George Washington Gómez: A Mexicotexan Novel

One night, man with a gun accosts Guálinto. In a moment of distraction, Guálinto is able to pick up a brick and throw it at the man, striking him in the head and knocking him out cold. The police arrive, and the white chief, MacHenry, takes Guálinto home and tells Feliciano that the boy will likely receive a reward for capturing “Arnulfo Miranda,” a dangerous fugitive. Piqued by the name, Feliciano visits the police station to see the man.

When he returns, he tells the family that “Arnulfo Miranda” is in fact Lupe García, his younger brother and María’s elder, and that Lupe died not long after the incident with Guálinto. Feliciano assures them that Lupe was not killed by the brick but was already near death from consumption. María is heartbroken by the news, and Guálinto demands to know more of his uncle, whom Feliciano has never spoken of.

Feliciano at last tells Guálinto the truth of Gumersindo’s death at the hands of Rangers who were seeking the rebel Lupe, but he omits his own involvement with the sediciosos and his presence at Gumersindo’s murder. He tells the family that Lupe was hiding in Mexico since the sediciosos fell apart, but he recently returned to Texas to find the Ranger named MacDougal, who had killed Gumersindo. Lupe was able to take his revenge and kill MacDougal, but the ordeal of traveling in the wilderness and living as a fugitive resulted in his consumption.

Guálinto is heartbroken and ashamed of having taken any part in his uncle’s final capture and death. He brands Feliciano a coward for abandoning Lupe and not joining with the sediciosos and renounces his uncle’s wish for him to go to college and help his people.

Guálinto attempts to improve his grades leading up to graduation but comes up short of being valedictorian. The honor instead goes to Elton Carlton, the son of the crooked and disgraced former Jonesville National bank clerk, E.C. Carlton. The boy fears a scandal if he is asked to give the traditional valedictorian’s speech to the community and asks to step aside from the honor. The school agrees and decides to invite a guest named K. Hank Harvey to give the speech.

Meanwhile, Feliciano receives a letter from someone he believes to be his daughter. He has received many letters from her over the years and supported her financially from afar. Instead, the letter turns out to be an admission that he had no daughter at all. A former lover of his believed she could swindle money from him and asked a friend to write Feliciano letters as his “daughter,” asking for support. The former lover has died, and her friend, out of a guilty conscience, has written the final letter to beg Feliciano’s forgiveness.

Feliciano laughs to himself at the admission, his only response being to gather the letters from his “daughter” he has collected under his bed for years and bring them out behind the house to burn.

Guálinto’s graduation arrives, and K. Hank Harvey comes to Jonesville to give his speech. Harvey is a white New Yorker who has spent much of his adult life traveling through Texas and Mexico, and he is considered by white scholars to be an “expert” in Mexicotexan culture.

His speech is polite but deeply racist, leaning heavily on the Anglo-American account of Texas history. He calls upon the students to honor the classic white heroes of the Texas Revolution—Jim Bowie, Davey Crockett, and Sam Houston—and speaks of Mexico as a perpetually tyrannical state.

Guálinto fumes throughout the speech and is ashamed when the principal gives him a medal for capturing Lupe. As the graduation progresses, he feels his heart fill with hatred for all “Gringos.” After the ceremony, El Colorado finds him and tells him that the principal wishes to speak to him about his college prospects. Guálinto turns this down, telling El Colorado of his wish to never see any of them again.

After graduation, Guálinto goes to Feliciano’s farm to work with his uncle and Juan Rubio, once Feliciano’s coworker at El Danubio Azul and now his close friend and confidante on the farm. Feliciano again pleads with Guálinto to go to college, but he refuses.

Juan Rubio pulls Guálinto aside and tells him the full truth of Feliciano’s time as a leader of the sediciosos, and that his uncle had been present when Gumersindo was killed. He then reveals that he was the Mexican traveling with Jack Sneed when Feliciano’s band encountered them, and that Feliciano only faked killing Juan when Lupe attempted to force his hand. The two men later met again in Jonesville, and Juan Rubio has been Feliciano’s friend ever since.

Renewed by this final revelation, Guálinto announces to Feliciano his decision to go to college. Feliciano is relieved that his nephew now knows the whole truth and is proud of him for taking it so well.