Five Things About Rafael Castellanos

Actor Jay Hernandez is Rafael Castellanos. A cosmopolitan, refined face, someone you can credibly believe is a gifted artist and a “Frontier knight in shining armour” as far as Elanor is concerned. Let down very badly by one spoiled, clueless (if charming) male, in Eustace, she is “rescued” from social disgrace by the sophisticated outsider.

Five things you might not know about Rafael.

1. Like truly monogamous birds – from bald eagles to black vultures – which mate for life, Rafael is irremediably broken by Elanora’s death, so much so that he is not even really emotionally available for his remaining child, Graysie.  She grows up providing him with more comfort and succour than he does for her.
2. He also does not have the backbone to stand up to the demands of his second wife, who is toxically jealous of Elanora, Graysie, and anything that preceded her involvement in his life.  That way lies misery, as he discovers.
3. Rafael was a highly gifted photographer who was inventive and energetic in finding subjects to shoot and experimenting with new techniques.  After Elanora’s death his darkroom was the only place he found solace.
4. He never gave up hope of finding his twins – though he never spoke of them – and would have been amazed and delighted to know how their lives turned out.
5. Will the portrait that Rafael took of Elanora in New York right at the beginning of their courtship – the one her father insulted him over and forbad being publicly displayed – ever be located?  Time – and a few more books – may tell….