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Bartolomé San Juan
Damiana is a woman in Comala who works faithfully for Pedro Páramo throughout her life. She briefly has an affair for him, works in the kitchen at the Media Luna Ranch, and raises his son Miguel (and, briefly, one of his other illegitimate sons, Juan Preciado). She approaches Juan when he is staying in Eduviges Dyada’s back room and offers to bring him to the Media Luna, but then she abruptly disappears when he asks if she is dead or alive, leaving the question unanswered. At the very end of the book, she is helping care for Pedro when Abundio Martínez confronts and stabs them both. That her downfall occurs while protecting Pedro suggests that she’s being punished for selling out her conscience to work for him. Indeed, her relationship to Pedro exemplifies the multiple ways he oppresses Comala’s women, and her meeting with Juan Preciado shows how the dead and the living become indistinguishable in Comala.
Damiana Cisneros Quotes in Pedro Páramo
The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Damiana Cisneros or refer to Damiana Cisneros. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124 Quotes
“I need money to bury my wife,” he said. “Can you help me?”
Damiana Cisneros prayed: “Deliver us, O God, from the snares of the Devil.” And she thrust her hands toward Abundio, making the sign of the cross.
Abundio Martinez saw a frightened woman standing before him, making a cross; he shuddered. He was afraid that the Devil might have followed him there, and he looked back, expecting to see Satan in some terrible guise.
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He tried to raise his hand to wipe the image clear, but it clung to his legs like a magnet. He tried to lift the other hand, but it slipped slowly down his side until it touched the floor, a crutch supporting his boneless shoulder.
“This is death,” he thought.
[…]
Pedro Páramo replied:
“I’m coming along. I’m coming.”
He supported himself on Damiana Cisneros’s arm and tried to walk. After a few steps he fell; inside, he was begging for help, but no words were audible. He fell to the ground with a thud, and lay there, collapsed like a pile of rocks.
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Damiana Cisneros Character Timeline in Pedro Páramo
The timeline below shows where the character Damiana Cisneros appears in Pedro Páramo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Fragments 13-23, Pages 25-41
...with her at the Media Luna ranch. Juan remembers his mother once mentioning her name: Damiana Cisneros. She cared for him as an infant. Juan agrees to go with her—after all,...
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Fragments 24-36, Pages 41-61
Fragment 24. Back in the present, Damiana Cisneros tells Juan Preciado that Comala is full of strange echoes—of laughter and old voices,...
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Fragments 37-46, Pages 61-85
...passes by Fulgor and reports that he’s been “milking” some woman, then heads inside to Damiana Cisneros, who works in the kitchen. He asks Damiana if she knows Dorotea—Damiana says that...
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...priest. Father Rentería didn’t want to deal with the child’s evil blood, so Pedro made Damiana take care of him. He and Father Rentería drank to Miguel’s future.
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Fragments 47-59, Pages 86-108
Fragment 58. At night, Damiana Cisneros hears bulls bellowing and then someone knocking on the wall. She thinks it might...
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Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124
...up on the outskirts of town. Pedro Páramo sees him in the distance and sends Damiana Cisneros to go investigate. When Damiana finds Abundio, he is crawling on the ground, too...
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Off in the distance, Pedro Páramo seems to suddenly disappear underneath his coat. Damiana calls out that Pedro is being murdered, and Abundio thinks of his dead wife, whose...
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...also knows that he will no longer be able to avoid Abundio’s plea for help. Damiana comes over and asks if Pedro wants dinner. Pedro says he’s coming, but when he...
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