George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel

Seven months later, the family debates the newborn boy’s name for his upcoming baptism. María and Gumersindo wish to name him after a great man, hoping to inspire the boy to help his people when he comes of age. After some debate, Gumersindo decides they should name the boy after George Washington. Gumersindo Hispanicizes Washington’s name as “Jorge Wachinton.” The grandmother hears this and further alters the last name as “Guálinto.” The boy is baptized as Guálinto Gómez.

Feliciano camps out on the chaparral outside San Pedrito, in the company of “El Negro.” “El Negro,” Feliciano, and Feliciano’s younger brother, Lupe García, are all members of Anacleto de la Peña’s Republic of the Southwest seditionists, los sediciosos, whose mission has just recently been dealt a fatal blow following De la Peña’s flight back to Mexico.

In flashback, Feliciano and Gumersindo visit San Pedrito together. Feliciano dislikes the local white pastor, deriding religion as a whole and noting that “pastor” is a derogatory term in Spanish. Gumersindo is less antagonistic and attempts to convince Feliciano not to continue his participation in the uprising, arguing that the United States is too big and powerful to overthrow.

Back in the present, Feliciano and “El Negro” hide as they hear Rangers—who they refer to as rinches—approach. They hear gunfire, and after the Rangers depart, the two men find Gumersindo dying from a fatal gunshot wound. Just before dying, Gumersindo makes Feliciano promise not to tell Guálinto how he was murdered, saying “My son. Mustn’t know. Ever. No hate, no hate” (21). Feliciano argues that it is Guálinto’s right to know, but Gumersindo insists.

Feliciano and “El Negro” are forced to leave Gumersindo’s body lest they be discovered as rebels. They wait nearby as a farmer, Don Hermenegildo, and his sons find the body and take it to San Pedrito.

Feliciano, out on the chapparal once again with Lupe, “El Negro,” and others, recounts the cycle of violence between the sediciosos and rinches since the beginning of the rebellion, noting that the Rangers have killed far more people, and especially more civilians. He mourns the losing cause of the sediciosos, whose rebellion is now in its final days. He also notes how Lupe, his younger brother, has taken an outsized leadership role in the rebellion, though he continues to defer to Feliciano per tradition. Lupe tries to convince Feliciano to return to Mexico with him to fight in the Mexican Revolution, saying “It’s a different war over there […] Really good men like you and me can get rich, get to be generals maybe” (25). Feliciano refuses, noting that someone must take care of María and the children.

Lupe continues to evangelize the rebellion, pointing out their sixteen-year-old companion Remigio and his taste for revenge. Just as he says so, Remigio approaches them to say he intends to leave the sediciosos, having grown tired of the fighting. Lupe goads Remigio with the memory of seeing his father and brother murdered by the rinches, and Remigio changes his mind.

“El Negro” then captures two men he accuses of spying on them. One is a white man named Jack Sneed, while the other is a Mexican travelling with him who goes unnamed. Sneed attempts to negotiate their release but is killed by a member of the band. Remigio, whose thirst for vengeance has been fully reignited by Lupe’s goading, mutilates the corpse.

Lupe tells Feliciano to kill Sneed’s Mexican companion. Feliciano initially refuses, but Lupe tells the Mexican where Feliciano lives, forcing his hand. The action follows the band as they travel away from the two men and hear a gunshot, implying that Feliciano has killed the Mexican.

Feliciano leaves the sediciosos after the incident. The grandmother, Feliciano’s mother, dies not long after Gumersindo’s burial. Feliciano fully dedicates himself to caring for his sister María and her three children. Despite this, he soon feels regretful for promising Gumersindo not to tell Guálinto how he died.

He decides to relocate the family to the town of Jonesville-on-the-Grande, a town just west of the Rio Grande delta and the Gulf of Mexico. Texas Rangers are banned from entering Jonesville, whose citizens are mostly Mexican and where even the white residents speak Spanish, so Feliciano hopes the family will be safer there.

Just outside the town, a band of armed “Gringos” stop and accost the family; they have trouble believing the baby Guálinto is Mexican due to his lighter skin. Feliciano sends the family away, but the “Gringos” capture and nearly shoot him. An older white man who is passing by forces the armed men to let Feliciano go. The older man turns out to be Judge Norris, a prominent citizen of Jonesville. He tells Feliciano that the armed men were not rinches but deputized ranch hands, and he assures him that the border is meant to be peaceful now. Guiding Feliciano into town and back to the family, the Judge offers Feliciano a job at a cantina he owns, El Danubio Azul, working for the cantina’s manager Faustino Bello.