Tender Is the Flesh

Driving to a local tannery to which Krieg supplies skin, Tejo receives a call from his mother-in-law, who informs him that Cecilia is improving but not ready to move back in with him. Tejo also reflects on his relationship with his father, Armando, whose dementia was exacerbated by the Transition.

Arriving at the tannery, which processes human skin into leather, Tejo meets with the owner, Señor Urami, who explains the tannery’s latest innovations and products using “measured, harmonious” language. Though Tejo is tempted to speak out with words like “atrocity” or “sadism,” he merely smiles and nods.

Leaving the building, Tejo feels that he “needs a cigarette” (14).

On the way to Tod Voldelig, a breeding center and supplier for Krieg, Tejo calls his father’s assisted living center. Nélida, the woman who answers, tells him that Armando is doing well despite some minor incidents.

Tejo meets with El Gringo, the owner of Tod Voldelig, who is giving a tour of the breeding center to Egmont Schrei, a visitor from Germany. El Gringo shows off the human livestock, or “head,” who are kept naked in individual cages and have their vocal cords removed. He points out the “teasing stud,” a male who helps identify females who are ready to be fertilized via artificial insemination, which is preferred over natural sex. The stud is “First Generation Pure” (17), shortened as FGP, meaning he was born and raised in captivity without any genetic modifications or growth hormones. El Gringo becomes uncomfortable when Egmont, who communicates via a translation machine that occasionally cuts out, refers to the product as “humans” and calls the stud a “guy.”

As they walk, Tejo complains that El Gringo’s last shipment was poorly transported and contained two sick head, arousing the suspicion of the governmental Food Standards Agency, or FSA. He threatens to stop buying from him. El Gringo promises to make improvements and include some FGPs, which provide the highest quality meat, with his next shipment.

The tour continues with El Gringo touting his new blood-exporting venture as well as a dairy section. They also pass the pregnant females, whose arms and legs are cut off to keep them from aborting their pregnancies. At one point, El Gringo cuts off a sample of meat from one of the head for Egmont to try. He also shows off head raised specifically for fat as well as for organ transplants.

They pass some employees, who are barbecuing the especially tender meat from a child to celebrate one of the employees becoming a father. Egmont eats a sandwich, the juices dripping onto his shoes, but Tejo declines. Before leaving, he relays a request to El Gringo from Señor Urami for additional dark-skinned head.

Early the next morning, Tejo is drinking mate at his home in the countryside when he is surprised by the arrival of a truck from Tod Voldelig, which delivers a female FGP as a personal gift from El Gringo. Tejo attempts to send her back, but the deliveryman leaves.

Tejo calls El Gringo to complain that he lacks the resources to take care of the female FGP. Later on, he names her Jasmine, though he thinks of her simply as “the female” for now. El Gringo offers to send men to slaughter her for a barbecue, but Tejo declines. He reluctantly locks Jasmine in his barn with some food.

Tejo goes into the city to visit butcher shops. Before the Transition, the butcher shops struggled financially and sold subpar meat. After the legalization of cannibalism, a few shops began to sell premium cuts of special meat, even as a black market developed for cheaper, lower-quality products.

Tejo arrives at a shop owned by Spanel, a woman who used to work at Armando’s meat plant. At that time, she initiated a sexual relationship with Tejo, though she never fully undressed during their liaisons and rejected his expressions of affection. Efficient and apparently emotionless, she was one of the first butchers to come up with new cuts of meat, as well as euphemistic names for them, after the Transition.

After attending to some business, Tejo and Spanel drink and smoke together. Breaking the laws restricting language, she explains that she wants her body to taste bad if and when she is eaten; she conjectures that she could sell his body as meat someday after eating some herself. She also places an order for additional brains, now considered a delicacy.

Normally, Tejo would spend the night in the city, but he returns home to check on Jasmine, who is fearful and submissive. Typically, those who raise domestic head, as this practice is known, eat the flesh piece by piece over time, keeping the head alive as long as possible to ensure the freshest meat. By law, domestic head are to be treated as livestock and never used for enslaved labor, which is illegal.

The next morning, Nélida calls to report that Armando had a minor “breakdown” and invites him to visit. After rescheduling some work commitments, he calls his sister, Marisa, who lives in the city, and invites her to visit their father, but she makes excuses.

After tending to Jasmine, Tejo leaves for the nursing home. On the way, as is his habit, he stops at an abandoned zoo that he visited with his father as a child, following Marisa’s birth and his mother’s death. After reminiscing for a few minutes, he leaves as a howl sounds in the distance.

While waiting to see Armando at the nursing home, Tejo remembers meeting Cecilia there, where she worked as a nurse. Tejo pays the premium cost for this nursing home to ensure that his father’s body will not be sold as meat on the black market after his death.

Nélida appears, bringing Armando with her. He does not recognize Tejo. Nélida explains that Armando’s behavior is increasingly reckless and asks Tejo to sign a form authorizing additional restrictions on him.

After several days visiting other facilities as part of a “meat run,” Tejo returns to Krieg. The campus is protected by an electric fence to keep out Scavengers, people who eat whatever discarded meat they can find. He smokes before entering the large, unlabeled buildings that comprise the plant.

Passing a few employees, Tejo goes straight to the office of Señor Krieg, the owner. Krieg is reclusive, preferring to analyze data rather than interact with people. He relies on Tejo to manage the employees.