Then she thought of another old dicho, also a favorite of her father’s—may he rest in peace—and this time, turning about-face, she looked Domingo right in the eye. This was no indirecta but said directly at that scoundrel: “¡Bocado sin hueso!” By this dicho, she was implying Domingo to be a freeloader.

“¡El mal vecino ve lo que entra y no lo que sale!” A bad neighbor sees what goes in but not what goes out. Zas! Domingo, who had a few dichos handy himself, came right back with one for the metiche.

But she was just as quick to the draw. “¡A quien mala fama tiene, ni acompañes ni quieras bien!” He who has a bad reputation, do not accompany nor love too dearly.

“¡Cuerpo de tentación y cara de arrepentimiento!” Tempting body and face of regret!

“¡Seras payaso, pero a mi no me entretienes!” You may be a clown, but you don’t entertain me.!”

“STOP! Parale right now!” Sofi screamed at both her husband and her campaign manager comadre. “¡Chingao! The way you two are fighting you’re gonna end up in bed together!” And that was no dicho, but actually sounded so wise, it stopped Domingo and the comadre in their tracks.

The comadre bit her bottom lip, astounded at Sofi’s accusation. And yet, she was the one who started the personal innuendos with the dicho that said that people who have a bad reputation should not be accompanied nor loved very well.

Domingo had surprised himself, too, at the way he had gone for the comadre’s throat, who until that very hour, he had hardly ever noticed and here he was telling her things like she had a tempting body but a regretful face! He looked at Sofi with an expression that was both apologetic and frustrated and left the room. A second later the women heard the front screen door slam, followed by his truck pulling fast out of the driveway, and the whole night passed before Sofi saw Domingo again.

“I’m sorry,” the campaign manager comadre apologized quickly to Sofi. “That’s okay,” Sofi responded, “we have a lot of planning to do, so let’s just throw those little hairs into the sea and go on with our work.”

And that is what they did.

Now, to rescue an area as economically depressed as Sofi’s and her comadre’s would truly have taken more than the desires and dreams of a self-proclaimed mayor and her campaign manager-assistant—metiche comadre. So the two earnest women started their campaign by going around for months talking to neighbors, to fellow parishioners, people at the schools, at the local Y, and other such places to get ideas and help; and little by little, people began to respond to Sofi’s “campaign,” which they did not see as a mayoral one so much as one to rescue Tome.