"I'll stop you whenever I can. I've decided to have a special chair constructed. In my chair I can look after the hacienda."
"No, Father. Your day is past. It's my job!"
Fernando spat. "You and your radical ways. God, you can't run this place!"
"Why not?"
"Everyone will laugh at you."
In the tree behind Fernando, the iguana decided to climb higher, its head waggling, tongue forking.
"That's the least of my worries. I'm thinking about the people and their chance to live as men ought to live."
"They're not men," said Fernando, coughing over his cigarette.
"They've been called animals, many things. I think they're men."
"You'll ruin Petaca ... I could summon a lawyer and preserve my control. I suppose you could declare me physically or mentally incompetent. It would be touch and go, maybe one bribe against another. I'm not that kind of fool. We'd lose Petaca. I'm not that far gone."