Josephina Niggli

The Quarry is the first story in Mexican Village. It introduces the main character Bob Webster who has just arrived in the Sabinas Valley in search of his own identity. Born and raised by a Mexican mother, he went to see his American father after her death and was rejected by him. Therefore, he left for Europe and fought in World War I. Due to feelings of inclination to pay a visit to his native country, Bob has accepted a job offer in Hidalgo and eventually not only meets many people but every now and then also travels back in time to his early childhood days.

Bob Webster is a Mexican-American who has to construct an identity out of elements of two cultures, although his father’s reaction hurt him very much and he started to resent American features. At first he only wants to stay a year and save enough money enabling him to open an aviation business with a friend in South America. For exactly those reasons he does not want to be involved in the village affairs and prefers to be the stranger, the outlander who does not care about his reputation.

In the beginning, the year seems endlessly far away, but sooner or later everybody changes and adjusts, meaning that Bob soon realizes he has to cooperate and prove himself to be respected as the new jefe of the quarry. Yet at this point, he still does not consider himself a Mexican. Only by the help of his housekeeper Tia Magdalena, an eagle witch, and the memories of his Mexican grandmother who raised him, does he open up to his Mexican origin, finding out more and more about himself as well as making friends with some of the town’s men.

Along with this course of integration come two parts of the story: a treasure hunt, thought up by Tia Magdalena to keep Bob busy, and his falling in love with Candelaria, another spell cast on him by Tia to keep him happy and, applying to both cases, in the valley. Thus, with this first story the reader is given a first insight into Mexican habits and customs by which he discovers different aspects of life in a community where people of different background and social rank live together.