Characters in "La Maravilla"
- Beto
- Josephina: a Spanish immigrant who sees herself as a faithful Roman Catholic and therefore tries to interfere with her husband's Native American influence on Beto. She is also a curandera who tries to use her spiritual powers to help her neighbors in the town, including Vernetta, Boydeen, and Wysteria Maybelle.
- Manuel
- Vernetta
- J.B.: Vernetta's true love and the father of her child, a bright young man who wanted to become a physicist but was brutally killed instead after being caught with Vernetta in the Jim Crow south
- Boydeen: a young woman who kills her lover Hiawatha in jealousy and has to be protected by Josephina's powers; after being healed, she uses her skills as a stenographer to document all the important events and transactions in the town
- Claude and Louie: the "Arkie" boys, friends of Beto
- Potrice and Sugar Dee: the local prostitutes; also lesbian lovers
- the maricones: a group of five transvestites
- Onan and Odabee
- the Blue Moon
- Salvador
- Lola and Joe: Beto's mom and her new partner; she left Buckeye Road years ago in search of more freedom in American
- Wysteria Maybelle
- Harold: the Fuller Brush Salesman whom Josephina befriends
- Apache: Josephina and Manuel's dog, missing for three years; Josephina fears that if he returns, he will be La Maravilla, and dog associated in Aztec legends as a sign of impending death
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