I, Juan de Pareja

A fictionalized version of Spanish Golden Age painter Diego Velázquez, Diego is the novel’s deuteragonist and is mostly static until the novel’s end. Diego lives in Madrid with his wife and their two daughters, and he inherits Juan upon his aunt Emilia’s death. Not long after Juan arrives in Madrid, Diego receives a commission from King Philip IV for an official portrait. Diego brings both his family and Juan to live closer to the Spanish court, establishing an art studio in the palace’s shadow.

Diego is particularly notable for his humility, evidenced by his plain dress. He usually wears all-black clothes according to Spanish fashion, and Juan often juxtaposes Diego’s plainness against the Italian style to underscore the former’s sobriety. For instance, the Italians attempt to sell Diego “a suit in gold and ruby brocade” and a cloak fringed with “golden tassels,” but he stands aloof in his “sober black” clothing (89). Juan often distrusts flair as insincere, and he admires Diego’s simplicity as evidence of a deeper “dignity” and “thoughtfulness” (89). 

Diego evinces a similar devotion to transparency in his art, prioritizing The Relative Truth of Art above all else. When one of Diego’s apprentices, Cristobal, beautifies moldy cheese and stale bread, Diego corrects him, insisting instead that “Art should be Truth; and Truth unadorned, unsentimentalized, is Beauty” (67). Diego often embraces ugliness in the interest of truthfulness, preferring to render his sitters accurately to better unearth their character. 

Just as Diego’s work embraces physical ugliness, so too does it thrive on the politics of enslavement, highlighting Art as a Tool of and Cure for Oppression. Indeed, in structuring the novel from Juan’s point of view, de Treviño never characterizes Diego separately from his status of enslaver; it is the lens through which all developing characterization is viewed. Not until the end does Diego admit his “selfish preoccupations” and grant Juan his freedom, ceding his authority as “Master” and reintroducing himself as a “friend” (156). 

Diego is often ill throughout the novel, suffering from headaches, injuries, and fever, and at the novel’s end, he collapses from fever in his art studio. To memorialize Diego’s greatness, Juan and the King amend Las Meninas, adorning Diego’s self-portrait with the red Cross of Santiago.

King Philip IV of Spain, referred to simply as “the King,” is a secondary character based on the real Spanish king of the same name. The King commissions Diego to paint his portrait and furnishes him with a studio in the royal palace. Juan immediately notices the King’s shyness and credits him as a “distrustful, but tender and hopeful, man” (37). Diego frequently paints the King and the royal children, and the King takes an interest in the royal art gallery, sending Diego to Italy to curate a more sophisticated collection. When Rubens’s set visits Spain, they criticize its court as “the stiffest and most boring in Europe” (152-53), and indeed, the King often escapes to Diego’s studio for the sake of “complete invisibility.” First and foremost, the King appreciates art as an oasis. 

Though the King and Diego enjoy an affectionate relationship, the King never entirely sheds his superior social standing, underscoring Art as a Tool of and Cure for Oppression. Diego is, after all, in his service and must enthusiastically respond to his whims, including trips to Italy and gala invitations. The King often struggles to extend empathy to his social inferiors, retaining several entertainers with disabilities to amuse himself. Similarly, though Juan often joins Diego and the King in the studio, the King ignores Juan, offering him “less attention […] than he [does] to his dog” (93). Juan admits that he “[can]not address the King” (109). Only after Juan extends the King a particular service—curing the King’s dog, Corso—does the King favor Juan with a smile.

The King may enjoy a superior social standing, but he is still vulnerable to physical insecurity. Juan notes that the King “inherited the long, heavy, out-of-balance jaw” characteristic of his ancestral (and notoriously inbred) house, the Habsburgs (93). Juan further speculates that the King may be related to the “small, wizened dwarf” he calls “Cousin” (113), and he wonders if the King’s insecurity contributes to a greater aloofness.

