Into the Beautiful North

The chapter introduces the novel’s protagonist, Nayeli, a nineteen-year-old “futbolista” who works at “The Fallen Hand Taco Shop”. She is “dreaming of leaving town again” (4) with the possibilities of a more “fancy” life always on her mind.

The bandidos (Scarface and the cop) stop at the Fallen Hand for something to eat. They eye up Nayeli, and Tacho, the “Fallen Hand’s taco master” is uninterested and almost belligerent to the customers because he is “tired of the thugs” (10). The men make Nayeli uncomfortable, but she serves them anyway.

The narration then moves to some historical and geographical context of Tres Camarones and the influx of American tourists that sometimes arrive on their beaches. These are the types of people the bandidos are looking to serve; the “Americano surfos” would be looking for some marijuana. They are in the restaurant waiting to meet up with some, but the “gringos” do not arrive. They leave without paying.

Nayeli and Tacho continue their work while Nayeli is thinking about “Missionary Matt” (15), a “real blue-eyed white boy” that spent time in Tres Camarones and had enchanted Nayeli and the other girls in town. They spent a lot of time together, especially at the movies, and Matt left each girl a card that had his American address and phone number. Nayeli keeps this card, along with a postcard from her father, in her sock.

We learn that Nayeli’s father had once been a police officer in Tres Camarones but had left town about three years ago and headed north. The postcard he sent Nayeli was from Kankakee, Illinois. Although money was tight, Nayeli and her mother receive assistance from Aunt Irma, Tres Camarones’ greatest female bowling champion and soon to be Municipal President. Nicknamed La Osa (She-Bear) she pushed Nayeli into soccer and karate. “To La Osa, life and love were war, and she expected Nayeli to win as many battles as possible” (17).

We learn a little more about Tacho, a homosexual, and his infamously named restaurant “The Fallen Hand”. It is a mockery of the limp-wristed stereotype of homosexuals and the judgment that he has to live with. Nayeli’s other girlfriends arrive at The Fallen Hand: Yoloxochitl (Yolo) and Veronica (Vampi), the only Goth girl in Tres Camarones. When Matt had left Tres Camarones, he donated his laptop, and so The Fallen Hand also became an “internet café”. They spend a lot of their time watching videos on YouTube, filling their eyes with Americanized pop culture. Nayeli dreams of marrying Johnny Depp.