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The Lieutenant
The whisky priest meets the mestizo (the word “mestizo” refers to someone with mixed Spanish and indigenous Mexican heritage) on his travels. The priest quickly tries to get rid of him when the mestizo suggests traveling together. The whisky priest knows the mestizo recognizes him and simply wants to turn him in for a bounty. At the end of the novel, the mestizo attempts to lure the whisky priest back across the border where he will be captured by the Red Shirts. The whisky priest knows he is being set up but goes anyway. The mestizo thinks he is crafty, but the whisky priest sees through him every step of the way.
The Mestizo Quotes in The Power and the Glory
The The Power and the Glory quotes below are all either spoken by The Mestizo or refer to The Mestizo. 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:
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Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes
How often the priest had heard the same confession—Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.
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The half-caste was calling after him: “Call yourself a Christian.” He had somehow managed to get himself upright. He began to shout abuse—a meaningless series of indecent words which petered out in the forest like the weak blows of a hammer. He whispered: “If I see you again, you can't blame me…” Of course, he had every reason to be angry: he had lost seven hundred pesos. He shrieked hopelessly: “I don't forget a face.”
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Part 3, Chapter 2 Quotes
He could hear the half-caste panting after him: his wind was bad: they had probably let him have far too much beer in the capital, and the priest thought, with an odd touch of contemptuous affection, of how much had happened to them both since that first encounter in a village of which he didn't even know the name: the half-caste lying there in the hot noonday rocking his hammock with one naked yellow toe. If he had been asleep at that moment, this wouldn't have happened. It was really shocking bad luck for the poor devil that he was to be burdened with a sin of such magnitude.
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The Mestizo Character Timeline in The Power and the Glory
The timeline below shows where the character The Mestizo appears in The Power and the Glory. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2, Chapter 1
...eventually arrives in La Candelaria, by the Grijalva River. Near the river, he asks a mestizo (a person with indigenous and European heritage) where he can rent a canoe so that...
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The mestizo rides up behind the whisky priest and asks if they can travel together. The priest...
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In the evening, the mestizo repeatedly calls the whisky priest “father,” even though the priest has not revealed his credentials....
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The next morning, the whisky priest looks over and finds the mestizo still asleep. The priest gets up and starts to creep out of the hut. However,...
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When the whisky priest goes outside, he finds that the mestizo has hidden his mule’s saddle, so he cannot make an easy escape. A moment later,...
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Eventually, the whisky priest and the mestizo reach the outskirts of Carmen. Not wanting to put the townsfolk of Carmen at risk,...
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Part 2, Chapter 3
Walking further along the cells, the whisky priest sees the mestizo. Although the mestizo immediately recognizes him, he does not make a fuss. The mestizo knows...
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Part 3, Chapter 1
...he believes he will be of more use. As the priest prepares to leave, the mestizo arrives in town. The mestizo tells the priest that a “gringo” criminal has been shot...
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...whisky priest sets off towards Las Casas on his mule, while enduring insults from the mestizo, who accuses him of being a negligent priest. The mestizo also provides a touching and...
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Part 3, Chapter 2
During their journey, the whisky priest and the mestizo argue about the mestizo’s true intentions. The priest is sure the mestizo is planning to...
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Part 3, Chapter 3
...the whisky priest and the lieutenant exit the hut they are sitting in. Outside, the mestizo waits for the priest and tries to act as though he did not betray him....
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