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8 A Corroded Pin Dr Pedro Ara would have died of starvation in our country waiting for a commission to embalm a corpse To preserve their better halves in flesh after their tortuous deaths occurred to none of our presidents But not all presidents are alike Nor all first ladies are prima-ballerinas whom it does not behoove to become earth again if she breathes her last as Dr Pedro Ara’s compatriot and the mistress of a head-of-state In the presidential bedchamber she lay in peace for three years in her open casket After his deposal the former ruler shared with her his exile and to reach a Madrid cellar she forded the whole Atlantic 9 Three decades later to reclaim power the former president again crossed the Atlantic without the prima-ballerina’s casket For the simple reason that his beloved— the renowned actress— had a revulsion for unsightly objects such as a corroded pin in the hair of an embalmed corpse ...

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