Nostromo (or Giovanni Battista Fidanza)– a charismatic Italian seaman who has settled in Sulaco and established a reputation for leadership and daring; as an employee of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, he earns the unofficial title of the Capataz de Cargadores, or "head longshoreman"
Charles "don Carlos" Gould , a.k.a. "King of Sulaco"– an Englishman by ancestry and temperament, he is nevertheless a third generation Costaguanero; owner of the San Tomé Silver Mine, a bequest from his late father who was forced into ownership of the then derelict mine as repayment for many forced loans made to the corrupt government of Guzman Bento; the mine becomes his single-minded obsession
Mrs. "dona Emilia" Gould – the English-born wife of Charles Gould; an altruistic and refined woman of strong will but who ultimately finds herself second to the mine in her husband’s attentions
Dr. Monygham – a misanthropic and taciturn English doctor and long-time resident of Costaguana; rumors swirl about him regarding his past involvement in political plots
Martin Decoud – a Costaguanero who has spent much of his time in Paris and considers himself a European by temperament if not birth; he returns to Costaguana and becomes an outspoken journalist and editor of the progressive newspaper Porvenir ("The Future"); initially a cynic, he becomes the intellectual force behind the idea of independence for the Occidental Province of Costaguana; he is also in love with Antonia Avellanos
Don José Avellanos – the patriarch of one of the most prominent families of Sulaco and a close confident of Charles Gould; he suffered greatly under the dictatorship of Guzman Bento and now has complete allegiance to Gould
Antonia Avellanos – a highly educated and cosmopolitan daughter of Don José; held in awe by the other young women of Sulaco
Giorgio Viola – an exiled Italian revolutionary who once fought alongside Garibaldi but who is now a shopkeeper in Sulaco and the father of two daughters
Teresa Viola – the wife of Giorgio Viola
Linda Viola – the eldest daughter of Teresa and Giorgio; she is in love with Nostromo
Giselle Viola – the youngest daughter of Teresa and Giorgio
Captain Joseph "Fussy Joe" Mitchell – the English Superintendent of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company’s offices in Sulaco and supervisor of Nostromo
President don Vincente Ribiera – Costaguana’s first civilian head of state, who takes over after the overthrow of the tyrannical Guzman Bento; a member of the landed aristocracy; corpulent to the point of infirmity; highly respected abroad and full of good intentions, and many of the characters, including Charles Gould, placetheir hopes in his ability to bring democracy and stability to Costaguana
Guzman Bento – a former dictator of Costaguana whose death some years before the novel opens had ushered in a renewed period of political and economic instability; the period of his rule was a dark and bloody chapter in the history of Costaguana
General Montero – an early supporter of Ribiera; a self-made man from peasant stock; he manages to muster an army of supporters to eventually overthrow Ribiera
Pedro Montero – the younger brother of General Montero
Senor Hirsch – a Jewish fur trader who finds himself in Sulaco at the time of the political upheavals that comprise most of the novel
Colonel Sotillo – the commander of a military unit in Esmeralda, up the coast from Sulaco; he abandons the Ribiera regime and joins the uprising of General Montero and is the first to arrive in Sulaco after the fall of the Ribiera government; his loyalties, however, are soon consumed by a mad desire to get hold of the silver of the San Tomé Mine
Don Pepe – the manager of the San Tomé Silver Mine under Charles Gould; under Gould’s orders, he is prepared to blow up the mine rather than let if fall into the hands of the Montero forces
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