What is the main conflict in Pilgrims in Aztlan by Miguel Mendez?

The novel begins with an introduction to its main character, Loreto Maldonado, a former revolutionary, who is now eighty years old and a Tijuana car washer. Loreto is also a very proud Yaqui Indian whose main goal in each remaining day of his life is to maintain his dignity and to find some way of making enough money to keep himself from starving.