Chapter 2 Summary

Originally Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula live in Riohacha; there, he is a renowned cock fighter and she is considered respectable—and they are distant cousins. When they marry the town is flabbergasted, predicting that their children will be iguanas or pigs due to inbreeding. One day Jose Arcadio Buendia is insulted about his marital relations and, fetching a weapon from home, he justifiably kills the man who impugned his honor. The man's ghost then haunts the couple until they flee the town, wander for twenty-six months across the mountains and through the swamps, and found Macondo. Their first son is born in the swamp, their second son is the first child born in the newly-founded town.

A few years pass and Jose Arcadio grows into a man. One day, Ursula sees him naked and is terrified by the size of his penis...