Esteban has firm convictions about the roles of women in society and harbors equally strong opinions regarding the "lower classes." He believes his tenants "are like children, they can't handle responsibility," and is reluctant to allow them to learn beyond basic reading and arithmetic, fearing that "they would fill their minds with ideas unsuited to their station and condition." He is blind to the injustices perpetuated by his patrón system and fails to recognize in the intelligent Pedro Segundo "any virtues beyond those that marked him as a good peon." In contrast, Clara is keenly aware of the injustices arising from class divisions. As a child, she perceives the "absurdity" of her upper-class mother lecturing on oppression and inequality to "hardworking women in denim aprons, their hands red with chilblains." When she takes Blanca to visit the impoverished, she explains, "this is to assuage our conscience...But it doesn't help the poor. They don't need charity; they need justice." The election of the Socialist Candidate does little to reduce class disparities, as the upper-class Conservatives undermine the government by creating food shortages. Following the coup, food becomes available in stores again, but the poor cannot afford it. Alba witnesses a return to "the old days when her Grandmother Clara went to the Misericordia District to replace justice with charity." However, the upper class soon realizes that the coup does not restore the old class hierarchy. Instead, the military establishes a new class: they become "a breed apart, brothers who spoke a different dialect from civilians." Esteban García rises within this new ruling class, driven by a twisted desire for "justice" fueled by his grandmother Pancha's tales of his ancestry. He tortures Alba, and she realizes that the Colonel's intention was not to extract information about Miguel, "but to avenge himself for injuries that had been inflicted on him from birth."