In Claudia Piñeiro’s Widows on Thursdays, the gated community of The Cascades have almost unanimously elevated money into the position of religion, and thus, they have constructed a new morality based on capital gain. Tano begins the movie preaching to the other husbands about the role of money as religion — in an incredibly ironic moment, he says that they must have faith in money. To some extent, everyone that lives in this gated community has subscribed to this religion because if they had not, they would not be here — clearly demonstrated by Ronnie and Mavi’s family departure at the end. Tano banks on the death of others to take their life insurance, and he is unabashed and even proud of this scheme. He explicitly expresses his belief that he cannot be doing the wrong thing because he is only doing what he has to do to achieve success. Morally, the religion of money does not subscribe to the good and bad of ethical norms, good and bad is in relation to earning and losing. In all fairness, Tano is not a hypocrite. While he banks on the death of others, he also understands the value of his own death. Him and the other husbands’ suicides demonstrates the extent of how much these people truly do believe in the religion of money. They genuinely believe morally that their death is for some greater good, that their death is spiritual as it relates to their religion. Money has truly become God, and they are willing to kill themselves in service of this god. 

The most bleak part of the movie is that Tano was right — his and his associates’ death do help propagate the lives of their wives. In a way, Tano’s death has illuminated the fact that Tano and Teresa are alike in ways — this is exactly what Tano would have wanted Teresa to do. In death, Tano and Teresa are truly partners in this crime.