Christina Navarro

* Spirit
* Human
* Monster

**Spouses**

* Antonio Navarro (husband) †

**Children**

* Beatriz Navarro †
* Beatriz Navarro II †
* Lourdes Navarro †
* Carloita Navarro †
* Ernista Navarro †
* Angelica Navarro † (daughters)
* Unnamed son †

**Christina Navarro,** also known as **The Woman in the Book,** is the titular character of the 2021 animated series *Woman in the Book*. She was the first wife of Antonio Navarro, who abused her and forced her to have child after child until she had a son. With the aid of a hired curandera, Christina made it her life's work to write, print, and publish a book about what truly happened behind the walls of the family's hacienda. Christina eventually had a son, but after years of abuse at Antonio's hands, drowned the infant in the lake outside the hacienda. Antonio then drowned her in the bathtub, mixing pouring ink in the water to speed up her death. However, the curandera bound Christina's spirit to the Navarro family's history book.

In 2003, she was unwittingly released by Maria Navarro, and tried to force her to kill her infant son Daniel. She was stopped by Maria's husband, but killed him and Maria. Eighteen years later, Christina was released again by Maria's daughter Lily, and terrorized the hacienda once again. Christina's book was finally printed by Lily and and her older brother Ricardo, and upon knowing they would publish it, Christina's angered spirit was finally put to rest. However, her spirit does not seem to be at peace, as when a page with her picture on it is flipped three times, she gets closer and closer until she disappears.

She is voiced by Karen Furlong Arellano.

## Physical Appearance

### Human

As a human Christina was an adult Hispanic woman with long black hair tied back and dark-brown eyes. She wears a necklace similar to Lily's. In the pictures and flashback in "Poesía de Sangre", Christina wears a black shawl, a floor-length dress, and a rosary.

### Monster

Christina is a tall greenish-grey humanoid with a feminine figure, long bony arms, and a skull-like face with glowing eyes. She has long black hair and several horns the same color as her skin sprouting around her head like a crown. She wears a tattered grey shawl around her arms, and a black dress that is tattered and torn at the bottom. On her right hand, her index finger has been replaced with a long engraved blade similar to a pen or quill nib.

## Characteristics

In life, Christina appeared to be a gentle woman, and she very much enjoyed writing, often writing down the words she could never say to others in secret papers. She had a very strong will and refused to let her husband force her to keep silent, and devoted all her efforts to getting the truth about him to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, years of abuse and isolation wore down her psyche, and she eventually let herself cross the point of no return by murdering her own son.

As The Woman, Christina is very aggressive and enigmatic. She would isolate various people in the hacienda and put them on edge before cutting them with her nib. However, Christina's hatred of Antonio can cause her to forgo her typical hunting style. This is shown in "Secretos de los Muertos", where she suddenly appeared through the wall and slit Juana Salazar's throat after the latter said that from all accounts Antonio Navarro was a loving father. Due to this, it could be inferred that The Woman's violent nature could equate to Christina lashing out; now in death having the power to do what she wants without hindrance, whereas she had little power or agency in life.

## Background

Christina lived in rural Mexico during the late 1800s, and was married to famed book publisher Antonio Navarro. Antonio was extremely abusive to her, seeing her only as a means to further his family, and treated her horribly as a result. However, because Antonio wanted a son, he would kill all six daughters Christina bore him. Christina very much enjoyed writing, and Antonio confiscated and destroyed her writing supplies because he believed her "obsession" with writing was preventing her from bearing him a son. However, Christina began to stash papers away somewhere, eventually receiving some from a curandera hired by her husband, and began using her own blood as ink for her words. Upon learning that her husband was writing and publishing a book glorifying his family's history, Christina could not live with the lies being published and set to work secretly writing her own version of the book, which contained the truth about what happened to her daughters. Through the help of the curandera, she was able to make printing plates for the book and managed to get the entire book bound and printed. However, Antonio learned of her book and burned it, beating and berating her for publishing "lies" about him. On the floor, Christina cursed her husband, calling him an evil man and a monster. Though the first book was destroyed, Christina and the curandera hid the pages and printing plates in the secret dungeon in the event that they needed them later.

