“You know him?” The man took off his cap and held it against his chest.

“I’m Joaquín Fuentes.

I deliver food in the neighborhood where he grew up.

To us, señor, he isn’t the Barrera heir.

He never was.

To us he’s Teacher Santiago.” And behind Joaquín stood dozens of them — mothers, students, shopkeepers, workers, an entire neighborhood in its work clothes, come to offer the one thing they had.

Chapter 25 — Teacher Santiago

Mireya, who ran a small eatery in the tenement where Santiago had lived, told Aurelio the story his money had never let him learn.