Chapter 5 Summary

Living in America has a marked effect on Richard's mother. In Mexico, a wife is utterly subservient to her husband and family with no voice of her own. Consuelo hears the talk of her neighbors, and she begins to long for a life of her own, where her opinion matters. One night at supper, she accuses her husband of seeing other women. Juan hits her and tells her that it is none of her business what he does! After he storms out, she cries and tells her children that in this new country, if a man beats his wife, he will be sent to jail. Richard is horrified that his mother would even think of doing such a terrible thing as sending his father to jail, and he tells her she is wrong to speak this way. She pushes him away, and he...