Susana San Juan, Pedro Páramo, Damiana Cisneros, Pedro Rentería

 Susana San Juan
Color palette: shades of blue

One of the most beautiful passages in the novel illustrates the tenderness of Pedro's love for Susana: "Soft, bathed in moonlight; your mouth swollen, moistened, iridescent with stars; your body, showing though the dark waters of the night. Susana, Susana San Juan."

When Susana returns to Comala, her "aquamarine eyes," as Rulfo describes them, don't see—they drift lost in the depths of her delirium. Pedro's eyes, meanwhile, never get tired of watching her, but she doesn't recognize him, and his hope of finally living out their thwarted love begins to crumble.

She is installed in the most exquisite wing of the hacienda, in a room even more sumptuous than Miguel's, where the silky blue of her color palette predominates in the canopy surrounding her bed and in the curtains at doors and windows. The period furniture was upholstered in Gobelin tapestry flecked with blue, and beneath the bed lies a loom-woven rug in more neutral tones.

Susana San Juan

As she descends from the carriage upon arriving at La Media Luna, Susana wears a cotton batiste blouse with delicate embroidery at the collar and a blue wool skirt with soutache appliqués and hand-sewn buttons.

Pedro Páramo

His three-piece charro suit—jacket and pants in suede, vest in wool—reflects the hardening of his palette: it's growing dark, like his life. He wears a silk bow tie, cotton shirt, piteado belt, and charro boots, which he wears throughout the entire film and were handmade in Mexico City.

Damiana Cisneros

The peach of Damiana's palette in this outfit darkens toward copper tones, reflecting the beginning of the decline of Pedro and Comala. Her blouse, skirt, and sash are cotton, dyed in the costume workshop. Her shawl is the only piece woven on a colonial loom, and her leather sandals were handmade, like all the sandals worn by the townspeople.

Pedro Rentería

The priest serves power more than God. He symbolizes the deterioration of morality that places economic interest above faith. Despite loathing the Páramos, especially Miguel—the son who murdered his brother and raped his niece—he agrees, for a handful of coins, to celebrate the funeral mass after Miguel's death.

Here we see him in his traditional cassock of wool cloth, cotton shirt, and handmade shoes. His crucifix is silver, faithful to the design of the era.