The railroad comes to Macondo , bringing in new technology and many foreign settlers . An American fruit company constructs a banana plantation outside the town and builds its own segregated village across the river . This ushers in a period of prosperity that ends in tragedy as the Colombian army massacres thousands of striking plantation workers , an incident based on the Banana Massacre of 1928 . José Arcadio Segundo , the only survivor of the massacre , finds no evidence of the massacre and the surviving townspeople refuse to believe it happened . By the novel 's end , Macondo has fallen into a decrepit and near-abandoned state , with the only remaining Buendías being Amaranta Úrsula and her nephew Aureliano . Aureliano 's parentage is hidden by his grandmother Fernanda , and he and Amaranta Úrsula unknowingly begin an incestuous relationship . They have a child who bears the tail of a pig , fulfilling the lifelong fear of the long-dead matriarch Úrsula . Amaranta Úrsula dies in childbirth and the child is devoured by ants , leaving Aureliano as the last member of the family . He decodes an encryption Melquíades left behind in a manuscript generations ago . The secret message informs the recipient of every fortune and misfortune the Buendía family 's generations lived through . As he reads the manuscript , a wind destroys all traces of Macondo 's existence
Banana Massacre
Banana Massacre
One Hundred Years of Solitude