The Tattooed Soldier

Antonio’s failure to kill Longoria in the park makes him angry with himself, but he is still committed to this mission. He seeks out Frank, who points out the foolishness of his attack on a hardened killer. José Juan seems uncomfortable around his now murder-bent friend.

When they awake the next morning, police officers and city workers are expelling the camp’s inhabitants and leveling their structures. The Mayor tries to challenge the police, who recognize him and tell him he has no basis for resistance. Grabbing what they can, Antonio and José Juan join a line of men making their way out of the camp to another location.

They find another lot before long, where a tunnel enters a concrete wall. The tunnel is labeled Pacific Electric Rail Co. Antonio notices that the entrance lies right below an old vanished neighborhood that he and José Juan explored previously.

In their new encampment they meet a man named Darryl. According to Antonio, Darryl’s story of how he became homeless is as succinct and tidy as those of all the other camp dwellers. He discusses losing his job in Michigan and becoming estranged from his family, but Antonio suspects that Darryl is an alcoholic. Moreover, from experience, Antonio can see that Darryl is close to the verge of suicide.

Antonio endures a long rant from the Mayor, who has ceased taking his medications, to speak with Frank about his assassination plan. Frank is at first reluctant, but the discussion of Longoria’s past deeds convinces him.

In the wake of the conflict outside Longoria’s apartment, the morning finds a destroyed police car and bloodstains on the ground. Longoria thinks of how his jaguar tattoo will protect him, as it has before. He recalls getting the tattoo in North Carolina. He felt that it represented him as a reborn person. Back in Guatemala, where tattoos were considered very strange, the tattoo marked him as a dangerous person.

Longoria thinks of how at Fort Bragg he was taught the importance of using extreme measures to win the conflict at home. He considers that the LA police can use extreme measures as well, noting the beating of Rodney King that has been shown on television.

Longoria recalls an early mission with the Jaguars, when they descended upon a village. They were met only by the priest, who claimed to support them. But the officers above Longoria were unimpressed. A young boy they found ran, and Longoria tried to shoot him but missed. The officers admonished him and ordered the soldiers to only use knives. There was a group of singers with the priest, and the soldiers herded them into a church. The soldiers then massacred the singers with machetes in a bizarre and terrifying scene. The singers were mainly women and children.

After the massacre, the soldiers burned the church with survivors still inside. Afterward, it was apparent that not everyone took part in the massacre. It became clear that only some people are capable of such acts. At the next village, the Jaguars descended on a busy market and opened fire. They left only two women, whom they forced to cook before killing them. Longoria, tasked with killing one of the women, shot her until his gun was empty.

In the present, Longoria pushes by one of the young gangsters as he exits his building. He feels that after the fight with the police, the cholo is emboldened and more dangerous.