Who is Petrona?

Petrona is the book's second primary character. Because she plays a defining role in much of the action, and because a significant portion of the story is told in her narrative voice, she is something of a co-protagonist, a sense that deepens when the book's central themes are taken into consideration. For example, Petrona undergoes a significant journey of transformation that is, in some ways, even more transformative than Chula's: there are no deaths in Chula's family, as there are in Petrona's; Chula does not end the narrative both a wife and a mother; and Chula does not encounter the personal violence that Petrona does. This is another thematically significant element that reinforces Petrona's importance to the story: several events, circumstances, and decisions in her life evoke the book's thematic interest in living in a corrupt and violent society.