Dayanara "Daya" Diaz is a main character and an inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary. She is the daughter of former inmate Aleida Diaz. Daya is portrayed by Dascha Polanco.
Personality
Dayanara is mostly loquacious although she is a fierce protector of her family and is not afraid to stand up for herself. She does not speak Spanish, which draws the annoyance of Gloria. She enjoys drawing manga ever since she found a manga book in the trashcan at a young age. She proclaims the characters to be "more beautiful than Disney princesses".
Daya is shown to care deeply for her siblings - always cooking for them, disciplining them, and taking an interest in them and their activities. She attempts to reprimand Aleida for ignoring her children, but is often ignored. She is eventually welcomed among the Latina inmates and they often enjoy teasing her, much to her annoyance. She holds an idealistic view on love, unlike her mother.
In Season Two, she begins to feel guilty for framing Mendez as the father of her child and constantly flips between wanting Mendez to walk away free and not wanting to get Bennett into trouble.
She has a much shorter temper during her two pregnancy and is quicker to suffer impatience and irritation, which causes Bennett to compare her to her mother, much to Daya's displeasure.
Physical Appearance
Dayanara has dark brown eyes, thick lips and brown wavy hair with dyed blonde streaks. She is of average height and has a curvy figure.
Biography
For a list of episodes featuring Daya's flashbacks, see here.
Before Litchfield
Daya's father deserted her and her mother when she was two years old. As a child, Aleida sent Daya to a summer camp for inner city children. Upon arrival, Daya cried for her mother to let her come back home with her and begged Aleida not to leave her. The camp lasted a month, and Aleida told Daya she intended to use that month to party and cater to her own needs, although Aleida was actually trying to make a better life for Daya by sending her to camp and found it hard to leave her. When Aleida came to pick Daya up a month later, she saw that Daya was actually having a fun and enjoyable time, and had become close with a camp worker named Stacy who had helped Daya with her art. Aleida, upset that Daya did not miss her more, threw her artwork and crafts away when they returned home and manipulated Daya into not wanting to return to the camp next year.
Daya and Aleida's strained relationship continued into Daya's teenage years ("Tied to the Tracks"). Daya had two close friends, Paolo - whom she had known since first grade - and Claire. One afternoon, Claire confessed to Daya that she had feelings for Paolo and wanted a relationship with him. Daya was not troubled by this until, a short time later, Aleida returned from the local bodega (where Paolo worked) and told Daya that Paolo had asked about her. Concluding that this meant Paolo had a crush on Daya, Aleida encouraged Daya to pursue Paolo no matter what Claire might feel for him. Daya took her mother's advice and tried to kiss Paolo at a party. Paolo strongly rebuffed Daya, exclaiming he thought she knew he had feelings for Claire. In the aftermath of this incident, Daya seemingly lost both of her close friends - Claire being angry at her for trying to steal Paolo, and Paolo himself being too embarrassed to look at Daya - and blamed her mother for meddling in her life.
Throughout Daya's childhood, she was often left to watch over her four siblings while Aleida partied. After Aleida was sent to prison for taking the fall for Cesar's drug dealing, Daya assumed even more responsibility for her siblings. One time, they visited Aleida in prison, but Aleida took no interest in them or their lives, instead of asking if Cesar was cheating on her. She accused Daya of sleeping with him, which angered Daya. However, Daya later initiated a sexual relationship with Cesar in retaliation against her mother.
Daya after returning from a summer camp.
She, like her mother, was later sent to prison for drug-related charges (most likely for Cesar's drug operation) and arrives on the same day as Piper and Watson.
Season One
On her first day, she arrives to Litchfield along with Piper and Watson. Upon her arrival, she is slapped by her mother. Gloria Mendoza is assigned to be her mentor, but Daya is criticized by her for not being able to speak Spanish. Daya initially clashes with Maritza, who is Aleida's adopted daughter in prison. She is not fully welcomed into the group until she and Aleida agree to a truce. Daya threads her mother's eyebrows in exchange for being allowed to sit in on the games of dominoes.
Daya strikes up a romance with C.O. John Bennett which they must conduct in secrecy as relationships between inmates and C.O.s are forbidden. The two conduct their relationship by passing notes and drawings to each other and meet in a janitor's closet for sexual encounters. Daya discovers Bennett's prosthetic leg but assures him that his disability does not matter to her. Aleida discovers their relationship and tries to steal away Bennett as revenge for Daya's relationship with Cesar, but Bennett refuses Aleida's advances, much to Daya's relief. Daya eventually becomes pregnant and decides to keep the baby, which creates trouble for her and Bennett. If Bennett is revealed as the father, he would be imprisoned for rape as under the law, inmates are not able to give consent regardless of their willingness.