Eventually, after six daughters, Christina managed to bear Antonio a son, to which he was overjoyed. While the three of them were taking portraits for the family history book Antonio was creating, Christina took her son to the lake and drowned him. A furious Antonio drowned her in the bathtub, mixing ink into the water to make her die faster. However, The Curandera performed a spell that bound Christina's soul to the Navarro family history book, as well as a second enchantment that kept the book from being destroyed. When the ghost of Christina opened the book, she was sucked inside, and remained there for over a hundred years. Antonio later took a new wife and spread a rumor that Christina was went mad and killed herself. This would go on to be believed by the townspeople and future generations of the family until the truth was eventually discovered.

In 2003, Maria Navarro found the history book and opened it, causing Christina to wake up. She managed to shut the book and keep Christina inside, but was plagued by nightmares of herself drowning her son Daniel. In an attempt to calm her son down, Maria took him to the library and threw the book into the fire. However, the spell The Curandera put on the book protected it, and the book launched itself out of the fire and opened to a picture of Christina. Maria tried to turn the page, but Christina managed to possess her and forced her to take a dagger from the wall to murder her son.

## Woman in the Book (2021)

### El Libro

In 2003, Christina possessed Maria Navarro and attempted to force her to kill her infant son Daniel. However, Maria's husband Tomás found them in the hacienda library and tried to stop her, so Christina forced Maria to kill him instead. She then forced Maria to slit her throat, killing her as well. She attempted to break free of the book, but was stopped by Tomás and Maria's daughter Lily when she and her brother Ricardo found their parents' bodies.

In 2021, Christina is mentioned by Daniel Navarro when discussing the family with Lily. He tells Lily that Christina was rumored to have gone insane and committed suicide, which startles Lily into remembering her parents' deaths. When she goes into the hacienda library, Lily finds the family history book, which has been vandalized by Christina. When Lily and her siblings return to the hacienda, Lily goes to the library again and finds the book that The Woman is trapped in, opening it again and releasing her. The Woman emerges from the book after scaring Lily away, and her ink drips through the floor and into Lily's bathroom, where it possesses her and tries to make her choke herself.

### Seis Niñas Muertas

Christina's human self is featured in Lily's dream, where she is experiencing the birth of Christina's sixth daughter from Christina's perspective. After the birth of the baby, her husband is disgusted when he learns he us the father of yet another girl and berates Christina, calling her a waste of a woman before taking the infant out of the room, presumably to her death. Christina cries and reaches out for her baby while The Curandera insists to her that the extremely loud and healthy baby was stillborn.

In the present, Daniel is outside with Nena at the hacienda graveyard and sees Christina in one of the windows, but she is gone when he looks back. Christina then goes to Ricardo's room and starts to stalk him, dragging her knife across the back of his neck before chasing him down the hall to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Christina's presence appears to be causing the others to feel great emotional distress, with Nena saying that she doesn't want to live anymore. She intercepts him before he can reach the kitchen and cuts him across his throat before disappearing.

### Secretos de los Muertos

While the siblings are finishing up their estate paperwork, Ricardo shows Daniel and the estate lawyer, Juana Salazar, the family history book that Christina is bound in. He tries to convince his siblings to keep the hacienda so they can turn it into a haunted bed and breakfast, with Christina's supposed ghost being their main source of marketing. Lily is adamant that they sell, and accuses Ricardo of telling other people that their family is insane. Ricardo tries to convince her further, saying that Christina isn't really their family as she was Antonio's first wife and didn't give birth to their grandfather.

When Juana tells the siblings about their great-grandmother, Christina appears out of the wall and kills Juana after she calls Antonio "a kind and loving father". She chases the others out to the hacienda graveyard, specifically to the graves of her six daughters. Lily has another vision of the human Christina kneeling by the graves of her six daughters, crying and cursing Antonio. Antonio then appears and drags her by her hair into the hacienda, where he then locks her away in a secret dungeon. Christina screams at him for killing her children, and Antonio tells her to give him a son and he'll let the baby live. He then locks Christina in the dungeon as she sobs hysterically.

### El Foso y el Muro

After Lily's vision, Christina restrains Lily and drags her knife finger across her stomach before she disappears. As Nena and the siblings try to escape in Juana's car, Christina floods the car's engine with ink, causing it to explode. When they try to escape the hacienda on foot, she creates a tidal wave of ink to force them back to the house. As the inky water surrounds them, Christina rises from the water and Nena begins to shout at her, showing her rosary and ordering Christina to go back to the underworld. Christina then circles Nena, flooding her lungs and with ink until she drowns.

