Character List
From The House on Mango Street
Esperanza Cordero The narrator and central character.
Nenny (Magdalena) Esperanza's younger sister.
Papa, Mama, Carlos and Kiki Esperanza's parents (Mr. and Mrs. E. Cordero) and her two younger brothers.
Cathy A neighbor girl.
Edna The woman who owns and lives in the apartment building next door; the mother of Ruthie, a childlike woman.
Lucy and Rachel Two girls who live across the street; Lucy is the older sister, Rachel the younger.
Meme Ortiz The boy who moves into Cathy's house.
Marin A neighborhood girl, older than Esperanza.
The Vargas family Rosa and her children, who are many and out of control.
Alicia One of Esperanza's neighbors; Alicia is a university student and becomes a friend to Esperanza.
Darius A neighborhood boy.
Sister Superior Esperanza's school principal.
Aunt Lupe (Guadalupe) One of Esperanza's aunts.
Elenita A witch woman.
Geraldo A man Marin meets at a dance.
Earl A man who lives in Edna's basement apartment.
Sire A boy Esperanza is attracted to.
Mamacita A woman who never leaves her apartment.
Rafaela Another married neighborhood woman.
Sally A friend of Esperanza's.
Minerva A young woman whose husband beats her.
The three sisters Lucy and Rachel's great-aunts.
From "Woman Hollering Creek" and Other Stories
Lucy Anguiano A little girl in Texas (in "My Lucy Friend . . . ").
Rachel The girl who narrates "Eleven," on her eleventh birthday.
Salvador A small boy (in "Salvador Late or Early") who cares for his younger brothers.
Micaela The narrator of "'Mericans," and possibly also of "Tepeyac"; she is a girl of about 11 in the first of these two stories and shifts between approximately that age and adulthood in the second.
"Chaq Uxmal Paloquín" (a.k.a. Boy Baby, a.k.a. Chato) The man beloved of the narrator in "One Holy Night."
"Ixchel" The narrator of "One Holy Night," who is given this name by her beloved; she is not called by any other name in the story. Both "Chaq" and "Ixchel" are the names of figures in Maya myth.
Patricia Bernadette Benavídez A San Antonio teenager who disappears and then reappears, the tocaya of Patricia Chávez, who is the narrator of "My Tocaya."
Cleófilas A young Mexican woman who marries a tejano, Juan Pedro, and then begins to regret her choice (in "Woman Hollering Creek").
Graciela and Felice Two Texas women who help Cleófilas.
Tristán (a.k.a. Rudy Cantú) A dancer (in "Remember the Alamo").
Clemencia An artist in Texas, whose mother told her "Never Marry a Mexican."
Inés Wife of Emiliano Zapata, the Mexican patriot and revolutionary leader; she narrates "Eyes of Zapata." (Inés is a fictional character based on a historical woman.)
Rosario (Chayo) De Leon A university student who leaves the cut-off braid of her hair as an offering of thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe (in "Little Miracles, Kept Promises").
Flavio Munguía (a.k.a. "Rogelio Velasco") The lover of Lupe, who narrates "Bien Pretty"; he is the "writer" of "Tin Tan Tan."
Lupe The narrator of "Bien Pretty"; she is an artist who has moved from San Francisco to San Antonio.
Note: Other characters in "Woman Hollering Creek" and Other Stories are important but unnamed; these include the children who narrate "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn," "Mexican Movies," and "Barbie-Q"; the female narrator of "Anguiano Religious Articles" and the male speaker in "Los Boxers"; and the two women whose conversation forms the story "The Marlboro Man."