Chata and Chinita

On an evening in May, some forty years ago, Tio Pedro, the portero, or gate-keeper, of Tres Hermanos, had loosened the iron bolts that held back the great doors against the massive stone walls, and was about to close the hacienda buildings for the night, when a traveler, humbly dressed in a shabby suit of buff leather, urged his weary mule up the road from the village and pulling off his wide sombrero of woven grass, asked in the name of God for food and shelter.