~upd~: Benigna Escobedo

In an act of brutal retribution, she poisoned the children responsible for her son's death.

She concealed their remains within the orphanage’s coal shed, where they remained for decades.

Escobedo also pioneered what scholars now call While men negotiated contracts, she organized the cocinas económicas (economic kitchens), feeding thousands of strikers on a shoestring budget. She created informal schools inside migrant camps when children were excluded from public education, and she trained young women as para-legal volunteers to translate labor laws for non-English speaking workers. In doing so, she challenged the patriarchal structure of the movement itself, arguing that domestic labor—cooking, sewing, child-minding—was not a side note to politics, but its very foundation.

What makes Benigna a compelling character for a review is her motivation. She isn't evil for the sake of it; she is driven by the loss of her son, Tomás. However, her "revenge" against the other orphans is what transforms the film from a simple ghost story into a cycle of generational trauma. Critics at Bloody Disgusting highlight how her presence bridges the gap between the orphanage's dark history and Laura’s current-day nightmare.

She built bridges for people she would never meet, and walked across them herself to show the way. That is a legacy that does not erode with time.

As the film progresses, the horrifying reality of Benigna’s past comes to light. She was once a worker at the orphanage who kept her disfigured son, Tomás, hidden away in a nearby sea cave. After a cruel prank by other orphans led to Tomás's accidental drowning, Benigna’s grief curdled into a murderous rage.