Bennett attempts to arrange for a furlough for Daya, which would give them a cover story for her pregnancy - they would explain that Daya has sex with someone outside of prison and thus Bennett would not be suspected as the father. However, Aleida points out that no one ever receives furlough and she works with Gloria and Red to a concoct another plan to explain Daya's pregnancy.
Eventually, they decide that Daya will seduce C.O. Mendez and collect evidence of the sex to claim Mendez raped her. This will provide a father for Daya's child and will oust Mendez and his drugs from Litchfield, which would benefit Red. Daya manages to interest Mendez by asking about his day but she fails to save the condom from their sexual encounter. Aleida, Gloria, Red, and Red's girls arrange it so Caputo walks in on Daya and Mendez having sex and their plan finally succeeds. Unfortunately, since Fig wants avoid any more scandal, Mendez only receives a suspension.
Season Two
Daya's pregnancy is still not common knowledge and she is helped by Gloria and Aleida, who compete to fill the motherly role in her life. She becomes irritated with Bennett for not taking responsibility as the father of her child. Daya also worries about the health of her child while she is in prison and Bennett attempts appease her by smuggling her in fresh foods. She and Bennett fight off and on throughout the season and she becomes angry at Bennett when he throws Maritza in the SHU for attempting to blackmail him.
Mendez continues to send letters to Daya, which makes Bennett uncomfortable. They make up by Valentine's Day although their reunion's happiness is short-lived when Mendez returns to Litchfield. Daya begins to have second thoughts about naming Mendez as the father of her baby, claiming that she wasn't thinking straight when Red and Aleida talked her into the plan and doesn't feel comfortable sending an innocent man to prison. Eventually, she reluctantly gives a statement to Fig and Caputo that states Mendez as the father of her child. Fig harshly tells her that she has ruined a man's life for encouraging his advances, which causes Daya to feel even more guilt. "In my neighborhood, real men stand up and claim their kids," she tells Bennett. Tired of Daya's fickleness, he asks her what she wants to do. "I don't know," she says. "But this doesn't feel good." When Mendez is arrested, he asks Daya to wait for him and proclaims his love for her. Daya tells Bennett that even though Mendez is a horrible person, at least he is not ashamed of her, which prompts Bennett to confess the truth to Caputo.
Daya also joins the staff of Piper's Prison Newsletter, "The Big House Bugle", as a cartoonist. She makes comics about the Litchfield staff, where she portrays them as animals, which many of the inmates and staff find funny.
Season Three
On season 3 Daya's pregnancy is now common knowledge and accepted. Everyone, aside from the other Latinas, thinks the baby belongs to Mendez. Bennett disappears after visiting Cesar, which causes a lot of distress for Daya, causing her to consider her options after Mendez's mother, Delia, offers to adopt the baby to keep the baby from turning out like Mendez. Delia comes and visits Dayanara to discuss the adoption. Daya informs her that Mendez is not the father after hearing that her own mother was trying to arrange monthly payments in exchange for the baby. Despite this, Delia is still interested in adopting the baby, wanting to raise a good, successful child to make up for how Mendez turned out. After Daya gives birth, Aleida lies to Delia, informing her that the baby was a boy and was stillborn, although the baby is alive and in fact a girl. She is sent to live with Aleida's partner Cesar. Shortly after, Cesar is arrested after a drug bust at his apartment. Daya's daughter is taken into Child Protective Services along with the other children in his care. At the end of Season Three, it is unknown what will happen to Daya's daughter, since Daya has approximately around 35 months left on her sentence, meaning her daughter will be nearly three years old when she is released from Litchfield.
After years of fighting and hatred, Aleida and Daya finally hug and share a meaningful moment of reconciliation on the beach of the lake ("Trust No Bitch").
Season Four
As of the end of Season Four, Daya's baby is still in foster care and Daya is still in prison. When Aleida is released early from prison, she promises to get her life together and get her and Daya's children back from CPS, though Daya is doubtful that Aleida can actually achieve this. After Aleida is released, Gloria steps up to be Daya's mother figure in prison. Gloria attempts to keep Daya from associating with Maria Ruiz's group, sensing that only trouble will come of it, but Daya ignores her, saying that she wants to hang out with people her own age, not people that only tell her what to do. After inheriting her mother's old nail kit, Daya begins to paint nail designs in Sophia's old salon, which Maria's group has now taken over.
