiar weekends, and assumes América will accept the change, while she is left to understand it without explanation.

The relationship before the break

By the time Juvenal Urbino dies on Pentecost Sunday, Florentino has settled into a pattern of visiting established lovers rather than seeking replacements for Fermina, whom he regards as irreplaceable. América, however, is a new and profoundly unequal exception. Her family sends her from Puerto Padre to study, entrusting her to Florentino as guardian and recognized blood relative. She arrives with a scholarship, a small trunk, and a golden braid; he anticipates a future intimacy and gradually wins her confidence during outings to the circus and park. The narration makes clear that she is still a child when this relationship begins, while Florentino is an old man and the adult responsible for her care.

América experiences the relationship as a source of happiness and becomes more motivated in her studies, staying at the head of her class so she can keep the privilege of weekend outings. Florentino, for his part, treats their meetings as a refuge in old age and distinguishes his attachment to her from his earlier idealization of Fermina. He takes precautions against pregnancy with América, a measure not described for his other affairs. This background matters to the ending: the relationship is not simply one of Florentino’s casual liaisons but an intimacy entwined with his authority as her guardian and with her dependence on the permission to leave school.

The announcement and withdrawal

After Florentino has been troubled by Fermina’s angry face in a dream, he wakes in his mother’s preserved bedroom. The mirror from Don Sancho’s Inn, which he associates with Fermina, stands opposite the bed. On Saturday, the day América is collected from boarding school, he sees her in uniform and realizes that their usual encounter no longer has the same hold on him. He takes her to the American Ice Cream Shop and, while she eats her favorite layered ice cream, tells her, “I am going to marry.” América doubts him, answering that old men do not marry.

He nevertheless spends the rest of the day with her: they watch a puppet show, eat at the fish stands on the jetties, visit the circus, buy sweets, and drive around the city. The outing becomes a drawn-out transition rather than an explicit farewell. In the rain, he leaves her at school after the Angelus, hoping she will grow accustomed to seeing him as her guardian instead of her lover. The following Sunday he sends the car in case she wants to go out with friends, but does not see her. His attention has shifted to Fermina, and he plans to write her an apologetic letter as proof that he has not given up.

A failed change of role

Florentino continues to have the chauffeur collect América on Saturdays, but no longer knows what to do with her. He leaves her with the servant girls and arranges films, concerts, and other outings with her classmates rather than taking her to the secluded place behind his offices where she wants to return. To him, this is a way of separating their lives; to her, his unexplained evasiveness is a sudden and painful change. He does not understand that the three years since she arrived from Puerto Padre have altered her, or that she can recognize his withdrawal even when he presents himself as her guardian.

The break is complicated by Florentino’s mistaken confidence that his decision has settled the matter. He sees América’s distress when he mentions marriage, but thinks the prospect is so implausible to her that she will forget it. Later, he finds her using the typewriter in his bedroom and recognizes that she is no longer the child he once imagined. When the encounter approaches a point at which pregnancy is possible, he stops it, saying, “Be careful, we have no rubbers.” The moment makes his attempt at control unmistakable: he has withdrawn from the relationship in intention, but has not yet created a clear or mutually understood separation.

Aftermath and significance

América returns to school early, no longer wanting to cry, and becomes determined to find the woman she believes has ruined her life. Florentino, by contrast, assumes she has accepted that her desire for him is futile and will forget him. Their opposite understandings leave the consequences of his decision sharply uneven: he treats the affair as a chapter he can close while turning toward Fermina, whereas América is left hurt, confused, and intent on identifying the cause of her loss.

The episode links Florentino’s lifelong pursuit of Fermina with a failure to perceive the consequences of his conduct toward someone under his protection. His declaration that he will marry is less a negotiated ending with América than a unilateral announcement, and his subsequent arrangements preserve the appearance of guardianship while removing the intimacy she expects. The narrative’s contrast between his renewed hope for Fermina and América’s distress makes the cost of his self-absorption part of the story’s account of love: devotion to one person does not erase the obligations or injuries created in another relationship.