Sofia
Sofia is a heroic mother, who was abandoned by her husband. She was married to Domingo, who was a gambler. Sofia got married when she was only eighteen years old. They had four daughters and after the birth of their youngest daughter, Domingo tried to gamble the land, which was inherited to Sofia by her father. Sofia exiled her husband from the farm and for the next twenty years, he did not contact his family or returned to the farm. Sofia raised her daughters as a single parent and faced all the hardships all alone. Sofia became the unofficial mayor of the town, when she reached the age of fifty-three and she brought social and financial revolutions in the community. All of her daughters led tragic lives and they all died. After their deaths, she established an association with the name of ‘Mothers of Martyrs and Saints.’ In that association, she shared the sorrows of mothers who lost their children.
La Loca
La Loca was Sofia’s youngest daughter and she died at the age of three, but it was in her funeral that she got resurrected and climbed to the rooftop of the church. She claimed that she had visited paradise owing to her demise. Her resurrection after her death ascended her to the pedestal of a saint and people started worshipping her. The reverence from the folks made her averse from the society and she confined herself within her home. La Loca decided to spend her life away from society and she indulged herself in prayers and in spiritual enlightenment of her family. She had the capability of premonitions along with the mending powers. La Loca died at the age of twenty after suffering from AIDS.
Domingo
Domingo was Sofia’s husband and the father of the four daughters. He spent his life in gambling and his relationship with his wife was not a pleasing one. He wasted everything in gambling and did not hesitate in giving away the land of her wife, which she got from her father. He was eventually exiled by her wife from the family farm owing to his gambling habits. He went away for twenty years and suddenly returned to his wife after a long period. His wife faced all the hardships of life without him.
Fe
Another character in the book is Fe, who worked as a banker. She way living a happy life, until her fiancé broke the engagement. She mourned the separation for a year but later on, she got married to her cousin. She rejoined the bank after her marriage but in attempt to make more money, she started working in a factory. The factory was using harmful materials to clean the machine parts. Fe fall prey to cancer owing to the exposure of dangerous chemicals and she died, when she was twenty-seven.
