Blanca Trueba Character Analysis

Clara and Esteban Trueba’s daughter, Alba’s mother, and Pedro Tercero’s lover. Blanca grows up spending summers at Tres Marías, and she falls in love with Pedro when she is just a girl. Despite her deep love for Pedro, Blanca knows her father will never approve of their relationship, and as a member of the upper class, Alba knows that she will never be fully accepted in Pedro’s life as a peasant either. After Jean de Satigny tells Esteban about Blanca’s secret affair with Pedro, Esteban violently beats Blanca. She flees to the big house on the corner with Clara after this incident, and her relationship with her father never recovers. When Blanca finds out she is pregnant with Pedro’s baby, Esteban forces her to marry Jean to prevent people from finding out about the scandal. Blanca agrees—out of fear, not love—and she moves with Jean to a northern province. Their marriage is never consummated, and while she does consider Jean a friend, she ultimately leaves him when she finds erotic photographs of their male servants in his private “laboratory.” Blanca gives birth to her daughter, Alba, shortly after and spends most of her life at the big house on the corner. Her time there is miserable, and Esteban never lets her forget that she lives there because of his “pity.” She reconnects with Pedro Tercero over the years and never stops loving him, though it takes decades for them to truly reunite. After the coup d’état, when Pedro is placed on the wanted list, Blanca hides him in the house. Esteban later helps both Blanca and Pedro escape the county, a moment in which Esteban’s dormant love is finally revealed. The name Blanca means “shining white,” which connotes purity and thereby underscores the sexist expectations of her patriarchal society—Blanca is valued only for her potential as a wife and mother, and her life is determined entirely by men. She is told whom to marry and when, and she isn’t free to make her own decisions. Blanca also illustrates the lasting power of love and its ability to transcend all things, including class and social status. Blanca loves Pedro Tercero for decades, and this love guides her actions throughout most of the novel.