Henna Claremont-Diaz

"It had gotten so bad that they needed to cut your life support, but I had to stop them by studying hard to be a scholar student so they wouldn't need to pay my fees anymore. We didn't tell you because you were already dealing with too much. Now tell me, how's that for a selfish jerk?" -**Henna** to Maze, *Chapter 4*

## Biolographical Information

### Full Name

Ximena Miravelez Claremont-Diaz
Ximena Espinoza (née Claremont-Diaz)

### Alias(es)

Ena/(Pinky Little Perfect) Miss President/The Great Henna/Selfish Jerk
 (by Maze)
Older Diaz (by Jacinta)
Diaz/Angel (of Righteousness) (by Danilo)
Mom (by Danzel and Xavian)

### Occupation

Senior student at Complutense University of Madrid
Forensic scientist in the Madrid Police Department (in 2046)

## Relationships

### Family

Raphael Diaz (biological father)
Samuel Claremont-Diaz (father)
Agatha Miravelez † (surrogate mother)
Juliette Espinoza (mother-in-law)
Unnamed father-in-law †
Denzel Espinoza (sister-in-law)
Maze Montréal  (adoptive younger sister)
Danilo Espinoza (husband)
Danzel Espinoza (daughter)
Xavian Espinoza (son)

### Friend(s)

Maze Claremont-Diaz
Danilo Espinoza
Kimahri †
Jacinta Alejandro †

### Enemies

Natalia Montréal †
Danilo Espinoza (formerly)

## Production Information

### Inspiration(s)

Pauline Sui
Kath Aguinaldo
Indirah Alnazar
Tadashi Hamada
Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar

**Ximena "Henna" Espinoza** (née **Claremont-Diaz**) is one of the three central characters of STRAY and a member of the STR4YS, being Maze Montréal's best friend. She is the only daughter of **Dr. Raphael Diaz**, and his husband, **Dr. Samuel Claremont-Diaz**- **Agatha Miravelez**, the doctors' best friend, is Henna's surrogate mother. Henna is the president of the student council and attends the Complutense University of Madrid with Maze, and is a classmate of Danilo Espinoza who eventually becomes their friend. In the flash forward to 2046, she marries Danilo and becomes the mother of Danzel and Xavian.

**Pauline Sui**, along with writer **Kath Aguinaldo** who is the inspiration for Léa Navarro from *Beyond Worlds* and Indirah Alnazar from *The Arcana* are the inspirations for Henna.

## **THE ANGEL ARC**

#### **AGATHA AND THE STORM**

**Agatha Miravelez** is the best friend of **Raphael** and **Samuel** and was offered to be the surrogate mother of their child when the doctors got married. Henna was biologically born to Raphael and Agatha on June 30th, 2004, although Henna was only 7 years old when Agatha died from an accident, prompting her parents to practically lock her into their house which becomes the reason why Henna would take a liking to books.

Henna was left alone in their house while her parents are out finding survivors of the storm, and she becomes Avellana's "nurse", helping her parents take care of her while she was in a three-year coma. When Avellana wakes up, it was Henna who she befriends first and discovers she has an amnesia who could see ghosts. Avellana is then renamed Maze after being adopted by Raphael and Samuel.

#### **THE SCHOLARSHIP**

Raphael fails to save **Jacinta Alejandro** from an appendectomy malpractice causing Jacinta's family to sue him. He loses the case even with **Juliette Espinoza**- his lawyer and Danilo's mother- helping him. This, along with the amount of money they had placed to keep Maze alive for years, resulted in big financial problem. Henna, who was only around 11 at the time, decided to work harder to be a scholar student so they wouldn't need to pay for her fees.

## **PHYSICAL APPEARANCE**

Henna is a teenage girl of a slightly curvy build. She has long jet black hair that reaches her hips which she parts at the middle of her head, and she has her bangs chopped off where her eyebrows are. She has amber-colored eyes, and her height is at 5'2".

Her outfit consists of a cream-colored turtleneck sweater and dark goldenrod skirt with a brownish-yellow hem, accompanied by black tights. She has black knee-high wedge boots. Henna wears a heart-shaped locket around her neck with her loved ones' pictures in it.

