The Tortilla Curtain characters

Appears from the start

A nature writer living with his wife and stepson in the affluent Arroyo Blanco community outside Los Angeles. He thinks of himself as humane and environmentally minded, but his confidence is shaken when his car strikes a Mexican pedestrian on a canyon road.

Appears from the start

An undocumented Mexican immigrant camping in Topanga Canyon with his pregnant wife, America. He has come north hoping that hard work will let them establish a modest home, but the injuries he suffers when Delaney hits him make an already precarious life more dangerous.

First appears in chapter 2

Delaney's wife, a successful and relentlessly energetic real-estate agent whose business depends on selling the security and exclusivity of the canyon suburbs. She is practical, ambitious, and far more receptive than Delaney to measures intended to protect property values.

First appears in chapter 2

Cándido's seventeen-year-old pregnant wife, newly arrived in California after a difficult journey from Mexico. She initially depends on Cándido to deal with the unfamiliar world outside their camp, but poverty and his injury force her to seek day labor herself.

First appears in chapter 2

Kyra's young son from an earlier marriage and Delaney's stepson. He lives with the Mossbachers in Arroyo Blanco and is largely sheltered from the economic fear and racial hostility growing around the adults.

First appears in chapter 4

A prominent Arroyo Blanco resident who argues that the community needs stronger barriers and tighter control of access. He gives respectable, public form to fears about crime, outsiders, and declining property values.

First appears in chapter 8

Jack Jardine's son, a resident of the same privileged community. His open hostility toward Mexican immigrants is cruder than his father's language about safety and property.

First appears in chapter 8

A Mexican laborer whom América encounters while looking for work. His intimidating attention makes her acutely aware of how exposed she is at the roadside labor exchange and in the canyon.

First appears in chapter 3

The Mossbachers' small dog, treated as a cherished member of their comfortable household. The animal's vulnerability to the canyon's wildlife becomes a source of grief and fuels Kyra's desire to shut danger outside the development.

First appears in chapter 12

A resident of Arroyo Blanco who takes part in the community's arguments over walls, gates, safety, and the presence of poor migrants nearby.