Leon is the oldest brother in Carlos’s family. As the book begins, he has just returned from fighting in a European war. Due to their significant age difference, Carlos meets Leon for the first time when the former shows up in the family field where Carlos and father are plowing. Out of all of Carlos’s brothers, Leon lives the most traditional peasant lifestyle. Upon returning to Binalonan from the war, Leon takes a peasant wife, and must endure a brutal old tradition in which the other villagers savagely beat his new bride when they learn she is not a virgin. Eventually, Leon moves with his wife to another part of the island of Luzon, where he raises several children. Like the other brothers, Leon is an important influence on Carlos. He teaches the latter to stand strong behind his convictions and teaches him to appreciate the Earth and all that it offers, a lesson Carlos carries with him in America. For Carlos, Leon also becomes a lifelong symbol of the bittersweet nature of homecoming, and he recalls his brother’s return from the army several times while contemplating his own possible return to the Philippines from America.
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