Clara Montoya

Clara Montoya is the older sister of Josefina Montoya. Clara is careful, very practical, sensible, straightforward, and matter-of-fact with a flat, no-nonsense manner. This sometimes manifests as her being very pessimistic and cynical and not very childish, and openly doubting that things will go as hopefully or fancifully as her older sister Francisca and younger sister Josefina may think and disparaging their choices such as wanting toys and mirrors over something more practical like knitting needles. However, her attitude can be useful in situations when she is straightforward about topics that others talk around. She and Francisca have conflicting personalities (she thinks that Francisca dwells too much on her appearance, for example, and is neat and tidy where Francisca is messy) and the two consistently get in arguments with each other most often over small and petty things, especially after their mother's death. She does enjoy some playful things such as racing with Josefina and is free to be a little more childish, but cannot do things such as climb on the church roof to plaster mud with her feet like Josefina. Clara thinks the highest compliment she can pay anyone is that they are sensible and practical. However, she has moments of uncharacteristic emotion and impractically herself, in part because of her grief over her mother's loss. She does not think Christmas can be as good without Mama is devastated to see the damage to the altar cloth after water damage and mice have gotten to it due to the floods, and initially cannot bring herself to help with its restoration. She also lies about where Niña is to Josefina and clings to the doll is as she is still grieving her mother's loss and feels that the doll is all she has of her late mother, hence her not passing her on to Josefina at eight as the tradition had been for the girls. She shows talent in embroidery and is the best at doing colcha embroidery out of all her sisters, the latter of which helps her move past her mother's loss and see she does have something her mother gifted her--her skills with the needle. She is skilled and careful with her sewing, knitting, and embroidery in a way her sisters are not. Clara, like Josefina, is too young to be allowed to dance at or attend large parties at the start of the series or even sit inside the grand sala. By the end of the central series--while still too young to dance at age thirteen--Clara is now allowed to sit inside the grand sala and watch the other dancers.