Chapter 1 Summary

Around the turn of the twentieth century, Mexico went through a turbulent time, being swept by one maruading army after another. Near the border of the United States and Mexico, a man named Juan Rubio arrives in a bar of a Mexican town. Being an old soldier, he quickly gets into trouble and has to emigrate to the U.S.A.

Juan Rubio arrives in the Mexican city of Juarez. He goes to get a drink in a cantina and sees a whore that he likes. He pressures her to go with him, but her pimp objects. Juan Rubio shoots the man dead and takes the girl up to his hotel room. Later that night, guards show up to arrest Rubio for murder. He happily goes along with them and talks insolently to the commander. He tells the commander his name, and the...