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Nívea del Valle
A student activist at Alba’s university. Alba first meets Ana during the university protest, in which student activists barricade themselves inside a building in support of striking workers, and Alba notices immediately that Ana has the same tiny insignia of a raised fist embroidered on her sleeve as Miguel. Ana, like Miguel, supports socialist ideologies and advocates for class warfare and equality, and she initially gives Alba a hard time for her high social standing and wealth. When Alba is struck with incapacitating menstrual cramps during the protest, Ana implies that Alba is weak because she is a member of the bourgeoisie. True proletarian (working-class) women, Ana says, don’t even complain during childbirth. Later, after Alba is detained, tortured, and raped during the military coup d’état, she again meets Ana Díaz in a concentration camp for women. Like Alba, Ana is raped and tortured inside the camp, but they find strength in each other, and Ana and Alba resist the violence and abuse of the camp when they are together. Ana gives Alba the notebook that Alba uses to record the experience of her confinement, and it sparks Alba’s interest in writing and helps her to heal. The character of Ana Díaz is an example of a strong woman within the novel, and her support of Alba underscores the solidarity of women, even in the face of perceived differences.
Ana Díaz Quotes in The House of the Spirits
The The House of the Spirits quotes below are all either spoken by Ana Díaz or refer to Ana Díaz. 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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Epilogue Quotes
“If you want, I’ll tell you my story so you can write it down,” one said. Then they laughed and made jokes, arguing that everybody’s story was the same and that it would be better to write love stories because everyone likes them. They also forced me to eat. They divided up the servings with the strictest sense of justice, each according to her need; they gave me a little more because they said I was just skin and bones and not even the most desperate man would ever look at me. I shuddered, but Ana Diaz reminded me that I was not the only woman who had been raped, and that, along with many other things, it was something I had to forget. The women spent the whole day singing at the top of their lungs. The guards would pound on the wall.
“Shut up, whores!”
“Make us if you can, bastards! Let’s see if you dare!” And they sang even stronger but the guards did not come in, for they had learned that there is no way to avoid the unavoidable.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Ana Díaz Character Timeline in The House of the Spirits
The timeline below shows where the character Ana Díaz appears in The House of the Spirits. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 11: The Awakening
...between her legs. She is mortified, so she curls up in the corner in misery. Ana Díaz, one of the student protestors, comments that Alba’s pains are evidence of her class...
(full context)
...“That’s what happens when you let women get involved in men’s affairs!” he says. No, Ana corrects, this is what happens when you let the bourgeoisie get involved. Sebastián tells Alba...
(full context)
Chapter 14: The Hour of Truth
...body. She wakes later, wet and naked. Her blindfold is gone, and a woman named Ana Díaz is comforting her. She says she knows Alba, but Alba doesn’t remember. “It’s because...
(full context)
...more to do with revenge than his desire to make her confess anything about Miguel. Ana was arrested with her boyfriend, and the police raped her in front of him before...
(full context)
Epilogue
...women watched over each other and never let her be alone. She told him about Ana Díaz, who gave Alba a notebook to write in and helped her to remember that...
(full context)
