Death Without Weeping

Chapter 10 shifts from a larger socioeconomic and historical lens to refocus the narrative upon three half-sisters, Lordes, Biu, and Antoinetta. Each of these sisters has very different lives, yet lives that have particular significance for the culture of Bom Jesus and the Alto. Each of their lives says something about the shared circumstances of women, and what the author believes to be a "tactics" of survival. The author makes a pointed distinction between "strategy" and "tactics," believing that the lives of the residents of the Northeast are too chaotic and rudderless to comprise any kind of enduring strategy; the argument is that their precarious position in a struggle to secure basic necessities precludes longer-range decision-making and planning. In essence, strategy is seen as a privileged position, one of power, which the residents of the Alto lack.

Instead, the author describes the varied lifestyles of Alto residents as a "tactics"―a collection of skills, postures, and attitudes, which, in concert, comprise a "knack" for living. Although recognizable among members of a community, this "knack" for living is highly individual, and ultimately dependent on how a particular person sees oneself. For example, Antoinetta makes her way utilizing structures of patronage and favors to maneuver herself into her desired position, while Biu prizes her independence and work ethic above all else. The object of these "tactics," then, is personal, even individual, as these women and mothers develop means to deal with the economic and domestic challenges of their lives. This domestic life, as the author describes, can be complicated, if not convoluted. In the Alto, marriage is as likely to be informal as formal; common-law marriage and cohabitation are common. In this atmosphere, one's "tactics" are as much an attempt to create and sustain order, as much as to prove one's particular lifestyle or self-concept. The stake of these "tactics," of course, is reinforced with children. Frequent pregnancy and infant death prove to be the common denominator of these women's lives, yet how each woman must contrive to support their families is a testament to not only the strength of their character, but the individuality thereof.