Martirio and Pepe el Romano

Martirio’s relationship with Pepe el Romano is a concealed, unrequited attachment that helps turn the household’s struggle over his engagement into a conflict between sisters. She opposes his connection with Adela while insisting that he should marry Angustias; when challenged, she finally acknowledges that she loves him too.

Background and the marriage stakes

Pepe’s courtship of Angustias is bound to money and family status. Angustias is the only daughter of Bernarda Alba’s first marriage, and her stepfather, Antonio María Benavides, left her more money than he left his four natural daughters. The sisters recognize that her inheritance makes her the wealthy one in the house, and Magdalena remarks that Pepe is twenty-five and might more naturally have courted Amelia or Adela, both younger than Angustias. Against this backdrop, Martirio’s interest in Pepe sits within a household where a proposed marriage carries economic as well as emotional consequences.

The marriage also takes place within a restrictive social order. The daughters are expected to remain in domestic roles, while men enjoy comparative freedom. The play’s account of village life emphasizes how marriage can be arranged or loveless, and how gossip and concern for family reputation shape people’s choices. Martirio’s concealed attachment is therefore not simply a private disappointment: it unfolds in a family where Pepe’s intended marriage, inheritance, and the sisters’ limited prospects are closely entangled.

Signs of a concealed attachment

Martirio’s feelings surface first through actions and insinuations rather than an open declaration. After Angustias’s portrait of Pepe is discovered between the sheets of Martirio’s bed, Poncia identifies where it was found, and Martirio confirms that this is true. The incident makes a hidden attachment materially visible, even before Martirio names it. It also connects her private desire to the sisters’ increasingly tense competition over Pepe.

Later, Martirio asks Bernarda why Angustias’s fiancé is not visiting that night. Bernarda answers that he has gone away; Martirio looks at Adela and responds with a brief, knowing exclamation. The exchange does not spell out what Martirio knows, but her glance directs attention toward Adela and suggests that Pepe’s absence is not merely a matter of travel. Martirio’s awareness of Adela’s connection to him sharpens her conflict with her sister.

Opposition and disclosure

Poncia recognizes that Pepe would be better matched with Martirio or Adela than with Angustias. Bernarda dismisses the suggestion, but Poncia pointedly calls Adela Pepe’s true fiancée and argues that it is wrong for him to be with Angustias. Martirio’s own position becomes unmistakable in the later confrontation: she insists that she will not let Adela take Pepe and says that he shall marry Angustias. Adela answers that Martirio knows Pepe does not love Angustias.

Adela then says that Martirio has seen that Pepe loves her. Martirio confirms this, and Adela presses the point: Martirio is trying to prevent her from going to him because Martirio loves him too. At that, Martirio admits her love outright. The disclosure explains the personal stake beneath her efforts to preserve Pepe’s engagement to Angustias: she resents Adela’s intimacy with him, even while accepting a marriage that she knows does not reflect Pepe’s feelings.

A rivalry within the family

The exchange briefly opens a path toward sympathy between the sisters. Adela says she is not to blame for Martirio’s feelings and approaches her, but Martirio rejects the embrace. She says she can no longer see Adela as a sister, only as a woman, and pushes her away. The change in how Martirio names their relationship marks the force of the revelation: the bond of sisterhood cannot contain the rivalry once both women’s attachment to Pepe is spoken aloud.

Martirio’s position remains caught between desire and the family’s prescribed arrangement. She confesses that Pepe loves Adela, yet insists he must marry Angustias and tries to prevent Adela from being with him. The drama does not resolve Martirio’s attachment through a relationship with Pepe; instead, its disclosure intensifies the conflict among the sisters and exposes the emotional cost of a household in which marriage, money, reputation, and women’s constrained choices converge.