Summary

The novel opens in Mexico City on June 10th, 1971. A 21-year-old man, using the code name Elvis, is a member of the Hawks. The Hawks are a paramilitary, CIA-backed group that “inform on the activities of the annoying reds infesting the universities…and also, if necessary, fuck up a a few of them” (4). A man known as El Mago leads the Hawks. Despite his work, Elvis does not like violence. In Chapter 1, Elvis prepares to intervene in a protest alongside several other Hawks, including the brutish El Güero, the submissive Antelope, and Elvis’ friend El Gazpacho. Elvis, intelligent and curious, chooses his ‘word of the day’ from a dictionary. As the protest ramps up, the Hawks enter the fray and attack journalists. Gunshots begin to ring through the crowd. Elvis chases a journalist into an alley and encounters a wounded El Gazpacho...