Daniel leads his siblings into the kitchen, where they find the table salt and use it to incapacitate The Woman. By the time she has got enough strength to follow them, they have barricaded themselves in the hacienda library using the salt as a protective barrier. Lily asks her what she wants and Christina screams at them, causing books to fly off the shelves. Suddenly, the books around them open and pages start to come out of them, flying at the siblings and giving them papercuts all over their bodies. Lily manages to look up and sees Christina disappear as the pages suddenly become lifeless again.

### Poesía de Sangre

After entering the secret dungeon, Lily, Ricardo and Daniel find Christina's diary entries under a loose tile, which Lily reads aloud as she has another vision. It is revealed that Christina very much enjoyed writing poetry, and Antonio confiscated and destroyed her writing supplies because he believed her "obsession" with writing was preventing her from bearing him a son. However, Christina began to stash papers away in the floorboards under her bed, eventually receiving some from The Curandera, and began using her own blood as ink for her writing.

### Quemando los Huesos

Lily has a vision of Christina going into the hacienda office and finding Antonio's history book in the process of being made. After she is ushered outside by The Curandera, she goes back to her room and deciding the title for her own book. After she wakes up and finds the printing plates, the siblings start to debate The Woman's identity and motivations. Lily speculates that The Woman could be their great-grandmother Viviana. After realizing that the skeleton in the dungeon was not Christina's, but The Curandera's, Daniel speculates that The Woman could be The Curandera.

After the siblings exit the dungeon with Christina's printing plates, Daniel takes the skeleton out of the dungeon and attempted to exorcise The Woman by cremating it. This only angers Christina, causing her to appear from the cieling, and she was further angered when Daniel tried to throw the history book in the fireplace. She dove into the fireplace and caused smoke to appear everywhere, and slit Daniel's throat in the ensuing chaos.

### La Tormenta

When Lily and Ricardo go out into the storm to retrieve Nena's body, The Woman appears and drags them over to the graves of her daughters. The siblings manage to escape, but Lily realizes that Christina and The Woman are the same person -- and she's keeping them in the hacienda because she want them to print her book. Ricardo laments that Christina's spirit became a monster, and Lily agrees, saying that she didn't deserve this fate after what she had suffered in life. As the siblings are getting the printing plates ready, Lily has a vision of Christina and The Curandera hiding the plates and the final pages of her book in the secret dungeon. Christina asks The Curandera to make sure the truth gets out if anything should happen to her, and The Curandera swears she won't let her down.

In the present, Christina sees Liam arrive at the hacienda and lets him pass through the gates.

### **Contracción**

Christina appears to Liam as he searches the hacienda for Lily. She then goes into the secret dungeon where Lily is hiding, and sees her cowering in fear. When Liam gets into the dungeon, Christina stands at the alter and pretends to be Lily, only to shriek and attack Liam so Lily can escape. As Liam chases Lily, Christina turns into a puddle of ink and starts to chase him as well. In a juxtaposed scene, Lily and Christina are beaten and berated by their husbands -- only for them to curse him back. Christina then appears behind Liam and grabs him, lifting him up in the air. As she prepares to slit his throat, Lily begs her to stop, telling her she doesn't need to kill anyone else and Lily will do whatever she wants. Christina stares at her, then drops Liam on the floor and shrieks again before turning into a puddle of ink.

### La Prensa Impresa

Lily has a brief vision of Christina getting her picture taken with Antonio and her newborn son. As Antonio gets his own picture taken, Christina takes her son to the lake and drowns him. In the present day, Christina causes a flood of ink to wash up against the house and causes an earthquake to get the siblings to hurry up. However, she stops when Lily asks her to.

In Lily's second vision, Christina is drowned by Antonio in the bathtub. She soon wakes back up as a spirit, and finds she is unable to speak to or touch The Curandera when she tries to get her attention. When Antonio confronts The Curandera, Christina is unable to stop him from approaching her or comfort The Curandera after she learns Christina was murdered. After Antonio throws the book in the fire, Christina tries to pick up the book, but her hands pass through it. In her frustration, she manages to levitate the book out of the fire and open it. As she opens it to a picture of herself, she screams as she is sucked into the book. As Lily has another contraction and worries about what they'll do to get Christina back in the book, Christina appears from the wall and pulls Lily into a puddle of ink.

