Roberto Almada

Roberto Almada occupies an uneasy place in Elena’s account of Rita’s life: he is the man Rita calls her boyfriend, a familiar presence connected to the bank and the neighborhood, and one of the few people Elena must rely on after her daughter’s death. His history gives him a reason to avoid churches, while his verified whereabouts give the police a reason to clear him of suspicion. Yet neither explanation dissolves Elena’s grief or her suspicion of the world around her.

Identity and Background

Roberto grew up with a pronounced curvature of the back, visible even when he was a baby. When he was young, neighborhood children called him a hunchback; Elena, speaking to Rita, used the word cripple to provoke her. As an adult, he works at the bank where he has been employed since the age of eighteen. He takes pride in its locally made floor tiles, which he describes as suitable for heavy foot traffic and as good as Italian ones. The workplace makes him both a familiar figure in Elena’s route and, later, a source of practical help.

Childhood and Fear of Churches

Roberto’s fear of churches and bells began in childhood. His mother, Marta, who later called herself Mimí, took him to Lima while following a tango dancer who was not his father. When the relationship ended, mother and son were left in Peru without money or another connection to the country. Marta learned hairdressing and rented a room in the Barranco neighborhood rather than return home and admit that she had failed. She struggled to earn enough to feed Roberto, but stayed in the city.

As a boy, Roberto repeatedly went alone to the Bridge of Sighs. Nearby stood the Chapel of the Hermit, associated with a story that its bell had fallen during an earthquake and killed a priest. An older woman who watched Roberto while his mother worked warned him that the headless priest would take misbehaving children. He did not understand himself as a child who misbehaved; instead, he became afraid of bells, habitually calculating the danger that one might fall and standing far enough from them to avoid being struck. Even after returning to Argentina, he did not want to go near churches. The narrative stresses that Greater Buenos Aires had never recorded an earthquake, but that fact did not undo his fear.

Relationship with Rita and Elena

Rita insists on calling Roberto her boyfriend, while Elena rejects the label. When Rita says that he is her boyfriend, Elena answers that someone of her age cannot have one; Rita asks what she should call him instead, and Elena says his name is enough. Roberto’s mother also appears to avoid the word: at Rita’s wake, the ribbon on his floral tribute calls him her friend. Elena suspects the wording reflects his mother’s dislike of describing her adult son as having a girlfriend. The tribute is a small palm frond intended to rest in the hands of the deceased. Elena leaves it in a corner behind the other wreaths because Roberto sent it, keeping the gesture at a distance rather than placing it with Rita.

Elena encounters Roberto outside the bank after deciding she cannot manage the longer route that would avoid it. He greets her formally, and she says she did not recognize him, noticing his new shoes. The exchange is brief and uncomfortable. He passes on his mother’s invitation for Elena to visit the hair salon for another haircut, free of charge. Elena remembers that her only previous visit there was on the afternoon Rita died, but forces herself away from the memory so she will not miss her train. His ordinary offer therefore arrives beside an association Elena cannot afford to follow.

Rita had previously handled Elena’s trips to the bank and, every two weeks, cut her mother’s toenails. After Rita’s death, Roberto offers to deposit Elena’s pension cheque so she will not have to wait in line. Elena challenges his concern and tells him to go to hell, but accepts the help. Their exchange captures the contradiction in their connection: she dislikes him, yet his presence inside the bank makes a burdensome task easier. When he says he misses Rita, Elena resents the condolence, just as she resents the unread letters kept in a box tied with a ribbon Rita chose.

Suspicion, Alibi, and Narrative Role

Elena considers whether Roberto could have killed Rita, but rules him out in her own reasoning not because of his words or presumed character. She believes he would not have been a match for Rita, whom she regards as exceptionally strong. His aversion to churches adds another reason she thinks he could not have approached the place where Rita was found. The police have cleared him as well, though on more concrete grounds: he was at the bank all day participating in an internal audit and cash count, with more than twenty people able to confirm his alibi. The police chief gives Elena this information after she insists that Rita’s death was murder and presses for suspects and motives.

Roberto’s exclusion does not solve the death for Elena. She remains convinced that Rita was killed, but has no suspects, motive, or theory to pursue alone. On the journey, when a driver asks whether anyone is helping her, Elena answers that she has no one. She then says that she had a daughter but that she was killed, leaving the driver to draw his own conclusion. Roberto, meanwhile, is behind her in the neighborhood encounter: his shoes remain pointed in the direction she walks, but he does not accompany her. The narrative places his practical kindness, his fearful distance from churches, and his alibi beside Elena’s unresolved need to find an explanation. He is neither a solution to her isolation nor a plausible answer to the mystery, but a surviving connection to Rita whose gestures Elena can accept without trusting or welcoming him.