Los Zancudos is a bar outside Santa Teresa where Marco Antonio Guerra takes Oscar Amalfitano for mezcal. The visit turns a drinking stop into a revealing encounter: Guerra speaks of a city under pressure from rapid growth and industrial labor, while Amalfitano becomes increasingly wary of the company and the place around them.

Setting and Layout

The bar lies beyond the newer western neighborhoods of Santa Teresa, near open fields, warehouses, and the route out of the city. Guerra says they are going somewhere that still serves genuine Mexican mezcal. The place is a long rectangle, about three hundred feet by one hundred, with a small stage at one end where corrida or ranchera groups perform on Fridays and Saturdays.

Its facilities extend across several distinct spaces. The bar runs for at least one hundred and fifty feet; the toilets stand outside and can be reached from the patio or through a narrow galvanized-tin passage connecting them to the restaurant. Few customers are present, only a handful of lights are on, and although the waiters greet Guerra by name, no one comes to serve the pair. The bar thus appears familiar to Guerra but subdued and poorly attended when he brings Amalfitano there.

The Visit and the Mezcal

Guerra recommends a drink called Los Suicidas. Amalfitano agrees to try a small amount. When service does not arrive, Guerra snaps his fingers, complains that the staff must be deaf, and goes to the bar himself. He returns with two glasses and a partly filled bottle. He says there ought to be a worm at the bottom, but that the waiters have probably eaten it; despite the joke, he insists the mezcal is genuine.

Amalfitano first finds it good, then considers it extraordinary on his second sip. Guerra says it is no longer made, placing the drink among the things he believes the country is losing. The mezcal gives their conversation a local, material starting point before Guerra turns to broader complaints about Santa Teresa and its future.

Political Conversation and Departure

Guerra asks whether Amalfitano has realized that they are headed for disaster. Amalfitano answers cautiously, agreeing only that the situation is not cause for celebration. Guerra says the country is falling apart: politicians cannot govern, the middle class wants to move to the United States, and more people continue arriving to work in the maquiladoras.

He proposes burning some of the factories and sending the army to the highways to prevent more people from coming. Amalfitano challenges the idea that there can be no other solution. Guerra answers that people have lost respect for others and for themselves. The exchange exposes the distance between Guerra’s anger and Amalfitano’s restraint; Amalfitano does not endorse the proposed violence and instead looks toward the bar, where three waiters are whispering and glancing at their table.

Amalfitano decides they should leave. Guerra notices the waiters, makes an obscene gesture, and laughs. Amalfitano takes him by the arm and leads him out to the parking lot. Guerra tells him not to worry because he is armed. The scene ends not with any resolution to their argument, but with Amalfitano removing himself from an increasingly uncomfortable situation.

Narrative Significance

Los Zancudos is both a specific roadside establishment and a threshold between the city’s expanding outskirts and its wider social pressures. Its position beyond new housing and near warehouses gives the visit a setting shaped by Santa Teresa’s industrial growth; Guerra’s remarks make the maquiladoras, migration, political frustration, and urban disorder explicit subjects of conversation.

The bar’s sparse attendance and the waiters’ whispered attention give the scene a quiet tension without explaining what they think or establishing a specific threat. The contrast between the valued mezcal and Guerra’s conviction that the country is coming apart condenses the conversation’s central unease: something he regards as authentic and worth preserving survives, but he sees the surrounding social order as deteriorating. Amalfitano’s decision to leave marks the practical outcome of the visit: he declines to follow Guerra’s escalating rhetoric and gets them out of the bar.