Sex

Tortilla Flat bristles with sexuality, and promiscuity is the rule. Clearly all the primary male characters are acquainted with the insides of the whorehouses along the waterfront, but most of the action takes place one-on-one. Wealth is a factor. After Danny inherits two houses, all the females in town want him, and he has a series of short-term affairs. If he does not tire of a woman within a week or so, his housemates conspire to break them up, because it is not healthy to be with one woman too long. Danny sees the older Mrs. Morales because she owns property and money; he rationalizes that she still looks good in some light.

A sense of propriety nevertheless remains. When "Sweets" Ramirez gets her way and Danny responds to her alluring, "Ai, amigo, a'onde vas?" she asks him, for the neighbors' sake, to return after dark. When Tia...