39 pages • 1 hour read
Héctor TobarThe Tattooed Soldier
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 11-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: "Antonio and Guillermo"
Chapter 11 Summary: "Fire Escape"
This chapter returns to the present day, as Antonio is stalking the tattooed soldier from the park. After recovering from the initial surreal feeling of this discovery, Antonio feels almost exhilarated and even joyous. Overwhelmed with the desire for revenge, he follows Longoria from the tables to his work: El Pulgarcito Express.
Back at work, Longoria looks through some letters that his coworkers have opened. They get away with this because it is easily blamed on the authorities in the home nations. While at work, Longoria is confronted by an upset customer, an old woman. When she sees his tattoo, she realizes his history and shouts “Murderer!” at him. In response, he slaps her.
Antonio waits at the door of the store and manages to see some of Longoria’s work life. This almost makes him feel pity for the man: The soldier is clearly a subordinate here. Antonio realizes the best choice would be forgetting all about the soldier. Nevertheless, his pity and reason are quickly shattered by the memory of the jaguar tattoo, which to Antonio symbolizes deliberate evil.
Antonio waits until the end of the day, then follows Longoria home. He memorizes Longoria’s address before returning to the shelter with plans to resume his pursuit the next day.
Longoria takes Reginalda to a Thai restaurant popular among the neighborhood’s Latinos. Unfortunately for him, his thoughts linger over the old woman from the previous day. She accused him of involvement in her son Demetrio’s disappearance. Longoria is sure he was not involved in that incident, but the experience is jarring. He recalls his strange relationships with his victims: While they withstood his interrogations or begged for their lives, he knew that they would soon be mentioned in the newspapers as dead or missing.
Watching Longoria’s building for days on end, Antonio finds his window. He also discovers Longoria’s relationship with Reginalda. This makes Antonio particularly angry, as he was robbed of his wife and child while Longoria has a lover.
One day he waits until Longoria has left and then scales the fire escape to break in through the open window. He finds Longoria’s military training certificates, which is how Antonio learns his enemy’s name. He also finds Longoria’s photo album, which includes an envelope full of pictures of Longoria’s victims.
Back at his camp, Antonio informs his friends about his discovery. The Mayor and Frank insist that Longoria should be killed, but José Juan is less certain. Antonio looks through the trash bag for his remaining picture of his family but cannot find it. He does find an unopened letter from his mother dated two years ago. The letter informs him that political changes have made much of Guatemala safer, and so he should be able to return home. What’s more, his mother has been in contact with the Belgian priest Van der Est and has paid to have a marker put at Elena and Carlitos’ graves. This news, and the enclosed picture of the grave marker, fills Antonio with guilt and shame. Though he could return to Guatemala, doing so would prevent him from exacting revenge on Longoria.
Chapter 12 Summary: "The Army of Painted Children"
Longoria continues to carry anger about the old woman who publicly accused him of murder. He cannot help feeling that civilian life is worse than the military, where you were judged based on your success and behavior in the context of military tasks. He goes to commiserate with a friend named Lopez who also served in the military. Both men trained at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. They met in Guatemala and experienced a battle together as young men. When a friend was mortally wounded, they experienced the wonder of a helicopter ride together.
Lopez lives in Watts in South-Central Los Angeles. When Longoria arrives, he can tell that his friend is unwell. As it turns out, Lopez is taking powerful medications because his son was killed in a shooting outside his school. Though Lopez successfully bought a home and started a family, this tragedy has cost him nearly everything.
Longoria’s shock at Lopez’s misfortune leads him to purchase a pistol. Although gang members rarely mess with men like Longoria, recognizing that he is tough and experienced, he still feels like it’s smart to have a gun. Longoria is irritated that the gun shop owner tells him it is against the law to carry the gun, especially loaded.
Chapter 13 Summary: "Basic Training"
Antonio sets out on a Sunday morning intending to kill Longoria. He goes to the park where his enemy plays chess and asks for him. After a long wait, Longoria arrives. Antonio attacks him with a pipe. Longoria is armed with the gun he bought, but he has left it unloaded at the sales clerk’s request. Antonio manages to injure Longoria’s arm before Longoria escapes. The police arrive, but with no one providing useful information, they allow Antonio to leave.
Chapters 11-13 Analysis
The title of Part 3 reflects that for Antonio, the Sergeant has become Guillermo. This indicates that Antonio’s investigation has put him on a more familiar basis with the man who killed his family. This familiarity is not reciprocated, as Longoria does not know anything of his pursuer. Throughout Part 3 we also see that studying Longoria is very empowering for Antonio. Perhaps this is due to his nature as an intellectual, or perhaps it is due to a desire to commit violence himself.
The fact that Antonio is angry with his mother for marking the graves of his wife and child shows how tumultuous his emotions are at this time. Instead of feeling gratitude for her kindness and for the fact that he can now return home, Antonio turns his own feelings of guilt against his mother.
Traveling to Lopez’s house, Longoria sees ruined and destroyed parts of the city. Though he does not realize it, these are probably places destroyed in the 1965 Watts riots. These riots were an expression of black rebellion against racial injustice.
The “cholos” who killed Lopez’s son, and who congregate outside Longoria’s building, are meant to parallel Lopez and Longoria. The suggestion is that meager circumstances will produce those who empower themselves by banding together and committing violence. Nevertheless, the behavior of the Guatemalan Army, because it is organized on a large-scale basis, is much more ominous than the violence of the cholos.
The fact that Antonio is able to attack Longoria would be more surprising had we not seen his capacity for violence in Chapter 3. Some readers may still find it improbable that this intellectual would attack a man in broad daylight with a pipe; however, we should keep in mind the trauma Antonio has undergone, as well as the dire straits of his current existence.
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By Héctor Tobar
