Overview
 The second part of Compadres-Comadres deals with issues involving Miguel Grande, Juanita, and Lola.  Miguel Grande continues to negotiate his extra-marital affair by admitting the truth to Miguel Chico, then to Juanita.  But he fails to resolve his complicated situation. Amazingly, Juanita’s fidelity to Miguel Grande does not falter; she seems more affected by the loss of her best friend, Lola.  Miguel Grande is notified that Felix, his gay brother, has been killed; this makes him feel shame.  We also learn of Felix’s daughter Lena, who proves to be a colorful character.

Analysis
 Arturo Islas brilliantly describes the Latino paradigm of memory as an important theme in his novel.  Islas describes Miguel Grande longing for simple, less complicated days.  Islas writes, “He found himself having to be more careful in ways that made him look back wistfully to less complicated days when he wandered at will with secretaries and waitresses”(79).  Islas suggests that Miguel Grande reflects upon the past when he could cheat at will, without much consequence.  Miguel Grande’s memory reveals a stereotypical sexism and, on the part of his family/community, a tolerance for infidelity.  He rightfully wishes for the past when he has his way.

Islas also describes Miguel Chico’s conflict with memory in terms of the desert.  Islas writes,” The old childhood feelings were then dredged up and he had to be alone several days after his return from the West Coast. To recover, to rid himself of the desert, he walked on the beach or in the fog.”(89). Miguel Chico attempts to recover of the tragic past (memory) by walking on the beach or in the fog. The fog contrasts with the dust storms; the fog conveys purity, and renewal, whereas the dust suggests impurity, and death. Meanwhile, by utilizing the extended metaphor of the beach, Islas intuits a unique model for different aspects of life. Islas suggests that the waves connote time and events that take place in life, the horizon represents memory, where the waves came from. The beach allows Miguelito to recover; it is also a literal juxtaposition of the desert, his past.

  Islas also describes the nostalgia of memory in Juanita.  She states, “I wish El Compa were alive and that he and Lola were here with us. Remember those times?”(110). Juanita longs for the days where she experiences innocence and true friendship.  She remembers the times they spent with El Compa and Lola and she realizes that if El Compa were alive, Miguel Grande perhaps would not have cheated on her with her best friend.  She has Nina to help her, but she must deal with Miguel Grande on a daily basis, whether or not he is with her.  Memory causes her to cry herself to sleep on a regular basis, memory becomes her enemy.  She cannot channel it or recover from it, she remembers the benevolent past, but this is insignificant because it fails to resolve her desert, the present.

Q1:  How does Lena’s character contrast that of the other women in the novel?
Q2:  What factors do culture, memory, or gender roles play in Juanita’s faithfulness and patience?