María Teresa March to August 1960
- Another diary, this time from prison. Mate is in a cell with twenty-three other women, and Minerva has the political prisoners on a routine of exercises, classes, and discussions.
- There is also a pet (it doesn't say what kind —maybe a rat?) named Miguelito.
- Mate cries while she looks out the window of the cell.
- Even though some of the other prisoners are prostitutes, Mate begins to befriend them.
- Mate has a breakdown one night, and Minerva helps her get through it.
- Sina (from school) and Minerva are regularly questioned and humiliated, along with Manolo.
- Mate is having lots of stomach problems and can't keep any of the awful prison food down.
- The girls warn Mate of getting too fond of the enemy because she has a soft spot for the guard they call Santicló (Santa Claus); he is the one who passes them notes and gifts.
- Minerva makes sure they share everything they get with everyone to avoid creating a class system in the cell, even though Dinorah, one of the other prisoners, never shares with them.
- Mate creates a schedule for herself to keep from going nuts in prison. She finds out Leandro is not in prison with them and worries about him.
- Minerva convinces Mate not to accept Trujillo's pardon, because it would be like admitting they had done something wrong.
- After Minerva convinces everyone to wear a crucifix necklace as a symbol of solidarity, the guards come and take everyone's necklaces and send Minerva to solitary for three weeks.
- Mate visits with her mother and Patria. She finds out that Nelson has been pardoned and that Leandro is being held in another prison, La 40.
- Mate starts having political discussions with the non-political prisoners and feels united with them.
- She also realizes that her ills are due to the fact that she must be pregnant. She is afraid that if the SIM finds out they'll take away her baby and give it to a general's family, which would kill her. She is considering an abortion, but wants to wait until Minerva gets back from solitary to decide.
- Suddenly the entries don't have dates, and Mate talks about something that she can't tell anyone else about. She realizes that she has lost her baby.
- The girls try to nurse Mate back to health.
- Minerva comes back and the girls throw a little party for her. She knows something is wrong with Mate and tells her to write it down to help.
- Mate writes that she is going to tell what happened to her in La 40 on Monday, April 11, but then the pages are torn out.
- Minerva and Mate are arraigned and sentenced to five years and five thousand pesos fine.
- The Organization of American States (OAS) is investigating Trujillo's regime and so the guards have suddenly begun acting more humanely.
- Rumors are that Leandro is a traitor, and the movement starts falling apart in jail.
- Manolo sends out a communiqué to all the prisoners, trying to unite them.
- Patria visits Mate and gives her a news clipping about how Trujillo tried to kill the Venezuelan president. She braids it into her hair, so the whole prison finds out about it and the movement is revitalized by the news.
- Mate's friend Magdalena tells her the story of how she worked as a maid for a family. The son of the family raped her every night until she was pregnant, but then the mother kicked her out.
- One day the family saw her child, decided she was related to their son, and took her away.
- Magdalena tries to kiss Mate in the middle of the story, but she's uncomfortable with it.
- Magdalena snuck into the rich family's house with a knife to get back her daughter and was sent to prison for attempted murder.
- Leandro is back in jail, and the OAS Peace Committee is coming to inspect the prison. One prisoner from each pavilion will be interviewed, and Mate has been selected.
- Minerva pressures her to write a personal statement about what happened to her. She is worried that she will implicate Santicló, but Minerva says that it doesn't matter.
- In the interview, Mate says that the prisoners are treated well because she knows the room is bugged. But she unbraids her hair and lets a folded note fall out, written by the prisoners. She keeps her own account of what happened to her, though, to protect Santicló.
- The women are to be released, so the prisoners have a farewell party.
- The last pages of the chapter are an account of what happened to Mate in La 40. Names are crossed out to protect the innocent.
- Mate was taken to La 40, and no one would tell her why.
- In the interrogation room they made her strip down to her slip and bra and lie on a metal table.
- Johnny Abbes and Cándido Torres, notorious torturers at Trujillo's service, tell her not to be afraid, which terrifies her.
- Leandro walks in looking like a skeleton. They kick Leandro to the ground when he says to let Mate go.
- Johnny asks Mate to persuade Leandro, but she says that she will never ask him to go against his conscience.
- A third torturer holds a rod with a switch and begins electrocuting Mate with it.
- The next thing she knows, Leandro is being dragged away and screaming that she should tell them he had to do it.
- The guards take Mate back to her cell.