Fruit of the Drunken Tree

Mamá hosts an estate sale, and neighbors come to buy all their belongings except those packed in a few suitcases. Chula overhears the neighbors’ bigoted comments about the family’s misfortune, which they blame on Mamá’s former poverty and Indian blood. Chula realizes that Petrona must have taken the girls’ portraits from the family photo album to give to the guerrillas who attempted to kidnap them. On the news, Escobar gives an interview, even though he is on the run. He describes life as “a space full of agreeable and disagreeable surprises,” and his sanguine nature shocks Chula. 

In drugged semi-consciousness, Petrona recalls “men between [her] legs” (250). She is gang-raped as punishment for being a traitor and sabotaging the kidnapping attempt. In flashbacks, she remembers Gorrión asking her to be his girlfriend and giving her a green stone that he claimed was an emerald. She remembers Leticia telling her that she could do more than pass envelopes; she could also give up private information about the Santiagos to the guerrillas. Returning to the present moment of her assault, she hears Gorrión begging the men to stop the sexual assault.