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 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: "Antonio and Elena"
Chapter 9 Summary: "Microbes"
Elena heads out past the paved streets of town toward Colonia La Joya. She ends up on a thin path that winds along the river. She sees girls bathing and collecting water in plastic basins. Beyond this point, she finds an astonishingly large slum hidden in the fields outside town.
Antonio is distressed to learn of her expedition, which surprises Elena. He argues that as a “city lady,” it is very conspicuous for her to go wandering. She suggests they move to Los Angeles to stay with a cousin of hers, but Antonio sees no hope in that plan.
Elena adapts to the town. She takes her son, Carlitos, to the park in his stroller. By engaging Mrs. Gómez in gossip, she wins the woman’s regard and disarms her suspicions. Meanwhile, she learns of political strife within the town. For example, Mrs. Gómez resents the intrusions of the town’s priest, a Belgian named Van der Est. Apparently, he has been assigned here because he does not involve himself in politics. But he acted cruelly toward Mrs. Gómez and the Ladies’ Committee, throwing their statue of the Virgin down the steps to demonstrate his contempt for their allegedly cult-like adoration of the Virgin.
Elena travels to a nearby town, Quetzaltenango, to use its libraries and bookstores to study public sanitation. This is part of her project to help Colonia La Joya. While this provides her with an occupation, it exacerbates Antonio’s stress regarding the fact that they were married and had a child when they lacked financial stability.
Antonio allows Elena to take him to Colonia La Joya. This is his way of making amends for his recent frustration with his wife. Proceeding beyond the liminado, or slum, they are struck by the smell of garbage. They discover that the slum is just downstream from the city dump, which is on a hillside that feeds into the river. Antonio is hesitant to make this discovery public because he and Elena are outsiders in this town.
Days later, Antonio returns home with news that the mayor has taken him to task. The mayor is angry because Elena wrote to regional officials about the problem with Colonia La Joya and the dump. Antonio is mad that Elena did this without telling him. Even more worrisome is the mayor’s revelation that government agents have been following Elena.
Chapter 10 Summary: "The Wrestler’s Brigade"
This chapter follows Longoria as he is assigned to a new unit. He has become skilled in killing and wounding, though he has rarely encountered armed foes. He has become a sergeant; ironically, regardless of the new rank markings on his uniform, the new assignment involves plainclothes operations. This is somewhat distasteful to Longoria, who does not like the idea of not avowing one’s actions.
Longoria is placed in charge of the Lorenzo Amaya Anti-Communist Brigade. This is essentially a private army sponsored by a wealthy businessman. The soldiers in the unit are undisciplined, so Longoria is assigned to take control of them. He has no respect for the soldiers, who seem like criminals. Their missions involve kidnapping subversives in a deliberately conspicuous manner, to intimidate the population. On one of their first missions to abduct a subversive, a subordinate named Mugre shot two passersby because they stared at him.
At present, Longoria receives a mission to visit a small town and stay at the mayor’s home. The mission’s purpose is to abduct a husband; Longoria has no problem with this mission because the man is apparently an educated and privileged bureaucrat.
Meanwhile, we encounter Elena recovering from the fight with Antonio. He stopped speaking with her for a week after the letter incident, but they eventually managed to reconcile.
The scene shifts back to Longoria, who is attempting to wake his men. They drank all night with the mayor and are unable to get up. When they arrive at Elena and Antonio’s home, Elena is feeling conflicted about trying to be a good wife and mother while fighting for reform. Longoria and his men burst into the midst of this reflection; they aggressively question Elena about Antonio’s whereabouts. He is at work, but Elena tells them to go to hell.
Meanwhile, in the other room, one of Longoria’s men is startled by Carlitos and shoots him. The men want to rape Elena. Longoria, disgusted and aware that she will not divulge any information, simply shoots her. Leaving the scene of the crime, Longoria revisits the assignment dossier and realizes he could have gone to Antonio’s workplace and abducted him there. One of his men has to go to the bathroom, and they stop near the bus station where Antonio is making his escape. Longoria purchases ice cream, and revisiting Antonio’s memory of escaping like a coward.
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
It is worth noting the connections between some of the chapter titles at this point. For example, the title of Chapter 9, “Microbes,” parallels the title of Chapter 4, “The Source of the Infection.” The earlier chapter describes the inhabitants of Guatemala as an infection; in Chapter 9, it is clear that these people are victims of poverty and unsanitary conditions. Most of them are not ideological foes; they are simply trying to survive. While Longoria becomes trained to hunt people, Elena embarks on an expedition to uncover the cause of disease and unhappiness in town. Chapter 10 notes that Elena is only 23 and just starting to enjoy and understand lovemaking, which underscores her youth and the tragedy of her death.
Close readers will quickly realize that Elena is pursuing the investigation that will cost her life. Readers may also recognize the chess-playing Longoria in the Longoria who raids Antonio’s home. Just prior to the raid, Longoria feels perhaps overconfident. He merely glances at the dossier, which shows that Antonio would be at work rather than at home. Proper vigilance would have prevented Elena and Carlitos’ deaths. The more we learn of the Wrestler’s Brigade, the more we see that Longoria is only nominally in control. He is useful because he is the most cautious and disciplined soldier in the group, but at this point in his career, he is merely going through the motions. He is not a real leader but a sort of bureaucrat of a violent machine.
One thing symbolized by Elena’s death is the excessive government oppression in Guatemala. Elena is not a dangerous revolutionary but someone working to improve the sanitary conditions in town. Even this act of public service is crossing the line in a country trapped in a repressive regime. The town mayor seeks to act in keeping with the dictates of his party, so he has Elena followed and requests an assassination. Presumably, Antonio is targeted because he is a man, and killing him is more desirable than murdering Elena.
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By Héctor Tobar
