The narrator of the poem, representing the author in his youth. He grows up in the border town of Nogales, regularly attending weekend movies. Sitting in theaters thick with cigarette smoke, he observes how the physical environment interacts with the projector's light. He actively notices sensory details like the taste of popcorn, the feeling of gum on the floor, and the way the smoke acts as an early screen, allowing the audience to see what happens in the film before it reaches the main wall.

A relative of the speaker who attends the Saturday night movie screenings in Nogales. Through the distorting waver of cigarette smoke in the theater, her physical features blur and soften. This visual trick makes her resemble the famous Mexican movie stars on the screen, specifically anchoring the speaker's sense of familial identity to the images on film.

Another family member present during the weekend movie outings. The thick theater smoke alters his appearance in the projector's light. To the speaker, this distortion makes him look like the celebrated actors of the era, erasing the boundary between ordinary relatives and on-screen heroes.

A prominent actor from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, known for starring in films like the 1946 hit Enamorada. Her image catches in the smoke-filled air of the theater before it reaches the screen, creating a ghostly, delayed double. The atmospheric distortion bends her features until she resembles ordinary women sitting in the audience, bringing her down to earth.

A famous Mexican movie star appearing in the black-and-white films shown on Saturday nights. Like his co-stars in Enamorada, his projected face wavers in the mist of the audience's cigarettes. Through this physical distortion, he takes on the familiar appearance of the speaker's uncle, blurring the boundaries between celebrity and ordinary people.