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Out of his three older brothers, Antonio is closest to Andrew, whom he describes as the most independent of the three. While Eugene leads the trio, and León follows his ideas eagerly, Andrew attempts to decide his path for himself. He also has more of a sense of family loyalty than Eugene or León, opting to stay with the family longer and finding work at a grocery store. He even tells the family that he plans to finish high school. Nevertheless, Andrew never truly succeeds at readjusting to civilian life. Instead of working to better his life, he spends most of his time with sex workers at Rosie’s. Going off to war has granted him the opportunity to experience a wider, more exciting world with many different types of people, making New Mexico stifling. In addition, he has been in combat and has had no opportunity to process all the violence he’s witnessed, making his reliance on alcohol and sex emblematic of escapism.
The dream where Andrew promises he will not go into Rosie’s until Antonio has lost his innocence hints at Andrew’s internal struggle. Andrew appears to wrestle with the way his personal desires clash with his sense of duty to his family. At this point in the novel, Antonio understands growing up as becoming sinful because of the Catholic framework he has been raised in. In addition, although Antonio doesn’t completely understand what Rosie’s is, he has been told that it is a house of sin. Within this framework, dreaming about Eugene and León going into Rosie’s is not just about them visiting sex workers, but about going out into the wide world, full of experience and sin. Through this reading, Antonio’s promise becomes a decision to stay in town until he thinks Antonio can act as the man of the house, a state that Antonio would understand as losing his innocence. However, Andrew is not in a mental state to actually be a guardian, provider, or mentor. When Andrew sees Antonio behave with more maturity than he does in response to Narciso’s fears, he leaves. Antonio clearly has matured beyond Andrew’s guidance.
