Santiago
Santiago is a man in his late fifties who owns a cigar factory in Ybor City, Tampa with his wife Ofelia. As we see from the play's opening, Santiago has a problem with gambling that has driven a physical and emotional wedge between him and his wife. This leads his wife to become a sort of de facto owner for the factory, despite the fact that Cheché has won many shares of the factory from Santiago in a bet. He is also the father to Marela and Conchita, and though his family members dislike his gambling and failure to take responsibility for the factory, they find an ally in him insofar as he advocates for the lector tradition and seeks to expand their business by introducing a new Anna Karenina line of cigars.
Ofelia
Ofelia is the powerful wife of Santiago, and she spends a great deal of time reviling him for all of the problems that he brings upon himself (drunkenness, excessive gambling). Nonetheless, she is not at all a stern woman, but rather someone who enjoys fantasizing about a better life and indulging in romantic daydreaming. Eventually, through the words of Juan Julian and her interest in Anna Karenina, Ofelia is able to reconcile with Santiago at the end of the first act, happily rejoicing with him at the potential success of the Anna Karenina cigar line.
Conchita
Conchita is the elder daughter of Santiago and Ofelia, as well as the sister to Marela. She is married to Palomo, but she doesn't really spend much alone time with him outside of the factory, where they both work as cigar rollers. Though they dream of one day opening their own shop together, their marriage is put on the rocks by two main events. The first is Palomo's pursuit of another woman during their marriage, as well as his refusal to talk to Conchita about this affair. The second is Conchita's eventual affair with Juan Julian, the romantic lector of the factory who teaches Conchita to love again and to live authentically as the self she aspires to. This love triangle parallels the love triangle of Anna Karenina, Anna's husband, and Vronsky, and it also has a tragic end, with Juan Julian being killed by Cheché. By the play's end, however, Juan Julian's intrusion into her life has shaped her into a more independent woman, and she is able to reconcile with Palomo through the lessons taught to her by both literature and Juan Julian himself.
Juan Julian
Juan Julian is a young and handsome lector from Cuba that is hired to work for the factory, against the wishes of Cheché. Unmarried, Juan Julian begins to have an affair with Conchita, and this—along with his choice to read the romantic and complex novel Anna Karenina at the factory for his debut—inspires a great degree of personal and interpersonal discord among the factory's workers. While Juan Julian involves himself with Conchita and teaches her how to love herself and others in a new way, and while he enraptures the workers in general with his beautiful words and reading, he also captures the heart of the young Marela. When Marela then rejects Cheché's advances out of both hatred for Cheché and love for Juan Julian, Cheché shoots Juan Julian and kills him.
Marela
Marela is the younger daughter of Santiago and Ofelia, and the younger sister of Conchita. She is shown throughout the play to be totally consumed by her romantic fantasies—wetting herself when Juan Julian first arrives, keeping a collage of Russian paraphernalia at her work desk, and dreaming of cold Russian winters—as well as a certain youthful naïveté. She is in love with Juan Julian, but he only discusses her beauty with her in a perfunctory manner, without indulging her too deeply. Cheché, her father's half-brother, makes several advances on her, but she always refuses, leading him to kill Juan Julian in a rage. When Marela's father attempts to launch a new cigarette line, he places Marela at the center, dressing her up as Anna Karenina (even though she is closer to the character of Kitty from the novel).
Cheché
Cheché is Santiago's half brother, a man of dubious origins who showed up one day at the factory with a birth certificate claiming to be related to the old man. He is from the North, and since he differs from the others in this way (i.e., since the others come from Cuba, to the south of Florida), he is often set against the others in arguments. For example, he advocates for mechanization and firing lectors, while others see hand-rolling and lector-reading as the cornerstones of authentic cigar production. He also tries to wrest control of the factory away from Santiago after a bet gone wrong, but the headstrong Ofelia refuses him this. His wife, a Southern belle from Atlanta, left him for a different lector, so Cheché reviles all lectors and especially hates Juan Julian for the control he has over Marela and the other workers. His commandeering of Marela's affections in particular is what leads Cheché to eventually shoot him.
Palomo
Palomo is the husband of Conchita, as well as a worker at the cigar factory. Though the beginning of the play sees his marriage with Conchita growing stale, as well as his exposure for having an affair with another woman, he eventually learns to love Conchita again through the jealousy inspired in him by Juan Julian. Juan Julian's amorous instruction of Conchita helps their relationship as well, since Conchita's newly learned ways of loving allow Palomo to open himself up more fully and surrender himself to her. Thus, while Palomo is initially seen to dislike Juan Julian and vote against his presence in the factory, by the play's end, he has likely developed a new appreciation for the murdered lector, even taking up his task of reading the remainder of Anna Karenina at the play's end.
