Part 1, Section 6, "Federico Robles" Summary

Robles is talking to Ixca about the changes from the feudal days to the new capitalist ones. The de Ovandos used to own the whole country, whereas he, Robles the millionaire, was once a peasant farmer's son.

His cousin Froilan tried to involve the family in the revolution to bring about redistribution of land. Froilan tells of a workers strike that began when a child died of overwork. The factory owners, who ran the only supply store available to the workers, refused them food for weeks. The starving workers tried subsisting from cacti, and even from their own fingernails and blood and flesh, but in the end they gave in and asked for food in exchange for resuming work. The company refused them food and laughed, at which point the workers attacked the store and...