Only two boarders did not participate in the tremendous daily disputes: Ripoll, the Catalonian engineer who believed himself to be a moral and intellectual entity vastly superior to the others, and Isidoro Gallegos, an unemployed comic actor, and, more to the point, a boarder without funds to cover the modest cost of his room and board. Isidoro's good humor did much to compensate for this shortcoming, however, and his sharp tongue (and it was sharp, indeed) made him dangerous and much feared among the other boarders. The man was capable of saying anything about anyone, and, because of certain allusions, doña Nicasia suspected that he knew about her relationship with Sordo. For that reason, she did not press him on the occasions when rent was due, and she generally tried to limit his power of coercion by making a face whenever he began to administer a tongue-lashing, which was often, indeed, because Isidoro understood the human comedy like the back of his hand, and whenever he lacked specific information about any particular individual, man or woman, he quickly invented it in order to complete his critique and maintain his legitimate reputation for being well informed.

But the daily disputes over which Spanish city or province was superior to all the others made him impatient. He left immediately when they began, so as not to offend the stubborn contenders, shutting himself in his room or going out earlier than he had intended to. He had already told them that such disputes were a waste of time and needlessly offensive:

“We're all bad and all worse off for coming here to seek our fortunes, yes sir, both the winners and the losers in América, this godforsaken place that never missed us when we pulled out and never invited us to come back. I'm really talking about you, though, because my case is a bit different. I came here in pursuit of Art, in pursuit of that great Art that none of you can even name properly. My talent put the competition in the shade even back in Madrid and Barcelona, can you imagine? Here in Mexico, who can compete with me in the realm of light musical theater? My word, nobody can touch me in any genre! Just name someone! And they're all so jealous, naturally, that they detest me and plot against me and have ostracized me, leaving me penniless … Isn't that right, doña Nicasia, that they've left us both penniless? … But the rest of you loafers have problems of your own making! Didn't you want to make a fortune in América? Well, then, get out of the city and into the countryside, where there's need for men to work hard, to fertilize it with their labor and water it with their sweat! Do those things, and the harvests will become silver pesos, and the pesos, ounces of gold, and the ounces, the fortune that you dreamed about in Spain … Get out from behind the store counter and you'll see. In a decade or so, you'll return to Spain as big shots, eating beef and sausages until you burst and waving your fork in the air, knowing how to read and write, wearing shiny shoes and a top hat, paying for a construction of a new church in your home village, and sending your nephews to América! You'll still be ignorant, but fat and sassy … whereas I …”