Archbishop Parada

Archbishop Parada is a priest and bishop whose presence in the novel joins intimate pastoral care to public moral intervention. He baptizes a newborn at the hospital, offers companionship to Lucía Vivanca and Adán Barrera in a moment of fear, and later uses a radio broadcast to plead for a kidnapped American policeman’s release. In a story where violence reaches families and institutions alike, his actions give faith a concrete form: tending to people in crisis and speaking against harm even when his appeal cannot itself stop it.

Identity and Pastoral Presence

Known in these scenes as Father Juan, Parada appears as a familiar, trusted cleric rather than a distant religious authority. When Lucía is in agony after the birth, Adán summons him to the hospital. Parada arrives, holds the baby, and baptizes her on the spot, acting because the family fears what may happen to the child. He then stays with Lucía, holding her hand, talking with her, and praying with her. His reassurance—that she can be a good mother to a special child who will need her—addresses the family’s immediate distress without pretending that he can remove its cause.

The scene also establishes that Parada’s pastoral role extends to Adán. Once Lucía has fallen asleep after taking tranquilizers, the two men leave the hospital for the parking lot, where Parada smokes a cigarette and asks what Adán is thinking. Adán answers that he believes God is punishing him. Parada is present for that confession of fear, not merely for the ritual baptism: his care makes room for the father’s anguish as well as the mother’s.

Care, Prayer, and Art Keller

Years later, Parada encounters Art Keller in a cathedral. Keller has knelt before votive candles and prayed for Ernie Hidalgo, addressing the Virgin Mary, Saint Anthony, and Christ. Parada recognizes the significance of the act and observes that Keller is praying despite his apparent lack of belief. Their exchange presents Parada as attentive to the contradiction in Keller’s behavior: the man may doubt, yet in this moment he turns toward prayer for another person.

Parada offers to hear Keller’s confession. Keller says there is no time, and the scene moves from private spiritual attention to urgent public action. The offer does not resolve Keller’s crisis, but it shows Parada making himself available to him in the same direct way he had been available to Lucía and Adán. The cathedral’s candles and the proposed confession frame a moment of pause; the kidnapping, by contrast, demands that Parada carry his concern beyond the church.

The Radio Appeal

Parada goes with Keller to a radio station and broadcasts a message to those holding the American policeman. He pleads for the man’s safe release in the name of God the Father, Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, and the saints. He urges the kidnappers to consult their souls, making the appeal both personal and religious: their decision is presented as a matter of conscience, not simply a tactical choice.

He also threatens excommunication if the captive is harmed, invoking the authority of the Church as a force that may reach people whom ordinary pleas cannot persuade. The broadcast combines hope of salvation with condemnation: Parada warns of eternal hell, then repeats the possibility of redemption. That pairing matters. He neither softens the gravity of the threatened violence nor abandons the possibility that those responsible might choose to release the man. His intervention is forceful, but its stated aim remains the captive’s release unharmed.

Voice Against Violence

The broadcast reaches Adán Barrera. As the bishop’s familiar voice comes over the background of Ernie Hidalgo’s rhythmic moans, the appeal’s spiritual language collides with the physical reality of captivity and torture. Parada’s threat of excommunication sounds more forceful in this setting, but the scene does not establish that it changes the kidnappers’ conduct or secures the captive’s release. Its immediate consequence is that the appeal enters the space of violence and is heard there.

Parada’s significance lies in this repeated movement between intimate care and public witness. At the hospital he responds to one family’s fear with baptism, prayer, and reassurance; at the radio station he addresses an unseen group responsible for a kidnapping and invokes religious authority on behalf of the victim. In both settings, he acts through presence and speech. The contrast between his appeal and the continuing sounds of Ernie’s suffering leaves the limits of moral authority visible without making the appeal itself meaningless.