Chapter 8 Summary

An eleven-year-old boy named Juan Salvador Villasenor is traveling with his family to El Paso, Texas. Their village has been destroyed, and many other families like his are on the roadways also. As they pass a cornfield, Juan distracts the foreman of a farm so that he and his family may steal corn from the fields alongside the road. His mother is Dona Margarita, his oldest sister is eighteen-year old Luisa, and his sixteen-year-old sister who was recently raped by the soldiers is Emilia. She has gone blind with embarrassment, and is pregnant. Also with them is Inocenta, a beautiful girl of five years, and a three-month-old baby named Joselito.

That night they make a cozy camp, and roast the corn over a fire made of cow dung.

The next day as they approach Leon, Guanajuato, they see the city is burning and...