Pedro Tercero García Character Analysis

Pedro Segundo’s son, Blanca’s lover, and Alba’s biological father. Pedro Tercero grows up a peasant on Tres Marías, and he falls in love with Blanca when he is just a boy. As a child, he listens to his grandfather, old Pedro’s, stories and dreams of freedom and equality. He befriends Blanca’s brother Jaime, and they spend hours talking about socialism and class struggle. Father Jose teaches Pedro to play the guitar, and Pedro goes on to write many songs about revolution. He spreads his songs around Tres Marías, along with socialist propaganda, and he is the only peasant with enough courage to stand up to Esteban Trueba. Esteban quickly banishes Pedro Tercero from the property for spreading subversive pamphlets to the peasants, but Esteban never knows that the songs the peasants hum and sing were written by Pedro and contain the same messages as his pamphlets. After Esteban finds out about Pedro and Blanca’s love affair, Esteban violently assaults Pedro and severs three fingers from his right hand. Pedro runs to Father Jose, who tends to his injured hand, and he later moves to the capital. Pedro’s songs make him famous, and he even manages to reconnect with Blanca over the years, but she refuses to run away with him. Blanca doesn’t tell Alba that Pedro is her father until she is a young adult, and even though Pedro doesn’t agree with this decision, he respects it. After the President is elected, Pedro goes to work for the government. When Esteban Trueba is held hostage by the peasants at Tres Marías, Pedro convinces them to let him a go—a favor that Esteban returns when he helps Blanca and Pedro escape the country together after the coup d’état. Pedro Tercero represents class struggle in the novel. He is born into the peasant class and spends his life fighting for equality. Like Jaime, Pedro Tercero is a kind of foil to Miguel. Pedro clearly advocates for socialism and Marxist ideals, but he takes a nonviolent approach. Pedro Tercero fights for equality through music, and through legal channels by working for the government.