At the end of Season Four, a prison-wide riot breaks out following the news of Caputo's decision regarding Poussey's death. When Humphrey draws his gun, Maritza pushed him, causing him to drop it, and Daya picks it up. She first points it toward the white supremacist girls before turning it on the guards. She has Humphrey kneel and, cheered on by her fellow inmates of all races, points it at his forehead. The season ends on a cliffhanger, with the end result of the standoff not shown.
Season Five
Gun in hand, Daya hesitates before shooting Humphrey and is visibly agitated at all of the yelling and chaos around her. Frustrated, she shoots first at the ceiling. Humphrey, in an attempt to garner Daya's sympathy, starts to speak to her in Spanish. This angers Daya even further (as she doesn't understand Spanish), and she shoots Humphrey in the leg. From that moment forward, Daya finds herself the unwitting leader of a full blown riot, although it is actually Maria calling most of the shots. Maria offers Daya multiple chances to hand her the gun - and therefore abdicate the leadership of the riot - but Daya refuses. Mere hours into the riot, however, Daya is knocked out and the gun is stolen, but she does not know by whom.
Propped up by the more zealous inmates, Daya continues by simply pretending she still has the gun, which she achieves by making a gun shape with her hand in her coat pocket. But, after Gloria is pantsed by Leanne and Angie as a prank and the gun falls out of her waistband, Daya realizes it was Gloria that stole it all along. (For Gloria's part, she was trying to prevent Daya from getting into any more trouble with it.) Angry and resentful at Gloria for trying to mother her, and wanting to escape the chaos indoors, Daya moves outside in the yard with Piper and Alex and a number of other inmates who are distancing themselves from the riot.
While in the yard, Daya tries to help beautify the prison with a mural on the garden shed, depicting a cartoon-ish CO Bennett. However, this respite from her role in starting the riot doesn't last long. After a TV interview with Judy King and Aleida, the media is alerted to the fact that a guard was shot by an inmate, leading to an impasse in the negotiations to end the standoff. Taystee, negotiating on behalf of the inmates, insists on amnesty for the rioters, but Natalie Figueroa, negotiating on behalf of MCC, refuses as long as the shooter remains at large. Confronted by Gloria and Aleida, Daya initially cannot come to grips with her own culpability in the shooting, but eventually realizes she has no choice but to own up to her actions.
Daya makes a final phone call to Delia Powell and confesses that Aleida lied about her baby being stillborn. Daya tells Delia the truth: that her daughter Armaria Diaz is alive and in foster care, and she wants Delia to adopt her and give her a normal life. Delia is taken aback but agrees. Before hanging up, Daya urges Delia to pronounce Armaria's name correctly, and to give her space (that Daya never felt she herself had) to live her own life. After arranging for her daughter's future, Daya turns herself in - enabling negotiations for everyone else's amnesty to go ahead.
Daya's fate at the end of Season 5 is unclear, but it is heavily implied that she is sent to Max with an extended sentence.
Relationships
Romantic
- John Bennett (former fiancé and father of her daughter)
- George Mendez (fake affair to frame Mendez as the father of her child)
- Cesar Velazquez (her mother's partner, slept with Daya at least once)
Friends
- Gloria Mendoza
- Maritza Ramos
- Marisol Gonzales
- Blanca Flores
- Maria Ruiz
- Piper Chapman
- Ouija
- Zirconia
- Ramona Pidge
- Alex Vause
- Lorna Morello
Enemies
Family
- Aleida Diaz (mother)
- Eva Diaz (sister)
- Christina Diaz (sister)
- Lucy Diaz (sister)
- Emiliano Diaz (brother)
- Armaria (daughter)
- Jazmina (first cousin once removed)
- Mama Lourdes (grandmother; mentioned)
- Cesar Velazquez (mother's partner, paternal figure)
- Unnamed Father (Estranged Father)
Trivia
- Teenage Dayanara in the Season Five flashbacks is portrayed by Dayanara's actress Dascha Polanco's real daughter.
- She is one of the several characters who appeared in all episodes of season they weren't credited as a regular.
Memorable Quotes
- "Fuck diamonds, I got spinach!"
- — Dayanara Diaz, Hugs Can Be Deceiving
- "I don't fuck dudes for Big Macs."
- — Dayanara Diaz, The Chickening
- "She wasn't gonna say nothing. You think she's trying to get my baby daddy locked up so he can't provide?"
- — to Bennett in Comic Sans
- "Fucking C.O's, y'all pieces of shit."
- — Dayanara Diaz, pointing a gun at Humphrey ("Toast Can't Never Be Bread Again")
Gallery
Season 1
Promotional Pictures
"I Wasn't Ready"
Season 2
Promotional Pictures
Others
