Summary

In Chapter 1 of Cowboy Graves, the first person narrator, Arturo Belano recalls his family’s multiple attempts to move from Chile to Mexico. He, his mother, and sister plan to relocate to Mexico to be with his father, who Arturo has only seen “twice, once when [he] was eight and again when [he] was twelve” (9). When his father came to visit them in Chile, his mother’s lover had insisted on being present. The men mounted horse and leapt over fences at a friend’s country house. Arturo sped after his father and found him “sitting on a stump with an unlit cigarette in his hand” (18). They talked about Mexican cowboys and his father’s reasons for visiting Chile. Throughout the first chapter, Arturo feels conflicted about his identity; caught between his life in Chile and his father...