The House of the Spirits: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

When election day arrives, the Socialist Party wins, just as the Candidate predicted. After the ballots are counted, the working-class take to the streets and march toward the center of the city, to the “well-tended avenues of the bourgeoisie.” The upper class tremble with fear, and in the crowd, Alba runs into Miguel. They celebrate the historic win, but Miguel assures her it isn’t over. “We’ve won,” Miguel says to Alba, “but now we’ll have to defend our victory.”

The next morning, the upper-class storm the local banks and demand their money. They no longer trust the banks to keep their money safe, and within the next 24 hours, the value of property is cut in half and complete hysteria settles over the nation. The people split into two polarized groups, and Esteban worries he will be hanged in the street. He can’t believe that his country has turned socialist. Esteban and the other conservative politicians meet and come up with a strategy of “economic destabilization” to take down the new government, and then they toast “the fatherland.” 

As Pedro Tercero watches the chaos unfold, he is unable to write any new songs. Writing songs requires “anxiety and sorrow,” and he has found “great inner peace.” He thinks only of Blanca, until the new government approaches him and offers him a job. Pedro Tercero tells them he isn’t qualified—he is only a peasant—but they insist. The new government claims that Pedro is famous and popular, and that is all that matters. So, Pedro Tercero gets an office and a personal secretary and goes to work. He continues to see Blanca as often as he can, but they are both tired—Pedro from the demands of government and Blanca from the demands of Esteban—and they often just meet to sleep next to each other.

One day, Pedro Tercero again tells Blanca that he wants to marry her and be together once and for all. As always, Blanca says she’ll think about it—but Pedro says he’s done with thinking about it. Blanca has been thinking about it for 50 years, and it is time to act. “It’s now or never,” Pedro Tercero says. Blanca is surprised. She never considered that he would give her an ultimatum. She leaves angrily, with Pedro’s eyes on her the entire time, but he doesn’t stop her. Pedro doesn’t try to contact Blanca, and it will be two years before they see each other again.

In the meantime, Blanca continues teaching pottery classes, but she also takes an active role in political and social life. The “road to Socialism” is a “battlefield,” and secret meetings take place all over the country. The right is wealthy and has unlimited resources, and they also control the mass media. Soon, there is a widespread shortage of goods, and stores everywhere have nothing but empty shelves. Gasoline is rationed, and the demand for black market goods increases. Then, the teamsters go on strike. In short, it is a nightmare.

The President asks the country for patience. He tells the people that the teamsters are “in the pay of imperialists” and won’t be going back to work any time soon. He encourages people to plant gardens and become more self-sufficient. The President acknowledges that things are bad, but he reminds the people that if they stand united, they will not be defeated. In the meantime, Esteban is the first politician on the right to suggest a military coup to stop the progression of Marxism in the country. He suggests it so often and so aggressively that it becomes necessary for him to travel with two bodyguards. The bodyguards aren’t to protect Esteban from others; they are to protect Esteban from himself.

In the meantime, Blanca runs a network for moving black-market goods. She stocks the empty rooms in the big house on the corner with useful goods, like soap and sugar. Blanca even has two barrels of soy sauce. She runs a tight business, and she locks each of the rooms with a padlock and carries the keys on a ring she keeps clipped to her waist. Jaime tries to convince Blanca to share her goods, especially perishable goods, but Blanca refuses. Alba makes a secret hole in the wall and pilfers her mother’s goods. She gives everything she takes to Miguel to distribute to the poor, which he delivers along with revolutionary pamphlets telling the people to rise and bring down the oligarchy. 

Esteban is stockpiling goods, too—specifically, guns. Alba is the first to notice this, and she tells Jaime, who is hesitant to believe her. Alba cuts another hole in the wall and finds various “pistols, submachine guns, rifles, and hand grenades.” They take the weapons, replace them with rocks for weight, and hide them in Jaime’s room until Alba takes them out in a cello case. She wants to give the arsenal to Miguel, but Jaime won’t allow it, so they bury all the guns in safe place. 

Tres Marías is one of the last haciendas to expropriate under the agrarian reform. The peasants form a cooperative and take over the property, and the foreman, who tried to warn Esteban, leaves without a word. Esteban finds out when the government notifies him with payment (the amount Esteban listed on his taxes) in the form of government bonds with a 30-year maturation. He is furious. Esteban slips his bodyguards and goes to Tres Marías. Upon his arrival, Esteban is immediately overpowered by the peasants and taken hostage. The media is present and reports on the whole thing, and when the President finds out, he sends in the national guard to save the Senator.

The national guard arrives, and the peasants insist the soldiers obtain a warrant; however, the country judge has gone fishing, and they can’t reach him. When Blanca finds out that Esteban has been taken hostage, she takes Alba and goes to see Pedro Tercero at his government job. Blanca walks right into his office, past the secretary. “Your daughter and I are going to Tres Marías to rescue the old man,” Blanca says to Pedro—telling Alba (albeit indirectly) for the first time that Pedro is her father. Blanca asks Pedro to come with them, and he agrees, but he will need to stop and get his guitar first.

When Blanca and Alba arrive at Tres Marías with Pedro Tercero, Pedro is escorted to the kitchen, where guards stand outside the door. Esteban is inside, but they won’t let Pedro in. Pedro informs them that the national guard will come tomorrow with a court order and take him by force. It is better, Pedro says, if he takes the Senator now. They let him in, and Pedro Tercero finds Esteban looking worn and dejected. They stare at each other without speaking, and Pedro tells him he has come to take him home. Esteban resists, but Pedro unties him and walks him out through the front gate. Alba has never seen her grandfather look so defeated, at least not since Clara’s death, and she runs to hug him. 

Over the next months, tensions continue to run high, especially among the women of the opposition. They march through the streets banging pots and pans, protesting the shortage of goods in stores. One day, Alba watches as a vanload of youth brigade members plaster the city walls with graffiti. They paint butterflies and bloody roses, verses by the Poet, and the word “Djakarta.” Alba asks one of them what it means, but no one seems to know. Alba hasn’t been to class in ages; the professors are striking, and all the school’s buildings have been taken over by students. When Alba isn’t with Miguel, she helps Jaime, who, along with a handful of other doctors, is still working in this clinic despite the school’s order to stop.

Amanda volunteers at the clinic, too. Jaime is happy she is there, and he wishes terribly that he still loved her. The President makes announcements on television nearly every night. He claims that the teamsters are getting $50 per day from a foreign source to continue striking, and he warns the country that work likely won’t resume any time soon. The President says that his enemies, who would rather see democracy die than him in office, are planning a coup d’état to seize the power of the government. Despite the President’s efforts to warn the people, they accuse him of paranoia and drinking, and they say his cupboards are stocked while the people starve.

One day, Luisa, the last remaining Mora sister, visits the big house on the corner. When she enters, Esteban feels the spirit of Clara enter with her. She has come to bring him bad news, Luisa says. She has been reading the astrological charts, and everything points to “blood, pain, and death.” Luisa says Esteban will be on the winning side, but his victory will bring only “suffering and loneliness.” Luisa then asks to speak to Alba; she has a message from Clara. Luisa tells Alba that Clara has been trying to protect her, but that Alba must be careful. “Death is at your heels,” Luisa says.