The Tattooed Soldier

This chapter finds Longoria fighting with Reginalda. She is angry that he demanded her to come over, and she is perturbed about his broken arm. Meanwhile, a police altercation unfolds in front of Longoria’s building. The police are confronting the “cholos” who control the local territory. Something goes wrong, and there is gunfire. This is followed by an even larger confrontation between neighborhood residents and police reinforcements. In the initial shooting the police killed a boy known to the residents. The events taking place around Longoria now contrast sharply with his impression of the United States when he trained at Fort Bragg. At that time, he admired the prosperity and order he witnessed.

During his fight with Reginalda, Longoria cries; however, she is unmoved. She feels that he does not respect her, and that there is something wrong with him. But they are distracted by the fight outside. Amid the chaos, Longoria believes he sees Antonio, but he cannot tell if he is simply paranoid.

At Fort Bragg, a Spanish-speaking instructor explained to Longoria and his fellow soldiers that the only way to gain victory was to use psyops; in other words, they had to psychologically weaken both the enemy and the people who might be sympathetic with them.