Mimí

Mimí is Roberto Almada’s mother and the owner of a hair salon. A hairdresser whose past includes raising Roberto in Peru, she becomes part of the novel’s family drama through her ambivalent position toward his relationship with Rita and her involvement in Elena’s care. The salon appointment she helps carry out is both a strained act of practical assistance and a crucial point in Elena’s reasoning about Rita’s death.

Identity and background

Mimí, whose original name is given as Marta, raised Roberto largely on her own. She followed a boyfriend, a tango dancer who was not Roberto’s father, to Lima, taking her young son with her. After the relationship ended and they were left without money, she learned hairdressing. Previously she had done manicures; in Peru she trained in styling, cutting, and dyeing hair, then rented a room in the Barranco neighborhood from a classmate at beauty school.

Returning to Buenos Aires would have made the failure of the move feel undeniable, so Mimí stayed in Lima despite struggling to earn enough to feed Roberto. Her work and persistence shaped the life they made there, even as the circumstances left them isolated from other connections to the country. When they later returned, she had built the skills that would support her own salon.

Roberto and the salon

Mimí’s history is closely tied to Roberto’s childhood and the origins of his fear of churches and bells. In Lima, he grew up with a pronounced hunchback. While his mother worked, an older woman who looked after him told him a frightening story about a priest killed when a chapel bell fell during an earthquake. Roberto became afraid of bells and kept his distance from churches, still fearing that one might fall even though no earthquake had been recorded in the Buenos Aires area.

As an adult, Roberto remains attached to Mimí, whom Elena imagines as unwilling to lose the son who loves her unconditionally. The salon is her workplace and a family setting: Roberto’s relationship with Rita brings him there, and Mimí’s employees become involved in Elena’s appointment. Its mirrors, chairs, and beauty services also provide the setting for a prolonged encounter between Mimí and Elena, whose bodies and expectations of care differ sharply.

Elena’s appointment and practical care

Rita arranges an extensive salon appointment for Elena, timing it around Elena’s Levodopa so her body will not go without medication. The planned services include washing, cutting, dyeing and styling her hair, as well as a manicure, pedicure, and waxing. Elena resists the visit; Rita argues that it is not only Elena’s appearance that matters, but also the daily experience of the person who cares for her. The appointment thus grows out of the strain of their shared routine as well as Rita’s wish to change something about it.

Mimí oversees the staff as they help Elena through the services. Elena cannot easily lift her head, and rinsing out the dye proves difficult. Mimí gives instructions from the stairs, becomes frustrated with her employees, and tries to manage the task herself before they find a way to finish it. Later she styles Elena’s hair and works on her hands and feet. She offers calendula cream for Elena’s rough heels, though Elena expects it will become one more unused item rather than another task she can manage.

The appointment also exposes Mimí and Elena’s uneasy likeness. Mimí takes Elena to a full-length mirror and asks her to look at the result. Elena can only see herself partly, but she compares her body with Mimí’s and recognizes that they are close in age. When the conversation turns to age and the possibility of becoming a grandmother, Mimí presents herself as hopeful about a grandchild. Elena doubts that this hope is sincere: she believes Mimí does not want Rita to marry Roberto or a child to come from their relationship. The women’s shared resistance to that relationship is a point of resemblance, though neither openly acknowledges it.

Relationship with Rita and Roberto

Mimí’s behavior toward Rita’s plans is contradictory. She refers to herself as a future mother-in-law and speaks hopefully about becoming a grandmother, yet Elena believes she would rather keep Roberto to herself than welcome a marriage and child. This account is filtered through Elena’s judgments; the evidence does not resolve what Mimí privately wants. It does show how family attachment can be both affectionate and possessive, and how the women’s apparent agreement against the relationship does not make them allies.

The salon visit also reveals that Mimí’s care has limits. She helps with Elena’s grooming and directs her employees, but the appointment is being carried out at Rita’s insistence, and Mimí’s patience falters when the work becomes difficult. Her assistance is neither simple devotion nor indifference: it consists of particular acts of labor, irritation, instruction, and attention, rather than an assumption that she will take over Elena’s ongoing care.

Rita’s death and Mimí’s place in the investigation

Rita’s death in the church belfry occurs while Elena is at Mimí’s salon. By the time Mimí is placing Elena’s feet in the pedicure water, Rita is probably already dead. Elena later treats her own presence at the salon with Mimí, before, during, and after the time of the hanging, as the reason Mimí could not have killed Rita. This makes the appointment more than a domestic interlude: its timetable becomes part of Elena’s effort to assess the possible suspects.

Mimí and Roberto attend Rita’s funeral with Mimí’s salon workers, who close the business for mourning. Their presence places Mimí among the people who come to pay their respects, even though Elena’s account of her also preserves the tensions between the families. The salon, usually a workplace and place of grooming, is marked by mourning; Mimí’s connection to Rita is expressed through that public attendance as well as through the contested family ties that preceded it.

Narrative role

Mimí is seen chiefly through Elena’s observations and conclusions, so her motives remain less certain than her actions. She raises Roberto through hardship, operates a salon, participates in Elena’s appointment, and attends Rita’s funeral. Elena’s interpretation of Mimí’s resistance to the marriage may be perceptive, but the uncertainty matters: Mimí’s professed hope for a grandchild and Elena’s conviction that she wants no such union remain side by side rather than being reconciled.

Her role also gives concrete form to care as work performed under pressure. The salon staff must adapt their ordinary services to Elena’s limited movement, while Mimí alternates between directing them, attempting the task herself, and completing parts of the appointment. Through these scenes, Mimí is not reduced to either a loving helper or a suspect. She remains a mother protective of her son, a working woman with a history of self-reliance, and a participant in the network of relationships through which Elena tries to understand Rita’s death.