Gloria Mendoza is an inmate at Litchfield and the head of the prison kitchen, after she took over when Red was forced to leave. Before being arrested, she had a bodega and ran food stamp scams. In the back, she ran a mystic shop. She suffered an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Arturo, forgiving him for hitting her but then deciding she had to leave when he hit her son. She tried to use the money from her food stamp scams to run away with her kids, worried that Arturo would kill them all. However, she wasn't able to leave before being stopped by the cops, after an unsatisfied customer from her mystic shop informed them of her food stamp scams. She immediately handled the responsibility of raising her 4 kids over to Tia, so they would be in good hands. Later, Arturo returns for the stolen money but is burned to death after he knocks over the candles in the back room and is unable to escape the locked room.She is the unofficial head of the Spanish Harlem , doing things like organizing domino games, making sure everyone gets a good job in the kitchen when she takes over, and giving advice. She is famous for performing Santeria spells for them as well. She doesn't want to make enemies, but will hold her ground if threatened. She can be very compassionate, like when she forgave Arturo for his abusive nature, but will not hesitate to fight back when she feels is necessary.When Red tries to discourage her when she takes over the kitchen by starting a grease fire, she begins to starve out Red. When she sees Norma trying to grind up apple seeds to poison Vee, she instead helps her to performs a Santeria spell, having fallen for Vee's charms earlier.Gloria begins to do more and more Santeria spells in the third season, occasionally doing them for someone outside of the Spanish Harlem. This inspires Norma to start her own healing methods, as Gloria had almost taken her under her wing at the end of the second season. After her kids move back into town, Gloria is happy to start seeing them again but doesn't see her son Benny at the Mother's Day party. She learns from her other son that he was suspended for skipping school, and decides that she needs to help him and have him come to visitation. She calls on Red for help driving her son to visitation, but after learning of Red's trouble with her husband, instead asks Sophia, who agrees. She tries to help her son with his homework during visitation, having been given a ride by Sophia's wife and son. Her son, however, is very reluctant to change and seems to harbor some resentment towards his mother for being in jail. This makes her very frustrated. When returning to the kitchen after being in visitation for only an hour, she discovers that Maritza cut the tip of her pinky off, further underwhelming her. When she is confronted by Caputo about the matter, she quits her kitchen position, allowing Red to step in as the head once again. Show less «