Character Analysis
Eduviges (pronounced eh-doo-BEE-hays) is the ghostess hostess with the mostess. She's the lady who first receives Juan Preciado when he gets into Comala, and she is an important source of information for understanding what's going on. Other than that she's really a pretty passive character.
She has some wild sexcapades in her past (yow!) including sleeping with Pedro in the place of Juan's mom on her wedding night, and letting Miguel come into her window when he needed some lovin'. Even the night Miguel dies, she's summoned up to "keep Pedro company" (wink wink).
Eduviges is another one of the novel's failed mothers, like Dorotea. She claims that, since she slept with Pedro in place of Juan's mom, that she was "almost" his mom. And she does act pretty lovingly maternal toward him.
Everyone recognizes Eduviges as a stand-up sort of woman. Eduviges's sister tells the priest that:
(Eduviges) gave them everything she had. She even gave them sons. All of them. And took the infants to their fathers to be recognized. But none of them wanted to. Then she told them, "In that case, I'll be the father as well, even though fate chose me to be the mother." (16.5)
She and Dorotea as mothers are kind of like metaphors for the land of Comala, which isn't properly farmed and doesn't bear fruit. They are women who, for one reason or another, were abused. Instead of raising up the next generation strong and healthy, as they would have liked to, they have either imaginary children or children whose fathers abandon them.
Another important fact about Eduviges is that she committed suicide, and therefore wasn't pardoned by the priest. This explains why she still hangs around Comala taking in strangers, rather than being in heaven.