George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel

After the incident at the cantina, the lines between the Anglos and Mexicotexans in Guálinto’s class accentuate. María Elena and Guálinto are no longer together, and his grades begin to slide due to his pining for her.

Guálinto visits the local WOW social club, an integrated billiards hall where Mexicotexan and Anglo patrons get along quite well. El Colorado, who dropped out of school years prior, is the bouncer, and they spend their afternoons together listening to the old men tell stories.

Guálinto receives news that his uncle needs him, and he walks home with his friends. He expresses doubts about continuing on to college, though his friends insist that he must and encourage him to choose a concentration soon.

Feliciano meets Guálinto at home and informs him that Judge Norris’s bank, the Jonesville National, which managed most of the money and mortgage for El Danubio Azul, has collapsed. A crooked clerk named E.C. Carlton had been embezzling funds from the bank and playing the stock Fmarket, losing everything in the crash. As a result, Feliciano has lost El Danubio Azul.

He asks Guálinto to help him empty the store of its goods, as he still owns them and might be able to sell them separately. On the way, Guálinto insists that he wishes to quit school to help his uncle and keep the family afloat. Feliciano refuses, assuring Guálinto that he has saved enough money outside of the bank to fund his college education, and that he must continue to work towards getting a degree and helping his people as his father wished. Feliciano eventually concedes that if Guálinto can find a part-time after-school job, he may take it.

The Depression continues to worsen. The Mexicotexans call it “La Chilla,” Spanish for “The Squeal.” Images of the conditions farther north reach Jonesville, including bread lines and mass migrations. The Mexicotexans are unimpressed, as their struggle was far worse long before the onset of the Depression.

When the Depression does hit Jonesville, the Mexicotexans are left out of the relief efforts. Job offers are opened solely to white workers, and the government offers very little support to Mexicans. No bread lines appear, as the government doesn’t supply any. Part-time jobs are even harder to come by, and Guálinto is incredibly lucky when he lands work handing out circulars outside Don Pancho’s store for 50 cents per day. It soon becomes commonplace for Mexicotexans who have come across hard times and are questioned by their peers regarding what drove them to such dire straits to simply answer: “La Chilla.”

Due to his schedule at Don Pancho’s store, Guálinto is forced to miss Friday classes, and he finds it more difficult to keep up in school. María Elena reconnects with him, but only to continue cheating off him on tests. When it becomes apparent that his grades are no longer the best in the class, she breaks up with him again.

Guálinto’s heartache returns, he no longer finds school rewarding, and discusses romance with his coworkers at Don Pancho’s store. One of them, Higinio Alvarado, known as La Gata, has trouble believing that the poor Guálinto could successfully win over or maintain a relationship with the daughter of Don Onofre Osuna, but still commends him for pursuing a woman of wealth.