The Hummingbird's Daughter

On the first day of the journey, the people of the ranch travel only nine miles before stopping to camp. Everyone is overwhelmed with feelings of being adrift. Teresita is riding a donkey, and when the group stops for the night, she finds Huila, who asks her to retrieve a jug of mescal to ease everyone’s pain. Meanwhile, Tomás settles in with Aguirre and questions the purpose of the journey. Aguirre reassures him that the journey is necessary, and the two men toast to a new Mexico.

As their journey continues, the group encounters their first big obstacle when they must ford the Río Fuerte. They convince a ferryman to help, but he is reluctant to transport Tomás’s bees. One night, as they camp, Rurales approach and ask for a doctor’s assistance in a nearby village. Tomás and Huila go with them, and when they arrive, Huila sees a burned home and bodies. She tells the Rurales that the local curandero’s cleansing caused this.

Huila tries to teach Teresita to dream. She explains the utility of deciphering dream-based messages, but Teresita, wanting to simply be a child, stays away. They soon cross into Sonora, and the landscape changes as they reach the desert. The farther they travel into this new state, the more unforgiving the landscape becomes. The People fear threats from all around them. One night, Teresita dreams that she sees Huila flying. In the distance, she also sees people reading books and newspapers and knows that they are reading about her.

When they come to a valley, Tomás calls a two-day halt so that everyone can rest their animals, and they notice many other people passing through. These people claim to be pilgrims on their way to see the Messiah. Huila and Teresita follow them to Sal Si Puedes to investigate a boy named Niño Chepito. The boy claims to be God and says that the white man’s God is evil. Niño Chepito tells his followers that he will bring about the deaths of white men. As Huila and Teresita leave, Tía grabs Teresita, begging her to stay; Tía is completely enraptured by Niño Chepito. Teresita pulls away, and this is the last time she ever sees Tía.

Like Tía, some of the People decide to stay with Niño Chepito, but the rest continue their journey. After a long time on the road, the People become confident in their routines, and travelling becomes easier. As they ride, Huila mentions a land of milk and honey, and when Teresita asks what it means, Huila explains that it is from the Bible. Teresita tells Huila that she wants to read the Bible, but Huila, Buenaventura, Don Teófano, and Segundo tell her that this is impossible because reading the Bible is for priests and rich, white men. Upset, she stops riding and lets the whole caravan leave her behind.

Riding ahead of the group, Tomás asks Aguirre about the differences between the north and the south. Aguirre explains that his ranch is comprised of “country bumpkins” whose accents give them away. As they near Cabora, they see smoke in the sky and rush ahead. Teresita begins riding back to the group and meets a mule skinner who complains that Yaquis have given him a scar. When she asks about Cabora, he says that he does not know it. Meanwhile, Tomás reaches the peak above the ranch and sees it ablaze. He orders Segundo to organize gunmen.

Tomás and his men make their way into the ranch and find it burned. Corpses of men and animals are scattered everywhere. Tomás finds a wounded boy in the barn, and survivors soon begin to emerge. They tell Tomás that the attack was led by Yaquis, who live 10 miles away. They claim that the Yaquis attacked out of hunger. As the group surveys the damage, Aguirre notices that the Yaquis have preserved all the religious iconography from the main house; Tomás explains that the Yaquis are Catholic. Tomás recounts a story of the Yaquis, saying that even though the Yaquis killed the Spaniards that came looking for gold, they accepted the presence of missionaries in their communities. This led to a blending of Indigenous and Catholic traditions.

Teresita helps Huila set up camp and cook. Tomás soon joins them and announces to the People that they will stay and rebuild the ranch. Some want to leave Cabora, seeing it as cursed or haunted, so Tomás offers them work at one of his other ranches if they choose to leave. Tomás places Aguirre in charge of the ranch while he seeks out the Yaquis to make peace. This plan is met with much resistance. Before his departure, Tomás spends a night in Alamos, cleaning himself up and preparing for the trip. He then heads to Bayoreca, a mining town in which he hopes to learn where the Yaquis might be.

At Cabora, the People set up tents and move into the village that the survivors of the attack have abandoned. Aguirre sets up Tomás’s bed outside and sleeps in it while he oversees the rebuilding of Cabora. Teresita notices the animals of the ranch mating and observes the pain and suffering of the people around her. When she asks Huila why there is so much suffering, she is not given a satisfactory answer, but Huila reminds her to accept the mysteries of God and life. One morning, Aguirre wakes to find Teresita sitting on his bed. She asks what he is reading, and he shows her his copy of Don Quixote de la Mancha. He teaches her some words, like “Don” and “Urrea.”

In his travels, Tomás meets a group of vaqueros (cattle drivers) working to fill in a hole. They tell him that their patrón ordered them to bury a couple of Indigenous workers alive because they married against his will. They forced the man to watch as they buried the woman, and they are currently working to bury the man. When Tomás offers to buy the man’s contract, they refuse.

On the ranch, Teresita follows Aguirre everywhere. One day, Segundo asks her to find out how to spell his name. She asks Aguirre, who teaches her, but Huila interrupts the lesson and asks Aguirre to preach. Although he is skeptical at first, Aguirre finds that he enjoys delivering sermons. Tomás soon returns with the Yaquis and the hostages that they took. Upon seeing Teresita, the Yaqui leader tells the girl that he saw her in a dream: the same dream in which Huila flew. The leader explains that he and his people burned the ranch because they believed that there was war between their own group and the people who lived there. They were hungry and wanted to strike first. Now, Tomás wants to form a partnership and promises the Yaquis 10% of the yearly harvest and livestock, as well as protection from soldiers, if the Yaquis will protect the ranch from other Indigenous forces. They agree. To show the People their reasons for attacking, the leader brings forth Chepa, a woman whose ears were cut off by white men. In the future, Aguirre will claim that this is the day on which the Mexican Revolution began.