Irene is the first-person narrator and protagonist of the novel. She was given the name Joan at birth, named after her mother’s favorite singer, Joan Baez. Joan/Irene’s physical appearance is not described other than to suggest she resembles her mother, who was very beautiful with long black hair. After the explosion that they believe kills Diana, Joan lives with her grandmother, who gives her the identity of a friend’s deceased granddaughter, Irene. Her grandmother fears that she and Joan will be implicated in Diana’s involvement with a terrorist group, so she moves several times during Irene’s childhood and instructs her to keep her real identity a secret. Irene misses her mother and soothes herself by pretending to childhood friends that her mother is alive and is a famous singer, often away performing with other celebrities; this shows her imagination as well as her feelings of betrayal and abandonment, which surface when Diana eventually finds her.

This need for secrecy causes Irene to become reserved and wary as an adult: She keeps her past a secret even from Lenny, her husband. When Lenny dies, Irene retreats into grief. This self-containment continues when she arrives at La Llorona, and she confides in very few people.