García-García Character Analysis in Into the Beautiful North

García-García is the elderly owner of the cinema in Tres Camarones and is the only rich man in town. However, he's also frugal to a fault: he shuts off his air conditioning at home, leading his wife to escape to her sister's air-conditioned home in Mazatlán, and when his projectionist leaves for the United States, García-García does the job himself rather than hire a woman. When Irma becomes mayor, she bullies García-García into hiring Nayeli's mother as a projectionist and also insists he screen a Yul Brynner film festival. Though he complies, both are unthinkable for García-García, as he's extremely sexist and is the self-professed biggest Steve McQueen fan in Mexico.

García-García Quotes in Into the Beautiful North

The Into the Beautiful North quotes below are all either spoken by García-García or refer to García-García. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Little, Brown and Company edition of Into the Beautiful North published in 2010.

"They took my house from me!"

She stood there in her tattered nightgown and curlers.

"Can I sleep here?" he asked.

Irma had only been in charge of the town for scant days, and already the troubles were starting.

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 57

Explanation and Analysis:

García-García Character Timeline in Into the Beautiful North

The timeline below shows where the character García-García appears in Into the Beautiful North. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Irma's distant cousin and the only rich man in town, García-García, owns the theater. Recently, his projectionist (the person who operates the projector at a cinema)... (full context)

A few days before the election, Irma and Nayeli knock on the door of García-García's big, white house. One of his five housekeepers answers the door and shows them to... (full context)

Female Friendship vs. Romance Theme Icon

Irma says that she expects new employment opportunities for women after the election, and García-García insists that he already hires women. Irma says that his female employees sell food and... (full context)

When Irma is finished, she takes one of García-García's cigarettes and waits for him to light it. Nayeli thinks that she watched this happen... (full context)

The next day, news spreads that García-García's cinema will stage a film festival, with Nayeli's mother as the new projectionist. García-García orders... (full context)

García-García's cinema, the Cine Pedro Infante, fills for the festival. Nayeli attends with Tacho and shouts... (full context)

García-García shows cartoons first, and the laughter from the moviegoers is so loud that the bats... (full context)

When the movie begins, Nayeli feels more tingles. Irma and García-García engage in a shouting match over who is better, Yul Brynner or Steve McQueen, during... (full context)

Late that night, Irma wakes up to a knock on her door. It's García-García, and he has a black eye. He explains that the bandidos came to his house... (full context)

...toiletries. Tacho cuts his hair, dyes the tips platinum blond, and spikes it straight up. García-García gives Tacho $500, as he doesn't trust the girls with that kind of money. The... (full context)

...their big, black cars at the major corners of the village. Irma sends Chava and García-García to Mazatlán so the bandidos won't beat them up, and grandmothers keep their granddaughters inside.... (full context)