"Just Lather, That's All" by Hernando Tellez

EQ: How are people transformed through their relationships with others?

In the short story, 'Just Lather, That's All' written by Hernando Tellez, the relationship between the Barber and the client changes both their perspectives on the situation that their town is in.  The two characters are quite different; the client is Captain Torres, the head chief of the soldiers that are raiding the town, while the Barber is secretly a rebel, a member of the Revolutionaries that the soldiers were hunting down and murdering.

Through this beard-shaving encounter between the Barber and the Captain, each of them are transformed by the actions and qualities of one another in which they were not expecting.  Coming into the barber shop, the Barber instantly recgonized the presence of the Captain, and fear struck into him.  The dimlemma of either being professional and strictly shaving the Captain's beard or either taking one for the Revolutionaries and becoming a hero by murdering Torres is present in the Barber's mind throughout the story.  Going into the barber shop, Captain Torres took a risk knowing that the Barber was a rebel, and many people had told him that the Barber would kill him, which is what he expected by the end of his shaving.

However, both of the two characters were taken by surprise through the actions of each other.  The Barber chose to be professional with Captain Torres, for he had come in to get his beard shaven, and the Barber felt it was his job to do just that.  For at the time, he was just a barber, not a rebel.  In addition to that, the Barber came to the realization that if he were to murder Captain Torres, that would make him no better than the soldiers who were hunting down the rest of the rebels.

Captain Torres is surprised by his clean-shaven face by the end of the story, for he had been told that he would die if he went into that barber shop.  Grateful that he came out alive, the Captain came to understand that not all rebels were the same, some did not want to mean harm and damage to everyone they encountered, even if the person was the very Captain of their opposition.

When Captain Torres leaves the barber shop, he briefly tells the Barber what he had heard if he went inside, of how it was thought that the Barber would have killed him.  Through this, I believe that it leaves the Barber with a good feeling, that he had stepped up and become the bigger man in the situation, showing a representative of the soldiers that the Revolutionaries were not terrible people, and they did not deserve what the soldiers were doing to them because when given the chance, on behalf of the rebels, the Barber did not act the same way as the Captain.

Captain Torres is changed by a new perspective on the rebels, perhaps even after this encounter he would have an enlightened attitude towards them.  He is gracious, but still stern.  The Barber is transformed by seeing how difficult it is to murder, and how although the thought crossed his mind, peace and professionality is more important than getting revenge.