The Holy Innocents

Aristocratic son who returns to the estate to pursue an affair with Doña Pura and to wield power through hunting and intimidation. He treats laborers as subordinates and provokes others. Azarías hangs him; Iván dies, and the case avoids legal punishment due to Azarías's mental condition; he is committed to an asylum.

A laborer and husband of Régula who endures the estate's humiliations. He is forced onto a decoy tree during a hunting exercise, breaks his leg, and bears the vulnerability of the caste system. He and Régula accept their dependent status as the others humiliate them.

Régula is Paco's wife; she shares the family’s vulnerability and resentment. She senses the possibility of a better life alongside Nieves and Quirce, while enduring the estate’s cruelty and expectations.

Wife of the estate manager Don Pedro; a bored middle-class figure who engages in an affair with Iván and participates in the estate's social circle. She embodies the moral compromises and privileges of the cortijo system.

Régula's mentally handicapped brother, recently sacked from another estate; he loves birds. He drops a noose around Iván's neck in a moment of retribution, leading to Iván's death; his infantile mental age spares him from legal punishment and he is committed to an asylum.

Doing his military service, Quirce briefly replaces Paco; his aloof demeanor vexes Iván, who is used to the servitude of the estate. He represents a younger generation's potential for detachment from the system.

Estate manager who enforces the hierarchy and maintains the system that keeps the cortijo in balance. He embodies practical authority and the role of the ruling bureaucracy on the ground.

A maid who serves in the big house; she is aware of the injustice around her and harbors hope for a better life. She and Quirce symbolize the possibility of change from within the lower ranks.