This is a description of the men in the ice house and what they want when they drink heavily night after night. The inarticulate nature of machismo culture—a culture that prizes toughness and brutal masculinity—is framed as something that stands in the way of a man’s happiness and his ability to express his own discontent. As Cleófilas sits by her husband Juan Pedro and listens to him speak foully with his friends, she realizes that these men “want to tell each other what they want to tell themselves.” Of course, she never reveals what exactly they want to tell themselves…