Who is Leonor Ledesma from Dogeaters and what is their importance?

Leonor Ledesma is the wife of General Ledesma. She never leaves his coffin-shaped room in their house, and she is forever praying - sometimes standard Catholic prayers, sometimes hopeless variations on them - and whipping herself. She seems to have taken the whole of the Philippines' pain on her shoulders. At the end of the play, the General orders his wife to stop praying, but she refuses. He puts a gun to her head, but she still holds firm. The General reneges and leaves her room.