### La Letra Pequeña

Christina materializes in the hacienda library after Ricardo enters looking for Lily. She becomes a puddle of ink on the floor, allowing him to enter the ink void and escape Liam. She then causes the siblings to reappear in the hacienda office so they can finish making the book, but Liam attacks them. The resulting confrontation causes Liam's arm to become stuck in the printing press, and Christina appears between him and Lily. She shrieks at Liam before possessing the printing press, causing it to activate and suck Liam inside. When the siblings finish printing and binding the book, Christina quickly reads through it before turning back to her old self. However, she refuses to let the siblings go until Lily realizes that she wants them to publish her book, not just print it, so the truth can be spread to the rest of the world. After the siblings agree to publish her book, Christina causes the hacienda to return to normal and slowly fades from the physical plane.

At least two weeks later, Christina's book is being sold in the newly-restored hacienda. However, it is implied that she has not truly left this world, as her likeness disappears from the photograph when the pages are turned three times.

## Powers and Abilities

### Skillset

* **Writing Abilities:** Christina was a skilled writer while she was alive.

### Unique Abilities

* **Melanokinesis:** Her primary superpower, Christina has the ability to create, shape, and manipulate ink.
	+ **Teleportation:** Christina is able to travel through a void of ink and appear in other places via creating puddles of ink and passing through them.
* **Possession:** Christina is able to control people by coating their bodies with ink. She is also able to possess inanimate objects, such as the printing press in "La Letra Pequeña".
* **Telekinesis:** She appears to possess some level of telekinesis, as she was able to make books fly off the shelves in the library by screaming.
* **Sonic Scream:** As a ghost, Christina is seemingly no longer able to speak. However, she is capable of emitting a shriek so loud that it can briefly stun humans that hear it.

### Weaknesses

* **Her Book:** Due to a spell cast by The Curandera, Christina's soul is bound to the Navarro family history book. She can not leave it unless it is opened. As of the season finale, Christina is now supposedly bound to the book she wrote.
* **Purified Salt:** Like other spirits, Christina is vulnerable to purified salt, which appears to harm her if it is thrown on her. If one stands inside a ring of salt, Christina will be unable to cross it to get to them.
* **Intangibility:** When Christina is herself and not appearing as The Woman, she is intangible. Thus, she is unable to directly touch things or speak to people in the physical plane. She can, however, combat this with her telekinesis.

## Relationships

### Antonio Navarro

Christina was Antonio's first wife. Antonio was violently abusive to Christina, seeing her only as a means to further his family's bloodline. He would destroy any of her hobbies, as he believed it kept her from having a son, and even called in a spiritual woman as a midwife to perform ceremonies that would ensure the baby was a boy. Eventually, he resorted to keeping Christina locked in a secret dungeon in the hacienda library while she was not pregnant to ensure that she would not be doing anything to keep her from having a son. After he murdered Christina and took a new wife, Antonio spread a rumor that Christina was driven mad and killed herself. This would go on to be believed by the townspeople and future generations of the family until 2021, where the truth was discovered by Lily Navarro.

Their interactions in "Secretos de los Muertos" and "Contracción" show that there is no love lost between the pair, as Christina believes him a madman and a murderer for what he had done to her and her daughters. Christina's animosity towards Antonio is showcased particularly in "Secretos de los Muertos", where she suddenly appeared through the wall and slit Juana Salazar's throat after the latter said that from all accounts Antonio Navarro was a loving father.

### The Curandera

Christina and The Curandera seemed had a kind and understanding relationship, similar to that of a mother and her daughter. The Curandera was Christina's sole confidante, not only keeping silent about Christina's secret writing, but aiding her in her craft by bringing her more paper after Antonio confiscated it. She even aided Christina in the printing and attempted publication of her book, and helped hide the drafts and printing plates in the secret dungeon. Due to her knowledge of the abuse Christina suffered, The Curandera was sympathetic towards her, and even reacted in horror after seeing Antonio hit her and was horrified to realize that Christina had killed her baby. After Christina died, she tried to make it so she would live on forever by binding her soul to the family's history book.

### Lily Navarro

When the siblings returned to the hacienda, Christina appeared the most fixated on Lily seemingly because she was about to have a baby boy. Though Christina made attempts on Lily's life, she also presumably provided her with visions of Christina's own past seemingly in an effort to try and get her to see the bigger picture. As The Woman's true identity began to unravel, Lily was the only one who was not convinced The Woman wanted to kill them for revenge or bloodlust, and maintained this belief in spite of evidence against her. She was also the first of the siblings to connect the dots that Christina and The Woman were the same person, and was the only one to address Christina by her name.

After Lily learned the truth about Christina, Christina became more protective of her. When she found Lily hiding from Liam, she began to protect her from him when he tried to attack her and even killed Liam after he was incapacitated by the printing press. Additionally, Christina would only behave rationally if Lily was the one speaking to her. In the end, it could be said that Lily and Christina are kindred spirits, and Christina paid more attention to Lily than the rest because she saw herself in her.

