11 - Rogue Lives

Summary

Day-by-day and hour-by-hour, in the weeks and months leading up to the crime, Aldama, Blanco, and Quintero made decisions which eventually fated them to become New Spain’s most infamous killers. The deaths of Dongo and his family shocked New Spain. But after a close examination of the lives of all three of the perpetrators, it does not seem so surprising that they resorted to brutality to satisfy their greed. In the conquistador tradition, these killers had a pattern of seeking material rewards through violence. Even their favorite hobby – gambling on cockfights – involved fighting and death for the purpose of winning money. Years before the Dongo massacre, Blanco, Quintero, and Aldama traveled across the Atlantic to New Spain, imagining that they would find wealth and success like so many Spanish immigrants had done since Cortes stepped on the beach at Veracruz in 1519. Instead, they drifted through agricultural towns in the provinces, or skulked around the shadows of Mexico City’s busy streets and bustling businesses, scamming off of the hard work of the people who had the misfortune of meeting them.