by Gilbert Hernandez
Luba has fallen into a pit. Only Guadalupe, one of her daughters, knows about it. Luba sends her to get food but is too embarrassed to tell her to get someone else to help her get out of the pit. Guadalupe tries to follow Luba's instructions but she can’t find food and then she gets distracted by some other kids who are watching a bruja.
Chili kills Roberto while chasing him. Roberto killed his grandfather who according to one account had. Even sexually abusing him.
A bruja (witch) comes to town. Chelo does her best to see to the bruja’s needs. One of the kids steals a baby skull that the witch was carrying around with her. The bruja accuses Chelo of the theft.
Love all the little details and drawings.
Part 2
This is more than one story and it gets kind of weird in this segment. Lots of people get sick, including Guadalupe. She starts hallucinating. She sees all sorts of things that aren’t there. She tries to find her mother.
Tonantzín has problems of her own. Chelo is sick too. She deputizes Tonantzín who goes home and puts on a pair of her sisters hot pants. She loses the gun Chelo gave her. She doesn’t seem to be too concerned about keeping the peace but she freaks out when she loses the pistol.
The bruja continues to look for her baby, the baby skull which was thrown by one of the kids into the pit where Luba is stuck. It seems like the witch might be the one causing people to get sick but that isn’t really clear.
There’s a lot going on in this story but there isn’t one simple or clear narrative. Guadalupe’s hallucinations make it that much more confusing. Some of them are clearly figments of her imagination but others I'm not so sure about.
Good read. I enjoyed it but this was a tough one to break down or summarize. I know I didn't capture it all but I hope I got the gist of the story and what I liked about it.
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