Domingo returns to his old habits of gambling and loses the family home in a cock fight. Sofi must now pay rent to the new owner of the farm, Judge Julano. Eventually, Sofi becomes fed up with Domingo’s gambling and lazy nature and, with the help of her white “peacock-raising lawyer” (219), serves him divorce papers. Domingo moves into the adobe he built for Caridad and pays Sofi rent, roughly equivalent to the rent she pays Judge Julano.

Sofi notices that La Loca is “a little more off-center than usual” (219) and has lost interest in her usual habits of going to the acequia, playing the fiddle, and riding horses. She loses a significant amount of weight and also has a sore throat and feels tired all the time. While watching TV one night, Sofi has a premonition of Loca’s death.

Dr. Tolentino examines Loca and informs Sofi that she has HIV. To Sofi, this seems impossible, but she accepts the doctor’s diagnosis. He urges Sofi to maintain her faith in God and performs a sort of “psychic surgery” (229) in which he magically opens her stomach and reaches in with his hand to remove cystic fibroids and a tumor in Loca’s ovary.