George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel

Guálinto goes to church and has to sit near the front with the rest of the children, a way of incentivizing them to behave properly. The priest declares that for each soul that transcends to Heaven after death, a thousand more are damned to Hell. Guálinto feels guilty for the thousand souls that must suffer for him to find Heaven. He tries to imagine the size of the number but cannot.

In flashback, we learn that María fixed Guálinto’s hair using shortening, as they were out of the more appropriate brilliantine solution. A boy behind Guálinto smells it and begins to tease him. Another boy nearby points out that Guálinto lives in the infamous Dos Ventidós district, and the teasing boy pushes away from Guálinto, afraid.

This puts Guálinto in a bad, self-pitying mood. He alternately imagines himself as a deadly rinche marauder and a Mexicotexan revolutionary martyr, but he banishes both fantasies as foolish.

A house is physically moved into the vacant lot next to the Gómezes’ house. María is concerned that it is a Protestant preacher, but Feliciano says it is actually a Mexican lawyer who has moved to the area to better help Mexican citizens who have run into trouble with the law.