## **RELATIONSHIPS**

#### **Maze Claremont-Diaz**

Maze is likely the most important person in Henna's life. She and Maze have become best friends during the time they are together ever since Maze woke up from her comatose, and had Henna take care of her. Henna is shown to be protective of Maze and keeps defending her whenever she was being bullied in school, and it was also shown that Maze does the same to Henna when Danilo asks her, "I'm guessing Diaz is raging in Lit?", to which Maze replies, "Ena's raging because our classmates are assholes". Though they appeared to be very different and has stark differences of interests, Henna still cares so much for Maze as she is the closest person to a sister, and treats her as one.

#### **Danilo Espinoza**

Danilo and Henna doesn't always see eye-to-eye. Danilo only confirms this when he tells Maze that "She [Henna] has a stick too far up her ass that you could see it when she yawns", and calling her the "Angel of Righteousness" because of how much Henna abides by the rules. They eventually work their differences out and had a moment to themselves in *Chapter 4* and in *Chapter 6* when Danilo confesses to Henna that he likes her, and that she would've agreed to go out with him. In the *Epilogue*, Maze mentions that Henna and Danilo begin dating and got married before having Danzel and Xavian Espinoza in their lives.

#### **Danzel and Xavian Espinoza**

As Henna and Danilo's children, Danzel and Xavian are their spitting image, only with different personalities; Henna's and Xavian are a little more cautious about what they say and do, and Danilo and Danzel on the other hand are risk-takers and reckless with their ways. Henna loves both of her children and cares for them, even telling Maze that she shouldn't let the children skip classes as their education is important. Danzel and Xavian is also shown to be playful around their parents and annoy them by bickering, indicating a close relationship with them.

## **TRIVIAS**

* Henna's last names, Claremont-Diaz, is a reference to one of **Kath Aguinaldo**'s favorite books, *Red, White, and Royal Blue* by Casey McQuinston, where one of the main characters' name is *Alex Claremont-Diaz*.
* As per Kath's characters following the tradition of having names that are hard to pronounce, "Henna" is only a nickname to her full first name, *Ximena*, which is pronounced "HEE-meh-nah".
* Out of all Kath's characters in previous stories, Henna is:
	+ the first to have an ambition of being a doctor.
	+ the third character to be an older sister (**Léa Navarro** from Beyond Worlds is first, being an older sister to both **Oliver** (BW) and **Red Ordonia** (Azul), and **Indirah Alnazar** from The Arcana is the second, with **Izaiah** as her younger brother).
	+ the third character to have two fathers, the first is **Anna Min-Sinclair** from After Solstice and the second is Léa Navarro from Beyond Worlds.
		- Henna and Anna's fathers are couples unlike Léa's.
		- Unlike Anna and Léa, Henna doesn't have an issue with either of her parents, including her surrogate mother, **Agatha Miravelez**.

* She and Maze are the second pair of Kath and **Belle Bello**'s characters to be siblings- the first is Beyond Worlds' Red Ordonia and Léa Navarro.
* Agatha, Henna's surrogate mother, has "Berry" as a nickname for her, and it's also what Danilo called Danzel in the *Epilogue* when he tells her, "Berry, the station might be crawling with trained police officers, but this is still a dangerous place".
* It was pointed out by readers that Henna has the same color palette as Karmi from Big Hero 6: The Series. They even have a few similarities, along with Kath Aguinaldo herself:
	+ They're both wearing a cream-colored turtleneck sweatshirts.
	+ They both have dark brown hair.
	+ They both like books.
	+ They're both fond of Science and considers it the subject they're good at.
		- It was confirmed by Henna herself that she's good with Science more than anything else, stating to Maze in the *Epilogue* that, "Zave is self-taught about all things Literature, so unless they utter a word about Science, they both got Danilo's genes". This means that supposedly, Danzel is smarter in Science than Xavian.
* **Parker Trinh**, one of the writers, stated that between Henna and Danilo, Henna might be the more uptight parent, although it's a close match since Danilo could be overprotective because of his detective status.
* In one of the drafts for STRAY, Henna owns a red yo-yo she usually struggles to play with and had it named "Ladybug".
	+ *Ladybug* is the name of the superhero alter-ego of Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, and Ladybug's secondary weapon is a red yo-yo with black spots.
* Henna was originally planned to not have any accessories and her heart locket was only a last minute addition that became essential for the plot.