75 pages • 2 hours read
Yuri HerreraSigns Preceding the End of the World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Makina
Makina is the protagonist of Signs Preceding the End of the World. She is described as intelligent and cool by her brother. She is a trusted figure in Little Town in the South, both by the townsfolk and the top-dogs, the leaders of the criminal underground. Makina’s chief role is as a messenger, both in her job as a switchboard operator and in her relations with the top-dogs. Makina speaks Latin, Anglo, and Native, allowing her to serve as a translator in many situations, both literally and figuratively. On her journey to the North, for example, she helps other migrants understand Anglo words and social customs. In Little Town, she translates messages and uses her role as a go-between to help couples with relationship problems, smooth out turf wars, and generally keep communication in the town going smoothly.
Makina has respect for her mother, Cora, and love for her brother and little sister. She wishes to return quickly from the North; and she does not wish for the changes, which she has noticed in other migrants who return home, to impact her. She also wishes to help her sister learn to navigate the misogynist world in which she has had to grow up. Makina is not afraid of men, but she knows the violence they are capable of; she has learned to defend herself and not accept sexual harassment, demonstrated by the way she forces the young man on the bus to submit to her. Makina’s tough exterior is gradually stripped away as she traverses the North, leaving her open to new experiences and ultimately a new identity when she is handed papers at the end of the novel.
Makina’s Brother
Makina’s brother went North to find land his father apparently inherited, despite Cora’s insistence that he forget about it. He soon discovered that there was no land to be found. His pride prevented him from going home empty-handed, and he was stranded in the North. When Makina finds him, he has changed drastically. His desperate situation caused him to take a dangerous job: he is recruited by an Anglo family to take their son’s place in the army. They offer him a large sum of money if he returns safely; if he does not, they promise to send the money to his family.
Makina’s brother refuses to return home. He bears some signs of trauma from his deployment; he tells Makina he has lost friends in battle and even killed people. Despite his time in the army, Makina’s brother still does not understand the ethos of the North. He wants to stay in the military to find out what he fought for and understand the values of Northern culture, even though doing so means abandoning his family and breaking his sister’s heart.
Chucho
Chucho is hired by Mr. Aitch to take Makina across the border. The name “Chucho” is, among other things, slang for “dog” in certain Spanish dialects, linking him with the Xoloitzcuintli, a breed of dog believed to aid its master’s soul in the journey through the Aztec afterlife, as well as Xolotl, a dog-headed Aztec god. Chucho is taller than Makina, wiry but strong. He first appears on the North side of the river crossing and, like the spirit dogs of Aztec mythology, he aids Makina in her crossing, saving her from the current and dragging her ashore. Though she has only known Chucho for a short time, Makina quickly takes a liking to him, feeling comfortable enough to change clothes in front of him without embarrassment. Chucho buys time for Makina to escape in the standoff with the Anglo vigilante after they cross the river; his responses to the rancher illustrate his fearless and loyal nature. While he is a smuggler, he claims he is “no coyote,” implying that he does not prey on others’ misfortune and desperation to survive. Chucho and Makina are separated during the standoff with the border patrol, but they reunite in the North, where Chucho resurfaces to induct Makina into her new life by showing her to the underground office where she is issued a new identity.
Cora
Makina’s mother only appears briefly in the story when she sends Makina to look for her son, who has been missing in the North for three years. Cora is a comforting presence in Makina’s life. Makina reflects that “even if you were two steps away it was always as if you were on her lap, snuggled between her brown bosoms, in the shade of her fat, wide neck; she had only to speak to you for you to feel completely safe” (12). Cora is influential in Little Town, even running a business and competing with the top-dogs. Cora helped Mr. Double-U in the past, which facilitated a positive relationship between him and Makina. She has a possibly antagonistic relationship with Mr. Aitch, though Makina does not know the specifics because she has never asked her mother about it. Cora does not trust Mr. Aitch, as evidenced by her dismissive reaction to the top-dog's claim that Makina’s father acquired land in the North. Cora is protective of her children; this is the reason why she sends Makina to retrieve her son from the North.
The Top-Dogs
Mr. Aitch runs a pulque bar in Little Town. He is described as “a snake disguised as a man coiling around your legs” (16). He is one of the only characters who speak a language that Makina does not understand. Mr. Aitch has a sordid past with Cora and Mr. Q, involving political corruption in a mayoral race. Makina has to go to Mr. Aitch to arrange for help crossing the border into the North. Mr. Aitch employs Chucho to help her, but, in exchange, he makes her agree to deliver a package, presumably containing drugs, to Mr. P, a top-dog who now lives in the North.
Mr. Double-U is a pale, round man who spends his time in the steam rooms of the Turkish baths in town. Cora helped Mr. Double-U out of a predicament in the past. Because of this, he has a positive relationship with Makina, who feels comfortable around him. Mr. Double-U agrees to arrange for Makina’s return from the North; unlike Mr. Aitch, he does not ask for anything in exchange.
Makina has a personal history with Mr. Q, one of the Little Town’s top-dogs. The narrator says that she helped him as a messenger during “emergency negotiations he and Mr. Aitch held to divvy up the mayoral candidates when their supporters were on the verge of hacking one another to pieces” (19). Mr. Q runs a restaurant called Casino, where he spends his time reading newspapers. Makina goes to Mr. Q to arrange for help while she is in the North. Makina does not always understand Mr. Q, who speaks precisely, yet cryptically; his words, the narrator says, are “always like pebbles […] pouring from his lips, even if she didn’t rightly know what each one was supposed to mean” (22).
Mr. P is the final top-dog of Little Town. Makina had previously never met Mr. P because he fled Little Town after a conflict with Mr. Aitch over territory. Mr. P either owns or runs his criminal enterprise in the baseball stadium (the “obsidian mound”), and Makina delivers to him the package Mr. Aitch entrusted her. Makina worries Mr. P will use her to get revenge on Mr. Aitch, but he assures her she is safe. He offers to let Makina work for him, but she declines.
