In the first scene of La Senora's appearance we see her " stirring the air with the flutter of her nylon negligee and the scent of overpowering perfume- (Allende 117). I as a reader know that Huberto does care about Eva and he obviously trusts La Senora, but why does he consider La Senora's place the safest harbor for Eva considering the nature of La Senora's business? I think that the answer is in La Senora's personality that has not suffered from the needs of her establishment and life style. Allende mentions that regardless of La Senora's somewhat ridiculous attire and make-up, " the charm of her smile- was not spoilt (117).
La Senora is a woman in her late thirties, but the principles that hold her life together are a little nave and not far stretching: " no one is born pretty - and she continues " if you are pretty, all your troubles are over- (118). What I like about La Senora in this particular instance is that she lives according to such principles not because of her narrow-mindedness. Many years before Eva met La Senora, the latter faced a need to analyze various possibilities to succeed in life, and she " concluded she lacked the patience to earn a living through respectable means- (123). Here we see a person consciously volunteering to take on "unrespectable- means of making a living, but still trying to remain a respectable person. .
La Senora's occupations swing from massage therapist to the attempt of mass production of "bizarre devices- like "never- fail breast with candy nipple- and the like (123-124). But as Allende wittily remarks " she was ahead of her time- (124). Her commercial attempts were stamped as untraditional, and La Senora turned to the industry with traditions going back to the dawn of mankind - she started an upscale ladies escort service by catalog. Commercial magnates and the biggest political figures were on the list of her regular customers, as La Senora says with delight " there is enough corruption for everyone-(124).
