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María Mendoza
Tam Lin is the bodyguard of both El Patrón and Matt. He has blue eyes and curly brown hair, is very muscular, and is covered in scars. Matt observes that Tam Lin shows a hint of friendliness under his otherwise tough intimidating demeanor. Tam Lin lacks a traditional education, but he wisely advises Matt to choose to be kind and decent rather than embrace his wicked selfish side like El Patrón. Tam Lin also teaches Matt camping and outdoors skills, and later helps Matt reject his fate of dying for being a clone by escaping into the mountains. Matt eventually describes Tam Lin as his father to others. Before coming to work for El Patrón, Tam Lin was a Scottish nationalist who attempted to bomb a government official but accidently killed 20 innocent children. Meeting Celia influences Tam Lin to try to make amends for his past mistakes, which leads Tam Lin to helping Matt but also to drinking poison and dying along with the rest of the family at El Patrón’s funeral.
Tam Lin Quotes in The House of the Scorpion
The The House of the Scorpion quotes below are all either spoken by Tam Lin or refer to Tam Lin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“I’ll tell you this: El Patrón has his good side and his bad side. […] When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. He grew large and green until he shadowed over the whole forest, but most of his branches are twisted.”
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Chapter 8
Quotes
“The man we saw on the ground probably lagged behind the other workers and didn’t hear the foreman tell them to stop. He might have worked all night, getting thirstier and thirstier—”
“Stop!” shrilled Matt. He covered his ears. This was horrible! He didn’t want to know any more.
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Chapter 25
Quotes
Equally, he couldn’t return to the mansion. The only way out was the border of Aztlán. You can do it, he imagined Tam Lin saying. I guess I have to, thought Matt, turning to look one last time at the quiet meadow, the white plumes of bear grass, and the black-throated sparrows flitting through the trees.
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Tam Lin Quotes in The House of the Scorpion
The The House of the Scorpion quotes below are all either spoken by Tam Lin or refer to Tam Lin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7
Quotes
“I’ll tell you this: El Patrón has his good side and his bad side. […] When he was young, he made a choice, like a tree does when it decides to grow one way or the other. He grew large and green until he shadowed over the whole forest, but most of his branches are twisted.”
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
“The man we saw on the ground probably lagged behind the other workers and didn’t hear the foreman tell them to stop. He might have worked all night, getting thirstier and thirstier—”
“Stop!” shrilled Matt. He covered his ears. This was horrible! He didn’t want to know any more.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25
Quotes
Equally, he couldn’t return to the mansion. The only way out was the border of Aztlán. You can do it, he imagined Tam Lin saying. I guess I have to, thought Matt, turning to look one last time at the quiet meadow, the white plumes of bear grass, and the black-throated sparrows flitting through the trees.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
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