Juan is freed in the King’s presence and later seeks his blessing before returning to Seville. In marking Diego’s Las Meninas, the King and Juan share a moment of intimacy, paying tribute to a man that they both admired.

Juan first notices Miri at a ball that the King has organized in Rubens’s honor. Miri is enslaved by a woman in Rubens’s set, and she performs at the ball for the company’s pleasure. Like Juan, Miri appears to be mixed-race, and Juan compliments her “pale and dainty complexion” (69). Though Juan never speaks to Miri, he falls in love with her, impressed by her beauty and deep sorrow. Miri is prone to seizures, and she often collapses suddenly. As Juan witnesses, Miri worries that her enslaver will sell her despite their affectionate relationship. Miri offers insight into the deeper tragedy of enslavement, and her anxiety prompts Juan to similarly wonder if he will someday be sold at his enslaver’s whim. 

Juan meets Lolis after he returns from his second trip to Italy. Lolis, as she explains, was enslaved by the Duchess of Mancera and was purchased by Juana after the Duchess’s death. Lolis tends to the kitchen while also caring for Juana as she struggles through illness. Though Juan is initially wary of Lolis, they eventually grow close and share stories over meals. Juan compares Lolis and Miri’s physical features, suggesting their opposition. Lolis is “full-bodied, strong-boned,” whereas Miri had been “delicate, elongated, slender” (148). Similarly, Lolis is “proud and hot-tempered” (148), and she frequently vents her frustrations. Though Miri and Lolis are apparently dissimilar, both are all too familiar with being enslaved and sold, and their common precarity forces Juan to examine his relationship with The Impermanence of Home.

Whereas Juan finds purpose in his servitude, Lolis resents its restraints, and she declines Juan’s marriage proposal on account of her enslavement; she refuses to bear children who will be enslaved. Juana grants Lolis her freedom, and the Velázquez family attends Lolis and Juan’s wedding. Lolis admits that she “hated being owned” but grew to appreciate Juana’s kindness (161). Together, she and Juan move back to Seville, and she supports Juan as they prepare for their future.

Francisca, or “Paquita,” is the eldest of Diego’s two daughters. Paquita lives with her parents and Juan in their home in Madrid. Paquita and Juan enjoy an especially close relationship. Like Juan, Paquita harbors a tenderness for small creatures and similarly connects with plants. Her characteristic “enthusiasm and pretty ways” frequently disarm her opponents (97), as when she convinces Juan to carry love notes between herself and Juan Bautista. Indeed, though Juan often attends Paquita as her protector, he admits that he can “deny her nothing” (98). 

Though almost married off to relatives in Portugal, Paquita eventually courts and marries Juan Bautista, her father’s apprentice. Diego immortalizes Paquita in a painting, including the small red flower that she passed to Juan Bautista in courtship. After their marriage, Paquita and Juan Bautista live separately from the rest of the family, and Juan Bautista establishes his own studio. Together, they have several children, though Paquita struggles through pregnancy. To Juan, Paquita’s memory is a double-edged sword, provoking recollections of both joy and grief and emphasizing The Impermanence of Home. Like her small red flower, Paquita is the epitome of all things “lively and merry and gay” (104), and her affection convinces Juan that he belongs. However, Paquita does not survive the novel’s end, dying as she births her third child. 

With Paquita, de Treviño develops an interplay between privilege and affection, careful to note that Paquita exerts her charm to sway Juan to her cause. In many ways, Paquita and Juan’s character arcs overlap: Both are painted by Diego, worry that they might be “sold” to distant relations, and must obtain Diego’s permission to marry. As a woman and an enslaved man, they develop an almost sibling-like relationship, alike in their vulnerability. However, Paquita is free and white, and her social standing will always obscure a deeper sympathy. Notably, when Diego dies, Paquita’s heirs are legally entitled to his effects. Juan, on the other hand, must drift back to Seville.