Mexico City appears as a place of uneasy stillness before revolution, but also as a setting where elite sociability and the spoils of conquest remain closely linked. The man transferred there loses his money at roulette in the Cientificos’ Jockey Club and joins them in drinking champagne left over from the plunder of Cortez.

Setting Before Revolution

The man is transferred to Mexico City at a moment when, the narrative notes, there is no revolution yet. The city is associated instead with peons, priests, and the stillness of its great volcanoes. This contrast frames Mexico City as a place awaiting political upheaval, while the scene itself turns toward the conduct of its ruling elite.

The Jockey Club and Its Spoils

The Cientificos make the newcomer a member of the Jockey Club, housed in a magnificent building of blue Puebla tile. There he loses all his money at roulette. He also helps the Cientificos drink the last cases of champagne left over from the plunder of Cortez. The club’s elegance and its inherited spoils occupy the same scene: aristocratic leisure is presented alongside the material residue of conquest.

Narrative Significance

Mexico City’s brief appearance brings together political suspension and social continuity. Revolution has not yet arrived, but the passage depicts an established elite enjoying wealth associated with plunder. The man’s transfer places him inside that world without making him its master: he becomes a club member, loses his money, and participates in the drinking. The city is thus less a developed portrait of urban life than a sharply drawn setting in which privilege persists on the eve of change.