Tenorio Trementina

Tenorio has three daughters who practice witchcraft in the Llano community. Before Tenorio becomes central to the plot, his daughters curse Lucas Márez; when Ultima lifts that curse, two daughters die as a consequence. The loss of each daughter intensifies Tenorio's hatred of Ultima, culminating in his final act of violence after the third daughter's death.

Tenorio blames Ultima for his daughters' deaths, refusing to accept that they brought destruction on themselves through their witchcraft. His hatred stems from a complete denial of accountability: rather than seeing his daughters' black magic as the cause of their deaths, he portrays Ultima as a murderer and views himself as a righteous avenger, a self-mythology that propels every act of violence in the novel.

Tenorio is trampled to death by Antonio's horse moments after he shoots Ultima's owl. This timing is intentional on Anaya's part: Tenorio dies in the act of destruction, without remorse or recognition, and the instrument of his death—a boy's horse—links his end to the young protagonist whose moral journey Tenorio has profoundly disturbed throughout the novel.

The community refuses to act on Tenorio's word alone and demands a formal witch-test, which Ultima passes effortlessly by walking beneath crossed needles nailed to a doorway. This failure exposes the emptiness of Tenorio's authority: he cannot inflict violence without communal approval, revealing the cowardice that lies beneath his claims of righteous vengeance.

Despite minimal direct interaction, Tenorio is the most significant agent of Antonio's disillusionment. Antonio hides in the reeds and observes Tenorio murder Narciso in the snow, a scene that forces him to confront evil that is entirely human rather than supernatural. Antonio is also present when Tenorio dies, connecting his moral education, from its darkest wound to its bitter resolution, to this single antagonist.

Tenorio shoots Narciso in the snow to prevent him from warning Antonio's family of Tenorio's murderous intentions. This killing represents the novel's most striking act of human evil because Narciso is gentle and harmless, acting solely out of protective instinct—everything Tenorio is not. Antonio witnesses it and is left with a wound his catechism cannot heal, deepening his crisis of faith in divine justice.

Tenorio kills Ultima's owl, recognizing it as the physical embodiment of her life force and spiritual tether. Since the owl is inseparable from Ultima's soul, its death signifies her death. This act represents Tenorio's only genuine victory in the novel, but it costs him his life immediately afterward, when he is trampled by Antonio's horse seconds after firing the shot.

Yes—Anaya consistently depicts Tenorio as someone who exhibits bravery through mob action rather than individual confrontation. He attempts to lynch Ultima only when surrounded by followers, retreats after the witch-test, and murders Narciso by ambush rather than open challenge. Each failure sharpens his hatred rather than producing true courage, making him an example of the novel's portrayal of violent masculinity that is inherently hollow.