Caridad

Caridad is Rita’s mother, whose brief, unguarded happiness at the news of a grandchild reveals a tenderness usually obscured by worry. Her care is practical as well as affectionate: she immediately tries to protect her pregnant daughter from arrest and injury, while insisting that the family keep its whereabouts and secrets from her son.

Family and Hidden Histories

Caridad appears in the narrative at the threshold of her home, welcoming Rafael with kisses and an open door. The familiarity of the greeting contrasts with the perilous life he leads under an assumed identity. She belongs to the Velázquez family, whose members have been scattered by the war: her eldest son, Germán Velázquez Martín, lives in Switzerland, where he works as a psychiatrist after his father secured him a place on one of the last ships to leave Spain. Caridad remains wary of the risks of his return, even when the apparent danger seems limited.

The family’s history is inseparable from the secrets surrounding Rafael’s life. Much later, the narrator reflects that Amparo’s disclosures to a relative of his wife could not have separated her own wartime actions from his, and that becoming part of the Velázquez family helped distance Caridad from that sister-in-law. In this family, belonging offers a measure of shelter, but it does not erase the past or make disclosure safe.

News of Rita’s Pregnancy

When Caridad learns that Rita is going to become a grandmother, her mood and bearing change at once. She springs up from her chair, and her smile acquires an ambition and brightness the narrator had never seen in her. She walks around the room as if unable to settle, speaking through tears and imagining the child’s future: she might ask the porter’s wife to teach her to knit, arrange for a layette, and hope that the baby will someday wear a sweater she has made, even if it turns out badly.

Her excitement spills into small, restless gestures. She opens a display cabinet, takes out glasses, changes their places, then fetches another glass; the ordinary movements become a visible measure of how completely the news has displaced her familiar gravity. She imagines teaching a granddaughter English and piano, then corrects herself to include a grandson, and thinks of how Andrés would have welcomed the child. The moment ends with her suddenly stopping to ask what she is doing. Rita and the narrator are both crying as they watch her happiness.

Protection and Secrecy

The joy does not last without interruption. When Caridad returns from looking for a bottle of sherry to celebrate, her familiar concern has reasserted itself. She tells Rita not to get into trouble again: while pregnant, she cannot risk being detained and beaten. Rita starts to protest, but Caridad raises a hand before she can continue, refusing to accept what she recognizes as an excuse.

Caridad’s second demand is that Rita not tell her brother. She distrusts the people who might learn where he is or what he is doing, and insists that he can discover in time that he has a nephew or niece. Her protective instinct therefore governs both immediate bodily safety and the management of family knowledge. The secrecy is not presented as emotional distance; it is the means by which she believes she can shield her children from danger.

Family Consequences

Caridad’s caution about Germán’s return is grounded in the risks of postwar life. Though he has no blood crimes and served as a soldier for barely two months, returning to Spain would mean three years of military service and prevent him from leaving again. Caridad makes sure this will not happen, then undertakes the arrangements for Rita’s ceremony. Her vigilance is therefore active: she does not merely fear what may happen but works to keep her family out of reach of the authorities.

Her scene with Rita brings together the two registers that define her presence: delight in the prospect of a child and alertness to the political dangers around her family. The child is welcomed into a household where names, whereabouts, and pasts must be handled carefully. Caridad’s happiness does not dissolve that danger; it makes the protective work of keeping the family safe more urgent.