The way 'Han cantado bingo' arranges its characters is one of the things I loved the most.
the plot is told through the eyes of the older sister, and that choice makes every supporting figure—especially Aleja, the little sister—feel seen through a complex, intimate lens. The text plays with typography and memory so that Aleja’s name and dialogue get special treatment on the page, which underlines how central her presence is to the narrator’s inner life. Beyond the sibling duo, the grandmother (always
leaving for bingo), the often-absent parents, and extended family members shape the emotional stakes. The volcano, El Ahorcado, is treated almost like an elder relative: vast, inscrutable, and always there. The novel’s world also includes the peculiar family gift of communicating with the dead, a detail that transforms ordinary scenes into uncanny ones and deepens the sense of inherited burden. If you’re thinking about themes, it’s
less a list of characters than a constellation; each figure refracts memory, guilt, and survival in different ways. So, the main players I’d point to are the narrator (older sister), Aleja/Alejandra (younger sister), Abuela, the parents, and El Ahorcado acting as landscape-character—plus a handful of relatives and neighbors who matter at different points. I finished the book feeling both hollowed out and oddly tender toward those particular, fragile people.