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The question "What are the proper names of Charo, Biscuter, and Bromide in the Carvalho series?" by Clara Díaz Sánchez has made me curious to know why Vázquez Montalbán chose these three names for his characters. That of Charo is clear: as Clara says in her comment, Charo is a common diminutive of the name Rosario. The reason for the name Bromuro or Bromide can be read in the novel Tatuaje (Tattoo in the English translation):

      Carvalho le concedió una sonrisa ambigua al tiempo de ofrecerle el otro pie. El escaso pelo del Bromuro dejaba ver el lecho casposo del cuero cabelludo. El limpiabotas se ganaba la vida como correveidile o vendiendo barajas pornográficas o haciéndose el gracioso explicando el uso y abuso que los poderes ocultos hacen de los bromuros.
      –Le digo que ponen bromuro en todo lo que tragamos para que no la armemos y las mujeres puedan salir tranquilas a la calle. ¡Me da una pena! ¡Una pena tan grande! ¡Tantas como hay y lo poco que tenemos para darlas gusto!
     El Bromuro siempre tenía el éxito asegurado con el relato de la conspiración bromúrica y del desfase entre la realidad y su deseo. Durante veinte años había entretenido a la parroquia con su historia. Había empezado contándola como una muestra de ilustración, de participación en la sabiduría científica de la Humanidad. Hasta que descubrió un día que su historia divertía más que preocupaba, y la convirtió en la principal palanca de propinas. Esta vez Carvalho le metió quinientas pesetas en el bolsillo del chaleco y el Bromuro alzó el rostro para expresarle toda su sorpresa.

This is the translation by Nick Caistor, available on Internet Archive:

Carvalho gave him an ambivalent smile and lifted his other foot. Through the few remaining strands of hair, he could see the flakes of dandruff on Bromuro's skull. The shoeshine made his living as an informer, selling pornographic packs of cards or ingratiating himself by telling stories about how the occult powers used and abused bromides.
      'I tell you, they put bromide in everything we swallow, just so that we won't go crazy, so that women can walk in the street without fear. It makes me feel so bad! So bad! So many women and so little to satisfy them with!'
      Bromuro knew he was on to a sure thing with his talk of the bromide conspiracies and the distance between reality and desire. He had been entertaining the locals with his story for twenty years. He had started out using it as an example of his erudition, of how he knew all about the scientific progress of humanity. Then one day he discovered that people found what he was saying more amusing than troubling, and so he turned it into one of his main sources of tips. On this occasion, Carvalho slipped five hundred pesetas into the bootblack's waistcoat pocket. Bromuro lifted his head to show his surprise.

But I have no clue about the reason of the name Biscuter. Would anyone know how to explain it?

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The origin of Biscuter's name can be explained within two frames of reference: the so-called "Doylist" view (Vázquez Montalbán's own reasons) and the "Watsonian" (from the point of view of the characters themselves).

From the Doylist viewpoint, Vázquez Montalbán poured a lot of himself into the character of Pepe Carvolo - a Communist, Barcelona-loving gastronome, living in Catalonia but of Galician origin. Similarly the character of Biscuter was inspired by a real-life acquaintance of MVM.

From Blanco Chivite's 1992 work Manuel Vázquez Montalbán & Pepe Carvalho, Vázquez Montalbán is quoted as saying:

Era un chorizo que conocí en la cárcel de Lérida. Era el clásico choricillo de coches y motos de fines de semana y la gente en cachondeo le había puesto "Biscuter" que era el nombre de aquel coche utilitario tan ridículo.

which I would translate as:

He was a petty thief I met in the Lleida prison. He was the classic weekend car and motorcycle thief, and people, jokingly, had nicknamed him "Biscuter," which was the name of that ridiculous utility vehicle.

The "Biscuter" was a microcar used in Spain in the 1950s and 1960s. It was tiny, with just a 200 cc two-stroke engine and no reverse gear, its name being a play on the word "bi-scooter", that is, it was the size of two motorscooters. Its popularity was due to the low economic development of the time. As soon as better cars were available, the Biscuter fell rapidly out of use. As the Wikipedia article notes, "as ugly as a Biscuter" was a well-known phrase - the cars were ugly, noisy, and uncomfortable.

The 1957 Biscuter "Pegasin"

Like his real-life counterpart, the fictional Biscuter was also a car thief, and the car-based nickname harks back to that occupation. In addition when he is happy he makes engine noises with his mouth. La soledad del mánager, for example, has this description:

When he was happy, his lips sounded like an exhaust pipe at full throttle, and when he was unhappy, when he wanted to indicate that something had gone wrong, the brrrr… brrrr… turned into a sad, soulless pffff… pffff… pffff…

[translation by CDS]

However, from the Watsonian view, possibly the most important point is that the character is ugly. Again from La soledad del mánager he is described as:

Tiny, with a head like a baby delivered by forceps, comically bald with his skull covered in bristly blond hair, rosy cheeks on a floury face, thick, drooping pink lips, and eyes like boiled fish

Indeed, "as ugly as a Biscuter".

Making the connection between the name of the car and the character even more explicit, in comments Charo has noticed in the seventh Carvalho novel La Rosa de Alexandria ("The Rose of Alexandria") that Biscuter is described as "una zapatilla de aluminio", an aluminium running-shoe. The Biscuter car has indeed pressed from aluminium, and one of its many nicknames was "la zapatilla" in reference to its shape.

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    In fact, in La rosa de Alejandría I have found the following sentence: "Fue en aquella esquina también donde vio por primera vez a Luis Miguel Rodríguez de Montiel esperando a Encarna con un Biscuter que parecía una zapatilla de aluminio". Translated to English, it would more or less be: "It was on that same corner, too, where she first saw Luis Miguel Rodríguez de Montiel waiting for Encarna, accompanied by Biscuter, who looked like an aluminum sneaker." Would you like to add it to your answer? Commented 13 hours ago
  • @Charo Nice catch! I've now added a comment to this effect. Commented 9 hours ago

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