# Don Rafael Malespina — Trafalgar character guide

> Don Rafael Malespina in Trafalgar by Benito Pérez Galdós.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Malespina, old Malespina, de Malespina, the Rafael, The luckless Malespina

**First appearance:** 0000-i

## Snapshot

A wounded young officer whose father's thunderous bragging drowns out the battle's grief, he is the anxious heart around which a whole Cádiz household pivots.

## Who they are

Don Rafael Malespina is the son whose survival at Trafalgar becomes the emotional hinge of the novel's domestic scenes, lying wounded aboard the Rayo while his father Don José María storms the deck with tall tales. His father's irrepressible vanity — claiming to have cured him, inventing heroic exploits — stands in comic contrast to Rafael's quiet, unglamorous suffering. The young man's fate, and the false report of his death that throws Cádiz into mourning, drives the early-middle arc's central tension between rumor and truth.

## In the story

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/v)

Old Malespina, father of the groom, described as tall, dry, voluble, vain, and untruthful.

### [The Secret Departure](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/vii)

The boastful and garrulous retired colonel of artillery who rides alongside the chaise, spinning extravagant tales of his military exploits and inventions.

### [XIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/xiv)

Don Rafael is discovered lying wounded in the cabin, with a serious injury to his right side, and is unable to move or speak easily.

### [XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/xv)

Wounded and resting in the captain's cabin, he is reunited with his father Don José and evacuated from the Rayo.

### [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/xvi)

The narrator inquires about old Malespina but no one knows his fate.

### [Chapter XVII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/chapters/xvii)

Don Rafael marries Rosita and sets up a house in Medina-Sidonia.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/characters/don_rafael_malespina
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/trafalgar_se/characters