### Ricardo Navarro

At the beginning of the series, Christina terrorized Ricardo just as she had Lily. When Lily was unable to print the book due to her contractions, Christina recognized that Ricardo would not finish printing her book if he was focused on Lily, so she took her from him in a presumed effort to make him focus. When she realized that not knowing Lily was safe only hurt Ricardo more, she allowed him to rescue Lily before taking them back to the office.

### Daniel Navarro

When Daniel was an infant, Christina tried to force his mother to kill him, but was stopped by his father. While Christina did not attack Daniel while he was alone, she did become angry when eh used his knowledge of the supernatural to keep her at bay. When Daniel tried to stop her by burning the book, Christina became enraged and slit his throat.

### Maria Navarro

In 2003, Maria found the book Christina was trapped in and opened it, causing her soul to wake up once more. Maria began subsequently experiencing visions of herself drowning her son Daniel, and in spite of her husband assuring her everything was fine, she tried to burn the book. This angered Christina, and she possessed Maria and forced her to kill her husband, then herself.

### Liam

Christina has no interaction with Liam or knowledge that he exists until "La Tormenta", when he shows up at the hacienda looking for Lily. Perhaps thinking that he could help the siblings, Christina let Liam onto the grounds to see what he would do if he found Lily. When she learned of Liam's intentions, she turned on him, intervening when he nearly found Lily's hiding spot and attacking him while he was beating Lily in the hallway. When Liam broke into the office and caught his arm became caught in the printing press, Christina appeared and possessed the printing press, causing it to activate and pull Liam inside.

## Victims

### List of Victims

 **Liam** | Crushed in the printing press.

## Trivia

* Christina's story arc is similar to that of Jacquelyn Torne, another character in the Crypt Monster Universe. Both were shackled to abusive husbands and treated like slaves, and were both killed by their husbands for extremely-trivial things; Jacquelyn undercooking a pie and Christina for not having a son.
* Throughout the episodes, there are several instances of foreshadowing that Christina is The Woman in the Book:
	+ The Woman's right index finger is replaced with a pen nib. Christina writes with her right hand and used a single nib to write her poetry after her materials were confiscated.
	+ The Woman is trapped in the Navarro family history book, which had annotated notes of the truth about Antonio that were left by Christina.
	+ In "Secretos de los Muertos", The Woman appears and kills Juana after the latter says that Antonio Navarro was a good father.
	+ Additionally, Christina grabbed Juana by her hair before killing her. Antonio would repeatedly grab Christina by her hair to hold her in place while he abused her.
	+ The Woman forced people fleeing from her, the siblings and Nena in "Secretos de los Muertos" and Ricardo and Lily in "La Tormenta", to the gravestones of Christina Navarro's six daughters. To date, Christina and The Woman are the only ones to voluntarily visit these graves.
	+ The Woman attached to Maria and Lily Navarro, who respectively had a newborn son and was expecting a baby boy. Christina was forced to have children until she gave birth to a son.

## Gallery

View the gallery for Christina Navarro here.

## References

1. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 5, "Poesía de Sangre". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (July 2nd, 2021)
2. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 5, "Poesía de Sangre". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (July 2nd, 2021)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Woman in the Book*, Episode 5, "Poesía de Sangre". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (July 2nd, 2021)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Woman in the Book*, Episode 10, "La Letra Pequeña". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (August 6th, 2021)
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 *Woman in the Book*, Episode 3, "Secretos de los Muertos". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (June 18th, 2021)
6. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 1, "El LIbro". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (June 4th, 2021)
7. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 2, "Seis Niñas Muertas". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (June 11th, 2021)
8. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 4, "El Foso y el Muro". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (June 25th, 2021)
9. ↑ *Woman in the Book,* Episode 6, "Quemando los Huesos". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Moreno King, Jeanette (director) (July 9th, 2021)
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 *Woman in the Book*, Episode 7, "La Tormenta". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Jeanne, Jeanette (director) (July 16th, 2021)
11. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 8, "Contracción". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Jeanne, Jeanette (director) (July 23rd, 2021)
12. ↑ *Woman in the Book*, Episode 9, "La Prensa Impresa". Gonzalez Szigriszt, Eva and Garcia Rooney, Pamela (writers) & Jeanne, Jeanette (director) (July 30th, 2021)