Fantasy and Reality

Through her characterizations of Maite and Elvis, Moreno-Garcia consistently positions the often painful gap between fantasy and reality as a central theme of Velvet Was the Night. At the start of the novel, Maite daydreams about the characters and melodramas in her favorite comic series, Secret Romance. Moreno-Garcia writes that Maite “lived for those stories” (21). Maite appears unable to fully cordon off the fictional world of Secret Romance from her actual life as a legal secretary in Mexico City. Maite, who often lies to coworkers about nonexistent romantic interests, explains that “she took the men from the comic books she read and fashioned them into imaginary dates, boyfriends” (54). For Maite, the pages and plotlines of Secret Romance serve as an obvious form of escapism from her real and unfulfilling life. This dissatisfaction, coupled with her obsession with fiction, influences her outlook as she becomes...