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George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel
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BetaPart 2, Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Jonesville-on-the-Grande”
Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary
The chapter opens with a history of the city of Morelos, once fully a part of Mexico, which once straddled the Rio Grande. After Texas broke from Mexico, there was a standoff between U.S. troops on the north bank and Mexican troops on the south. In an improbable turn of events, a Mexican cannon fired a shot across the Rio Grande that decapitated the U.S. commander, Captain Jimmy Jones, and so the American half of Morelos was renamed “Jonesville.” Many families still have relatives on both sides of the river, and the border there is relatively fluid.
Feliciano travels to El Danubio Azul to accept his new job under Faustino Bello. Bello is glad for the help and offers Feliciano and the family a small house behind the cantina. Feliciano accepts and one of Bello’s employees, Juan Rubio, shows them the house. Feliciano is so astounded by the men’s kindness and his sudden change of fortune that he wonders if he had been shot by the band of men outside town after all and has entered some idyllic afterlife.
Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary
After Feliciano is shown the house, Faustino Bello offers to sell it to him on a rent-to-own scheme for $2/week, as well as a respectable salary for working in the cantina that is far beyond what Feliciano expected. Feliciano gratefully accepts both offers, is able to pull together a down payment from the family’s meagre savings, and after making sure María and the children are settled, he immediately begins work at El Danubio Azul.
The afternoon shift is pleasant. Feliciano learns quickly how to pour and serve beer, and he is happy for the work. The evening shift is more difficult, as the cantina fills with “Gringo” soldiers from nearby Fort Jones who jest with Feliciano in English, insulting him. The exchange nearly becomes confrontational, but Bello intervenes, making excuses for Feliciano. Bello pulls Feliciano aside after and chides him for not putting on a friendlier façade. Feliciano finally learns to swallow his hate for all “Gringos,” and completes the shift with no further incident.
Just before closing, Judge Norris enters the cantina to tell Feliciano that he will have more work for him soon.
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
This chapter recounts the political landscape of Jonesville in detail. While only one political party ever wins elections, it is divided into two factions, which themselves are referred to as “parties”: the Reds and the Blues. Jonesville’s white population largely supports the Reds, while the Mexicotexan citizens mostly vote Blue. Judge Norris is the current leader of the Blue party, whose headquarters is El Danubio Azul.
The Judge assigns Feliciano to canvas for Blue votes in town. The Judge is well known for having invented “knotted cords.” The cords are handed out to eligible but illiterate voters; the voters place the cord next to their ballot, and the knots show them where to vote for their party. Despite the success of the invention, the cords are often placed upside-down, resulting in incorrect votes. Feliciano comes up with the idea of painting the “tops” of the cords blue and altering the party’s slogan to “Up with the Blues” to further simplify the scheme. As a result of the change, the Blues win the next election in a landslide victory, cementing Feliciano’s reputation in local politics.
Feliciano continues to work hard for El Danubio Azul over the following years, and the family continues to enjoy their good fortune. Still, he is haunted by his guilt over Gumersindo’s death, and his hate for all “Gringos” has not subsided with the passing of time.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary
The focus of the novel begins to shift away from Feliciano and towards young Guálinto Gómez. Though the family is secure in their home and his uncle’s employment, Jonesville is plagued by political violence between the Blues and Reds. Politically motivated murder becomes commonplace, and the constant presence of death affects Guálinto from a young age.
In church, Guálinto learns more about Hell than about Heaven, with the priest constantly reminding him of his fate should he turn away from God. Guálinto becomes an introspective and quiet child. He suffers insomnia due to his fear of death, as he feels most vulnerable while falling asleep. As young as he is, he begins questioning existence with deeply philosophical inquiries, some of which trouble his mother María.
Part 2, Chapter 5 Summary
Doña Domitila, a neighbor, visits the Gómez family house to bring María news of the death of Filomena Menchaca, a member of the Blue party, in a political killing. The women briefly mourn him, but the conversation quickly turns to Feliciano’s tremendous success in politics. Guálinto arrives, pale-faced; María believes he is scared because of the killing and chides him for his cowardice.
Leaving the women, Guálinto excuses his fear by reassuring himself that he must hide his own bravery from his mother, so as not to worry her; Guálinto was present at Filomena Menchaca’s murder, hiding nearby. He barely escaped the scene before the police arrived and was terrified by the prospect of becoming a witness: “The horror of the word struck him like a blow. Witness, informer, pariah” (57).
Part 2, Chapters 1-5 Analysis
The opening of Part 2 is the first of many times in the novel when the narration exits the main plotline to review the history of a specific place, time, people, and/or situation that the characters encounter. In this instance, it focuses on the history of Morelos and Jonesville-on-the-Grande, and in so doing introduces the theme of geographic biculturalism. The novel highlights the age of Morelos, with the novel explaining that it existed “when Philadelphia was a little colonial town” (35). The city existed up until the Texas Revolution as a single municipality straddling both sides of the Rio Grande and a part of Mexico. After the annexation, the north bank of Morelos was renamed after an Anglo-American martyr figure and garrisoned with a fort of American soldiers, but the citizenry of the area remained predominantly Mexican. This is implied to be one of the reasons why Jonesville is able to shut out the Texas Rangers during the uprising. Despite this protection, Jonesville is no stranger to violence, as evidenced by the political killings in the area and the death of Filomena Menchaca.
The first introduction to Guálinto’s personality highlights the dueling emotions that will plague him throughout his young life. There are also hints that he is not entirely honest with himself about his own mind and motivations, as evidenced when he returns pale-faced from witnessing the murder of Filomena thinking:
He was no coward. Someday he would show them, his mother and all the rest. Someday he would grow up and then he would go out and kill five or six Gringos like Gregorio Cortez and Cheno Cortinas. But now he had to be a coward to all the world. He climbed into bed and relaxed his tense little limbs. But though he buried his face in the pillow, he could still see it, everything (54).
Guálinto’s witnessing the murder also illustrates the intensity of the two primary cultural forces acting upon him in Jonesville. He fears most intensely the prospect of being captured by the white police and called as a witness to Filomena’s murder. The police—and by extension the white establishment in Jonesville—are a far too powerful force for him to deny once their attention is focused on him. Yet he instinctively knows that to be called as a witness is synonymous to betraying his Mexicotexan family, friends, and neighbors, and will lead to his being branded an outcast.
The novel’s fictional setting of Jonesville-on-the-Grande shares several important features with Américo Paredes’s real-life hometown of Brownsville, Texas. Like Jonesville, Brownsville is named for an American soldier who died fighting Mexican troops, and it lies near the terminus of the Rio Grande. Its metropolitan area is also conjoined to the southern city of Matamoros, Mexico, much like Jonesville with Morelos, and the city was once the home of a well-armed military post called Fort Brown, built to guard the border from the Mexican army.
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