Which Buendía matriarch is married to José Arcadio Buendía?

Úrsula Iguarán is the Buendía matriarch married to José Arcadio Buendía in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Úrsula and José Arcadio are cousins who marry despite fears that their descendants could be born with a pig’s tail, a recurring symbol of the family’s anxiety about incest. After José Arcadio kills Prudencio Aguilar in a duel, the couple leave their hometown and eventually found Macondo.

Úrsula becomes the practical center of the Buendía household. She raises children, grandchildren, and later generations while managing the family’s finances and businesses, often providing stability as the men pursue wars, inventions, obsessions, or romantic entanglements. Her long life allows her to witness much of Macondo’s history.

A common mix-up is confusing Úrsula with Amaranta Buendía, her daughter, or Fernanda del Carpio, a later in-law. Pilar Ternera is also closely connected to the family, but she is not José Arcadio Buendía’s wife.