Arcangel's Timeline

Arcangel is introduced as an old man waking up in Mazatlán. His introduction is the most mysterious of all the introductions in the book. It’s hard to tell if Arcangel is crazy or supernatural. Each time something is written to suggest Arcangel is something like an angel, there is something to suggest he’s just crazy and vice versa. For example Yamashita writes, “He said that he had come from a long way away, from the very tip of the Tierra del Fuego, from Isla Negra, from the very top of Machu Picchu, from the very bottom of the Foz do Iguaçu, but perhaps it was only a long way in his quixotic mind.” (Yamashita 66). Even if it somehow made sense that he could come from three very distinct places in South America, this claim of where he came would still be discredited in the same sentence. This ambiguous, nonchalant attitude sets the precedent for the way Arcangel’s supernatural powers will be treated by the narrator throughout the book.

From this weird, ambiguous introduction, the precedent has been set for Arcangel’s character. Soon, we will have to add superhero/angel to the list of descriptors for Arcangel, but for now he’s just an idealistic, battered, weird, and possible insane old dude.

Upon encountering a stranded bus loaded with produce that’s about to go bad, Arcangel offers his services to pull the bus. Although he is ridiculed at first, he quickly gains support when people realize he wasn’t just a crazy old man. This is the first concrete example of Arcangel’s supernatural powers.

What I thought was interesting about this chapter is that I think the attitude of the crowd is a parallel to the reader’s attitude regarding Arcangel. Until now, we’ve only gotten some weird cryptic stuff about Arcangel, the reader can’t be entirely sure if Arcangel is actually supernatural. But as soon as he starts moving the bus through the weird holes in his stomach, the crowd is amazed. Yamashita writes, “By the time he had traversed fifty meters, women and children had run forward to spread flowers in his path, to cup their hands to catch the blood and sweat from his torn stigmata” (Yamashita 91-92). Compare this to before where people were mocking him saying stuff like, “We are stuck here anyway. Let him do his trick. At least we will have a good laugh!” (Yamashita 90). This is also the point where I was like, “oh wow, this guy is for real.” Coincidentally, this marks the point where people in the story start to take Arcangel seriously as well.

Arcangel encounters the Cantina de Miseria y Hambre. As expected the environment is bleak at best. But Arcangel puts on a performance by becoming El Gran Mojado. Here, he announces his plan to fight SUPERNAFTA to the death. His performance invigorated the people at the cantina: he inspired them to follow him north.

This is a text-book rising action scene. Arcangel introduces his new persona, El Gran Mojado(protagonist), his nemesis SUPERNAFTA(antagonist), and his plan to fight to the death(goal).

One thing I want to mention is the big theme being developed here: creating identities as a coping mechanism for hardships. At the Cantina de Miseria y Hambre(foodcourt of misery and hunger) there’s a bunch of miserable and hungry people. It’s only when he becomes El Gran Mojado that they leave misery and hunger to go follow him. Could Arcangel’s storyline be all made up: something to help an old homeless man deal with the harsh realities of his life?

For some reason, Arcangel is helping Rodriguez build a wall. They talk about many things, but the conversation takes a sad turn when Rodriguez mentions his son. After Rodriguez mentions his son Arcangel begins to envision pain and death. Then, he lays some bricks to make space for Rodriguez’s corpse when he dies.

This is such a gloomy scene. Arcangel’s poems and the dying Rodriguez illustrate the pointlessness of industrial labor. Arcangel writes(?) about industry: “Everybody’s labor got occupied in the industry of draining their homeland of its natural wealth. In exchange they got progress, technology, loans, and loaded guns.” (Yamishita 162). This bleak outlook on industry is only exemplified by Rodriguez’s spent life. All the work he did doesn’t really matter:”the bricks that depleted the earth did so to make room for his body.” (Yamishita 164). The work he is doing, is just making more space for his dead body. He is working to die.

After writing a rather sad poem for Sol, Arcangel does some crazy stuff. After Rafeala talks about how they haven’t been moving despite traveling for hours, the bus stops. Rafeala asks Arcangel to take care of Sol if anything were to happen to her and he agrees. As people get out to stretch their legs and go pee, Sol begins running towards the Jaguar that’s been tailing them for hours, also unmoving. The man driving wants to kidnap Sol, but Arcangel bends spacetime and really disorients the guy like straight out of a Doctor Strange movie. For some reason, Arcangel allows Rafeala to be captured, though which I don’t really understand.

Arcangel gets out and begins to pull the bus after it breaks down. This is much harder for him than the bus full of produce, and he even sheds some blood. But still, he continues pulling everything, everyone from the south north to the border. He is questioned by the border agent once he reaches the border and here we learn some things about him. When he is about to run into trouble something odd happens. He starts to get pushed by everything he is pulling: all the people, money, and trade agreements of the south.

Arcangel is being pushed by millions from the south. He reaches LA and asks someone how to get to East LA. However, the guy tells Arcangel to turn back, that he’s illegal and doesn’t belong. With every rebuttal, Arcangel has millions supporting him. After a while, Arcangel starts to perform and decides to hand out flyers for the fight between El Gran Mojado and SUPERNAFTA. The information is spread to millions in thousands of different languages. Then he decides to juggle an orange, and then gives it to Sol once a bunch of people start to focus on the Orange.

Arcangel is killed by a patriotic rocket.

This was the anti-climactic climactic ending for Arcangel. This was the mutually assured destruction of Arcangel and SUPERNAFTA. This was, as Arcangel said, “A symbolic travesty at best” (Yamashita 200). After they killed eachother with rockets and wings, the show ended. There would be no lasting effects, as Yamashita writes, “The audience, like life, would go on.” (Yamashita 282).