Into the Beautiful North: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

The narrator explains that the "bandidos" came to the Mexican village of Tres Camarones at the worst time, when the village was already in flux. Nobody there likes change—even getting electricity in the 1930s was a struggle. The mayor, García-García the First, spent two years lobbying for electricity. Even after he was successful, some citizens continued to burn candles and build bonfires in the street, necessitating a ban on street fires. García-García lost his next election but was later reelected—citizens figured there would be less change with the same mayor.

Tres Camarones only changes when inclement weather washes away parts of the town or reshapes the beaches. However, this all changed when the value of the peso dropped. Work disappeared, and tortillas were suddenly too expensive to buy. Some traditionalists voted to get rid of electricity, but none of the women wanted to get rid of their appliances. Instead, the men began going north.

The bandidos arrive in Tres Camarones as the sun rises. One is an officer with the Sinaloa State Police—he makes more than 15 times his officer's salary as an "advisor" for the drug cartels. The other is a low-level "narco" looking for his own territory so he can make it big. He's known as Scarface. He and the state cop are driving to Tres Camarones to deliver marijuana to some American surfers, though Scarface thinks that the bumpy road and the heat are a lot of trouble for marijuana.

Both men are extremely irritated: the state cop's gun holster is squeaky, and the only music on the radio is Mexican music. Scarface and the cop argue about which hip-hop artists are best and agree that Mexico is a terrible country. Driving through the dirt streets, the men are disgusted by the overwhelming smell of the town’s outhouses and laugh at the skinny dogs and roosters. They see one house with a satellite dish. Finally, they come upon the town square and notice a restaurant called "Taqueria e Internet 'La Mano Caida.'" They scoff at the name—Fallen Hand—and decide to stop and wait for the surfers.