Yunior
Many of the short stories are narrated by Yunior. The stories depict different moments from Yunior’s life, but it is clear that he was born in the Dominican Republic where he lives with his mother and brother until moving, at a later age, to the United States where his father has been working. In many of these works, Yunior struggles with family relations and forming healthy relationships with women.
Yunior looks up to his older brother, Rafa, even though Rafa often bullies him. In "Ysrael," Yunior and Rafa track down and torment Ysrael, who is ostracized from his community because of a physical deformity. When they move to the United States, they share friends and like playing baseball with them in the parking lot outside their apartment.
In "Fiesta, 1980," Yunior relates that he often gets carsick when riding in the family car, which creates tension between himself and Papi. Papi gets angry early in the story when Mami reveals that she had fed Yunior dinner. Yunior admits, "I should have reminded her not to feed me but I wasn't that sort of son" (25). Yunior also describes his fraught relationship with his father in "Fiesta, 1980": "I was the one who was always in trouble with my dad. It was like my God-given duty to piss him off, to do everything the way he hated. Our fights didn't bother me too much. I still wanted him to love me, something that never seemed strange or contradictory until years later, when he was out of our lives" (27).
Throughout Drown, Yunior struggles with his romantic relationships. In "Ysrael," he vicariously listens as Rafa describes his various sexual encounters with girls in the campo. In "Fiesta, 1980," the two girls he meets prefer Rafa over him, which he does not get upset about. He explains that he gets self-conscious when around them: "Sure, I liked girls but I was always too terrified to speak to them unless we were arguing or I was calling them stupidos, which was one of my favorite words that year" (33).
Rafa
Rafa is Yunior's older brother. He appears in several of the stories found in Drown. Because Rafa is older he has a better memory of Yunior and Rafa's father and better recalls their life in the Dominican Republic. Rafa is frequently characterized as aggressive. He consistently bullies Yunior and physically assaults Ysrael in "Ysrael." Despite this, Yunior looks up to his older brother, and looks upon him with a loving gaze. For example, he describes his brother's good looks when Rafa tells Yunior about the girls he would hook up with in the campo: "His hands were behind his head and his feet were crossed at the ankles. He was handsome and spoke out of the corner of his mouth" (6).
In "Fiesta, 1980," Yunior thinks about Rafa in conjunction to how they relate with their father. While Yunior is often in trouble with Papi, Rafa seems to slide by with minimal aggression directed in his direction from his father. Whenever Yunior is in trouble, Rafa ignores him. For example, he refuses to meet Yunior's gaze from the back seat of the car: "I glanced back at Rafa and he pretended like he didn't see me. That was the way he was, at school and at home. When I was in trouble, he didn't know me" (28).
Mami
Mami, or Virta, is Yunior and Rafa's mother. Throughout Drown, she is described as an incredibly gentle-hearted and caring mother, and it is clear that Yunior cares for her greatly. She often watches out for Yunior, who is picked on by Papi. When Yunior throws up in the family car in "Fiesta, 1980," for example, she stands with Yunior on the side of the highway as he brushes his teeth so he wouldn't feel alone.
When they are still living in the Dominican Republic, Mami works long hours at a chocolate factory. This causes her to send her sons to stay with their Tío Miguel in the campo during the summers when they are out of school. Yunior describes bathing with his mother while he is a child in "Aguantando": "She was a tiny woman and in the water closet she looked even smaller, her skin dark and her hair surprisingly straight and across her stomach and back the scars from the rocket attack she'd survived in 1965. None of the scars showed when she wore clothes, though if you embraced her you'd feel them hard under your wrist, against the soft part of your palm" (72). Rafa explains that men are often drawn to his mother in the Dominican Republic: "Mami might have been skinny, a bad thing on the Island, but she was smart and funny and that's hard to find anywhere. Men were drawn to her," (73).
In "Fiesta, 1980," Yunior notes how his mother's physical appearance has changed after living in the United States: "Mami looked really nice that day. The United States had finally put some meat on her; she was no longer the same flaca who had arrived here three years before. She had cut her hair short and was wearing tons of cheap-ass jewelry which on her didn't look too lousy. She smelled like herself, like the wind through a tree," (24). Later, he describes her voice in contrast to Papi's loud one: "you had to put cups to your ears to hear her" (33).
Papi
Papi, or Ramón, is Yunior and Rafa's father. For many years, he lives in New York while his family lives in the Dominican Republic. During this time, Yunior does not have a particularly close relationship with his father, as the only contact he has with him are the occasional letter and gift sent through the mail. He is not very affectionate to his family, and it is revealed in "Fiesta, 1980" that he has a Puerto Rican mistress. It is clear that he has a strong personality. Yunior describes Papi's voice as "loud and argumentative," which meant that "you didn't have to be anywhere near him to catch his drift" (33). Yunior describes his father as a "voracious reader" who "couldn't even go cheating without a paperback in his pocket" (36).
