Chapter 10 Summary, Analysis, and Key Takeaways
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Summary
After two weeks of bed rest and another two before his bandages come off, Antonio Sonoro convalesces in the brush country near Refugio, Texas, in 1895. He stays in the jacal of Cielita, an old curandera, and her young ward Manu, whom she calls her nephew to spare him the loneliness of being an orphan. The pair live quietly with a small herd of goats, occasionally traveling into town to sell herbs and remedies. Once Antonio can move, he helps with chores: replacing wheel felloes, repairing the goat fence, patching the mud walls, and teaching Manu to braid lariats. He also carries water for Cielita's daily bath, a ritual she insists on for reasons he cannot fathom.
When he has regained enough strength, Antonio asks to visit his brother Hugo's grave. He and Manu set out before dawn, Antonio's face still bandaged and covered with a bandana to avoid being seen. The air is thick with migrating monarch butterflies, which some believe are the souls of the dead traveling to Michoacán for Día de los Muertos. They pass the iron gates of Mt. Calvary Cemetery, where Manu shakes his head—whites only—and continue to the small wooden sign for Santa Cruz Cemetery. Antonio has carved a wooden cross with Hugo's name and dates, though he is ashamed of its crude appearance. He kneels, plants the cross, and wipes away angry tears, repeating a refrain of guilt: he should never have let Hugo come, should never have told him, should have died instead. He wonders if he was spared for a reason—perhaps to kill the Rangers—and asks Hugo for a sign. A breeze stirs the tree, and thousands of butterflies take wing like a school of golden fish. Antonio stands, crosses himself, and is satisfied.
Back at the jacal, Antonio announces he will soon leave, but Cielita insists he is too weak, telling him he must be able to carry her for a mile through the brush before he is ready. He curses her but knows she is right. He stays, braiding lariats and straining goat hair from cheese, waiting for the day he can depart. At night, when Manu sleeps, Cielita beckons him outside to smoke marijuana from a short pipe and asks him to describe the stars. She tells him she was born in New Spain, which became Mexico, then the Republic of Texas, and now the United States, though her house has never moved. Antonio says the other side of the river is the same—always someone trying to take what's yours.
Cielita then reveals her own story. At sixteen, during the Mexican army's attack on Refugio under General Urrea, she brought water to the soldiers and was called