Caridad
Caridad is the third and most beautiful of Sofi's daughters. She is vibrant, sensual, and sexually active. She loved one man, and when he broke her heart by cheating on her after their wedding, Caridad turned her back on love. For several years, she gets involved with dangerous men, heavy drinking, and lots of sex. She has three abortions, all performed by her sister, La Loca, and is severely beaten by a supernatural beast. Following a year in a coma, the same year Fe is screaming, Caridad discovers a new side to herself in her ‘‘holy recovery.’’ She realizes that she has the potential to be a spiritual healer and channeler. She begins to train with Dona Felicia, and her year of wilderness solitude only enhances her reputation. Unfortunately, Caridad becomes the object of a stalker's attentions. Her stalker, Francisco el Penitente, is mentally unbalanced and believes that the only way to get Caridad out of his mind is to kill her. Caridad, rather than be murdered, jumps to her death off an ancient Pueblo Indian cliff dwelling. Her death represents the cultural forces working on women to suppress their sexuality and remove their control over their own lives.

Domingo
Domingo is Sofi's husband and the father of her children. He is also a gambler. He abandons the family soon after La Loca's birth because he cannot stay in one place. He returns immediately after Caridad's ‘‘holy restoration’’—a twenty-year absence. Sofi allows him to stay and they are happy for a while. He builds Caridad a house with his winnings from the Illinois lottery and continues to gamble without Sofi's knowledge. When he loses Sofi's house and four-acre lot to a Federal judge in an illegal card game, Sofi finally divorces her husband. He moves into the house that he built for Caridad and leaves the narrative.

Dona Felicia
Dona Felicia, much like Sofi, is an older woman whose life has been anything but peaceful. Married, widowed, and abandoned several times, Felicia has buried all of her children and lost any faith in organized religion. She is a spiritual healer who trains Caridad as a channeler. She feels responsible for Caridad's death since it is Felicia's godson who stalks her. She tries to save La Loca, but her skills are useless against AIDS. Dona Felicia tries to help Sofi cope with the loss of all of her children.

Esperanza
Esperanza is the eldest of Sofi's daughters. She is the only one to complete college and to ‘‘discover" her ethnicity. Esperanza was a bit of an activist in college, marching and picketing for the cause of Hispanic Brotherhood. She became a journalist, working at a local television station before accepting a national job based in Washington. She accepted the job only after both of her sisters recovered and she felt no longer needed. Esperanza went to cover the 1991 Persian Gulf War and was killed in action. The hypocrisy surrounding the U.S. military and American treatment of Hispanic women becomes obvious in the way the authorities treated her death and their patronizing attitude toward her parents.

Fe
Fe is Sofi's second daughter, often considered the "normal" one. She worked at the local bank since graduating from high school and was engaged to a nice, normal guy, Tom Torres. Fe is embarrassed by her family and tries very hard not to invite her friends over or to involve her family in her professional life. When Tom breaks off their engagement, Fe goes crazy, screaming and beating her head against the walls of the family home for one year. After her recovery,...