In "Fiesta, 1980," which is set after Yunior, Rafa, and Mami move to the United States, Yunior describes his father's physical appearance as he dresses himself for the party: "Papi marched into the living room with his towel around his waist, looking a lot smaller than he did when he was dressed. He had a few strands of hair around his nipples and a surly closed-mouth expression, like maybe he'd scalded his tongue or something" (25).
Papi physically disciplines his children, and all three of them fear him when they are young. When he gets angry at Yunior for eating before the party, Yunior calls him discipline "old-fashioned": "he expected your undivided attention when you were getting your ass whupped. You couldn't look him in the eye either—that wasn't allowed. Better to stare at his belly button, which was perfectly round and immaculate" (26).
Ysrael
Ysrael is a boy who lives in the campo. Yunior and Rafa track Ysrael down in the first story of the collection, "Ysrael." He has an infamous reputation in Ocoa and the surrounding areas because he has a physical deformity that was caused by a pig "eat[ing] his face off" and "skinn[ing] it like an orange" (7). He has developed a larger-than-life personality, and the townspeople treat him more like a mythical figure than a human being: "He was something to talk about, a name that sets kids to screaming, worse than el Cuco or la Vieja Calusa" (7).
In "No Face," we get a better look at Ysrael's character. He shows himself to be a gentle soul, who tries to keep to himself despite the fact that he is consistently tormented by those around him. He goes to school with the town priest, Father Lou, who teaches him to read and write as well as several English phrases for when he goes to North America for his surgery.
Ysrael is from Ocoa and has lived there his whole life. He likes wrestling. Physically, he is described as being about a foot taller than Yunior and Rafa and stocky. He dresses in American clothing which his father sends him from the United States. The year before "Ysrael" was set, he had gone to the United States to meet doctors about his deformity, and he is looking forward to returning in the following year so that they can perform a reconstructive surgery on his face. It is unclear as Drown progresses whether or not Ysrael is able to get that surgery, but Rafa tells Yunior at the end of "Ysrael" that he probably won't. In "No Face," the reader learns that Ysrael is actually headed to Canada and not the United States for his surgery.
Tío Miguel
Tío Miguel is Rafa and Yunior's uncle who lives in the campo (the countryside). Rafa and Yunior spend summers with him because their mom is too busy working at the chocolate factory to look after them. When the boys are staying with their uncle, he gives them chores, such as directing them to go to the colmado (marketplace) for a beer, "cho[p] wood from the smokehouse," and "[bring] water up from the river," ("Ysrael," 4).
Eventually, Tío Miguel migrates to the Bronx, and he and Tīa Yrma throw a housewarming party in "Fiesta, 1980." When the family arrives to the party, Yunior describes his uncle's appearance: "Tío Miguel was about seven feet tall and had his hair combed up and out, into a demi-fro" (30). He is described as a kind and jovial character who is truly excited to spend time with his extended family.
Tía Yrma
Tía Yrma is Tío Miguel's wife. She appears briefly in "Ysrael," but she is not named until the following story, "Fiesta, 1980." She is Mami's youngest sister. She is loving to Yunior, who is forbidden from eating by his father. Yunior notes that Tía doesn't "have any kids but I could tell she wanted them" (38). He then describes her as "the sort of relative who always remembered your birthday but who you only went to visit because you had to" (38). He describes Tía as looking "a ton like Mami; the two of them were both short and light-skinned," (39). However, what sets Tía apart from her sister is that she often smiles.
Madai
Madai is Yunior and Rafa's little sister, who is predominantly seen in the short story "Fiesta 1980." She was born after Mami, Rafa, and Yunior came to the United States, and Yunior reveals that "being around Papi all her life had turned her into major-league wuss" (26). She is clearly afraid of her father: "Anytime Papi raised his voice her lip would start trembling, like some specialized tuning fork" (26). Madai is a small baby, so she spends the entire car ride to the party asleep. Yunior looks upon his sister lovingly: "Madai was solidly asleep, but even with her face all wrinkled up and drooling she looked cute, her hair all separated into twists" (28).
La Muda
"La Muda" translates to "the mute girl" in English. This is a girl that had a sexual relationship with Rafa, as Yunior recounts in "Ysrael": "He'd done La Muda that way for almost a month before her parents heard about it and barred her from leaving the house forever" (5-6).
