Marcelo in the Real World Chapter 19 Summary

  • Armed with a list of lawyers in Jamaica Plain, Marcelo starts calling taquerias. When he calls one called Cielito and learns that they give out calendars, he reads them a list of Jamaica Plain lawyers.
  • The owner of Cielito recognizes the name Jerry Garcia right away. He's a lawyer half a block away who comes in all the time.
  • Way to deal in the real world, Marcelo. We're not sure we could have thought of that.
  • He's off to Jerry Garcia's office right away. Jasmine walks him to the train, and Marcelo gets to Garcia's office by himself.
  • After a three-hour wait, Garcia finally invites him in.
  • When Marcelo tells Garcia his name, Garcia says he went to Harvard Law with Arturo.
  • In fact, they used to play poker with a group of Mexican law students, and Garcia always won. He bought groceries with the money.
  • One night, while walking back to the dorms with Arturo after a particularly cutthroat game, Garcia told Arturo he wanted to open his own small practice to help underprivileged clients.
  • Arturo said that sounded great and all, but he had a job offer from a prestigious Boston law firm after graduation. 
  • He confided to Garcia that he felt his life had veered off track, and Garcia told him to veer it back.
  • When Marcelo shows Garcia the picture, Garcia says the girl's name is Ixtel, and that he wrote Arturo a letter about her. He shows the letter to Marcelo.
  • Basically, Garcia asked Sandoval and Holmes to cut a deal: settle out of court for $68,000 so Ixtel could get surgery to fix her face. He appealed to Arturo as a friend, and attached the picture.
  • Arturo wrote back saying no way. Ick.
  • Garcia asks Marcelo if he'd like to meet Ixtel. She lives in a home called Sisters of Mercy in Lawrence, which is an hour away. He goes there on weekends and offers to bring Marcelo along.
  • Before Marcelo leaves, Garcia asks him for a clue: all he needs is something that tells him Vidromek knew about the windshields and continued to make them, because admitting they were flawed would mean Vidromek was wrong.
  • Marcelo asks for some time to decide what to do.