Velvet Was the Night

Maite is one of the novel’s dynamic protagonists and point-of-view characters. Outwardly, Maite is a highly introverted and even taciturn character; she lives alone and has no friends outside of the women she works with. Maite pet sits for the other people in her building, and when she does, she always steals something from their apartments—something seemingly inconsequential, like the statue of San Judas Tadeo. These thefts highlight that Maite believes that life has been less kind to her than it has been to others, so she feels justified in stealing from those who she perceives to be more fortunate. More than this, though, the fact that Maite lovingly collects all of these trinkets from her neighbors suggests a desire for connection that she hasn’t found a healthy outlet for.

Maite is also very critical of other women around her. She resents Leonora for most of the narrative, in large part because of what Leonora represents: Leonora is wealthy, beautiful, and involved with multiple men. Maite’s resentment is, in part jealousy, because “[l]ove, frail as gossamer, stitched together from a thousand songs and a thousand comic books, made of the dialogue spoken in films and the posters designed by ad agencies” is what Maite values most of all (14).