Chicho
Chicho works at the colmado in Ocoa. Rafa and Yunior approach him in "Ysrael" during their mission to see Ysrael's face. They exchange two empty bottles of Coca-Cola for loose change, which they use to hitch a ride on a minibus. Chicho is skeptical about handing Yunior and Rafa the change, but he does so anyway, because "business is business" (10). He later sells Yunior a pastry behind Rafa's back.
The Puerto Rican Woman
The Puerto Rican woman is Papi's mistress. She is never named in Drown, even though she appears in "Fiesta, 1980." Yunior describes her as having "dry papery hands" (35). When she helps Yunior clean up after he vomited on himself, she rubs him with a towel too aggressively, as if Yunior "was a bumper she was waxing" (35). He also notes that she is "very thin and had a cloud of brown hair rising above her narrow face and the sharpest blackest eyes you've ever seen" (35).
Lucero
Lucero is the narrator of the third story in Drown, "Aurora." He reveals that he physically abuses his girlfriend, Aurora, and that they have an incredibly toxic relationship. He and his best friend, Cut, are drug dealers. He describes their personalities as drug dealers as "reliable and easygoing" (51). Lucero, in particular, is "right with the kids," which is where they get much of their business (51). As he reminisces on his relationship with Aurora, Lucero considers himself "one of those guys who lives too much in the past" (54).
Lucero's name holds symbolic meaning within the story. As Aurora tells him, "you're named after a star" (47). In "From Locus Classicus to Locus Lumpen: Junot Díaz's 'Aurora,'" literary analyst Ana María Manzanas-Calvo explains the etymology of Lucero's name: "Lucero, from lux-lucis, light, means star in Spanish, and can refer to the morning or the evening star." In her analysis, she notes the contradiction that comes with Lucero's name: "as the story unfolds... it becomes clear that instead of bringing light, Lucero simply makes deliveries of weed and heroin to his customers."
Aurora
Aurora is Lucero's on-again-off-again girlfriend. During the events of the story, she is "barely seventeen" (53). She is characterized by a wandering spirit and placelessness, as she told Lucero, "You know me. Yo ando más que un perro (I wander more than a stray dog)" (49). Lucero describes her as "skinny like a twelve-year-old" (49). She is homeless, "living out of her bag... on cigarettes and dirty clothes," and she was released from juvie six months ago (49).
Like Lucero, Aurora's name holds symbolic weight. In "From Locus Classicus to Locus Lumpen: Junot Díaz's 'Aurora,'" Ana María Manzanas-Calvo argues that this Aurora is a modern version of the ancient Roman goddess, who was given the responsibility of bringing the dawn each morning. Manzanas-Calvo explains the differences between Díaz's Aurora and the one found in mythology: "Aurora abandons the unspecified space of myth and is relocated to the barrio. She becomes a drug addict who, like the goddess who salutes the new day, is homeless."
Cut
Cut is Lucero's best friend and roommate. He deals drugs with Lucero throughout "Aurora," the third story in Drown. He is not a fan of Aurora, Lucero's girlfriend. In the first scene of the story, when Lucero tells Aurora that Cut is sleeping, she says that sleeping is all he does. He has a girlfriend who has a son.
Abuelo
We are introduced to Yunior and Rafa's grandfather in "Aguantando," the fourth short story from Drown. Yunior explains that Abuelo was supposed to watch over Yunior and Rafa while Mami worked at the factory in Santo Domingo, but that instead "usually he was visiting with his friends or out with his trap" (72). His "trap" is a rat-trap which he obsessively works on.
Tía Miranda
Tía Miranda appears in "Aguantando." She lives in Boca Chica. Mami sends Yunior to go live with her for a few weeks whenever she is short on money. She is better off than Yunior's family. Yunior describes her neighborhood: "Tía Miranda had a nice block house, with a shingled roof and a tiled floor that her cats had trouble negotiating. She had a set of matching furniture and a television and faucets that worked. All her neighbors were administrators and hombres de negocios and you had to walk three blocks to find any sort of colmado. It was that sort of neighborhood" (75). She is not related to Yunior or Mami by blood, but she is Yunior's madrina (godmother). Yunior describes her physical appearance: "Tía was about fifty and rail-thin and couldn't put anything in her hair to make it forget itself; her perms never lasted more than a week before the enthusiasm of her kink returned" (75).
Tía Miranda has two kids named Yennifer and Bienvenido. She dotes on Yunior much more than she dotes on them when he is staying at her house.
Beto
Beto is Yunior's childhood friend. He appears in "Drown." He is currently a student in college and a gay man. The narrator remembers his intense desire to leave their town: "Beto was leaving for college at the end of the summer and delirious at the thought of it—he hated everything about the neighborhood" (91).
