The Crossing

The land occupied by ejidatarios represents a stark contrast from the impassive, uncaring world of the novel, as Billy, Boyd, and the girl are taken in and treated as equals. San Diego represents a haven for Billy and Boyd, who have lost the only home they knew, and the community there suggests another way to create a life of goodness in the cruel world. The people of San Diego are huérfanos in their larger culture, yet they’ve found a way to live in community with each other. Billy has trouble accepting this and is eager to get back to their mission; meanwhile, Boyd finds connection with the girl he’s rescued and begins to see a place for himself beyond their immediate quest.

The teenage Billy and Boyd are still children, and the novel reiterates this throughout their journey together. When Billy encounters the naked primadonna, he is stunned by her nudity, and Boyd is upset when the girl that they rescued sees boys his age bathing. Neither of them has a clear grasp of the adult world of sexual desire (though they both had an understanding of the danger it posed to the girl when they rescued her). They make crass, xenophobic jokes about the food they’re served in a café and disrespect the owner, a common reaction by insulated teenagers to cultural differences. It’s also implied that the boys’ age is what keeps Hearst’s men from using force against them until the one-armed vaquero is injured. The teenagers are beneath the notice of Hearst himself, who never appears in the novel (and may never even be aware of what happens with his horses and his injured man).

Billy and Boyd’s relationship deteriorates as they continue on their quest. Boyd is of two minds throughout this part of the book: He wants to abandon the quest and return to the girl in Namiquipa, yet when they find the horses, he advocates for a violent confrontation rather than trying to reason with the one-armed vaquero. Throughout Parts 2 and 3 of the book, Boyd displays more open resistance to Billy’s role as the leader of their party than he did in Part 1, when Billy motivated Boyd’s participation in the wolf-trapping efforts. The girl creates a more distinct division between them. Billy knows this, and he’s willing to give the girl whatever Boyd says she needs if it keeps his brother attached to him. Boyd is already behaving as if he’s in a corrido, positioning himself as the romantic güerito who saves the girl and brings balance to the world’s injustices through his daring and skill. Billy takes the more realistic view, which aligns with the novel’s plot: The horses are found at random; the central conflict turns on petty grievance, represented by the dispute between two different stakeholders in the ownership of the horses; the violence the boys encounter is sudden and unheroic; Boyd is taken by surprise and shot at a distance; and the boys’ quest ends with them recovering their father’s horse, Niño, at the cost of everything else they had, including Bird, Billy’s own faithful horse.

The conversation Billy has with the primadonna and her listening companion furthers the theme of The Nature of Meaning in an Indifferent Universe and provides a jaded contrast to Billy’s previous conversation. The primadonna has grown bored with her role in life because she’s knows it’s a performance, and as an actress, she has come to believe that she represents a reality about the world: that there’s no deeper meaning underneath the surface. She also believes that being exposed to the violence of mankind is ruinous, yet she still asserts the violent hierarchy of society by believing herself to be above “gypsies.” The viewpoint she offers is nihilistic boredom with the world, and Billy doesn’t accept this. Boyd’s emergency reveals that Billy’s given up on an idea of God, but he still finds meaning in his connection to his brother: while wandering through the night after losing his pursuers, he looks up at the stars and cannot comprehend their purpose, so “Finally he just prayed to Boyd” (274). This appeal to his only remaining family reiterates Billy’s attempt to maintain a spiritual connection to the “others” that the caretaker taught him about.