1. City Of The Dead & Yerno
By: Charlie Vazquez
Kenneth Dortche &
Jesse Drinks

2. City of the Dead Quotes
• "The strange man began humming a spellbinding melody. He
took off his banded straw hat, fanned his face five or six times
with it, and rested it on his knee. He was sweating (I could see
a sheen in the dark) and his smile, the little I could see of it,
was one of eerie mischief."
• "He smelled of sweat and vanilla—a mysterious haze of smoky
aromas arrived with him; colors perceived with the sense of
scent. My head filled manically with the aromas—my newly
awakened nose afire with the deep musk and flowers that
surrounded me. The bitter odors turned sweet—from dark to
light and vice versa—the sweeter ones to sweetness beyond
description. The odors sedated me and I began to swim
pleasantly in my powerlessness."

3. Discussion Question
• The narrator doesn’t seem comfortable with
the strange man at first but is intrigued by
him. What are your thoughts on this
encounter? Was this an arranged meeting? If
not what was the narrator there for?

4. • “Putting his lips onto mine, he blew air into and
through me. This caused the candles around us to
conflagrate, their flames grew by threefold and
that was when I realized we were standing in the
center of an abandoned and half-destroyed
church—its gothic windows pale in the fire glow,
sections of stone missing from the wide vaults of
the ceiling. I coughed my way back to life, as my
heart began to beat on its own. It was then that
he whispered, “I now give you the power to pay
tribute to me always—and forevermore.””

5. More Questions
• Who do you think Jesus is?
• At the end of the story it is revealed that they
are at an old church. What is the significance
of them being at a church?
• What do you think of the title “City Of The
Dead”?

6. Yerno Quotes
• “Though there was bitterness about you I
basked in your superior sweetness...fantasy
you were becoming.”
• “How funny is it that I was going to kill you
before you can do so to me...and for what."

7. Discussion Question
• Discussion question: why do you think it was
so easy for Carlos still follow Yermo's demands
even though he feared the situation?