Chapter 7 Summary

The Americans decide to close the mine, and many Mexican men are left without work. As a result, families begin leaving the town to find work in other areas. Due to this, there are very few men coming to Dona Guadalupe's home to eat, and she has no way to pay her bills. When Victoriano finds that his mother is unhappy, he decides to go to an area below the mine where unprofitable ore is discarded. Here he looks for rocks with some color that he can take home and extract the gold by pounding them with a hammer.

La Liebre and his men discover him while he is doing this. Thinking that Victoriano has been given more valuable rocks by the miners, he decides to make an example of the boy, and takes him to the village square to be hanged.

When...