A Place Where the Sea Remembers

The central character in A Place Where the Sea Remembers is Remedios, the healer. She is a mystic in touch with the power of nature, much like a Wiccan or Pagan in Northern and Western European folklore. Remedios is a solitary figure who embodies the magic in the novel. She is a healer not in the medical sense but in the spiritual sense. She has the power of foresight, but she cannot control or manipulate the future. She may issue warnings—as she does with Marta when she advises her against making the trip to El Paso—but individuals must make their own choices. They are the ultimate arbiters of their own fates.

Remedios is deeply a part of the community of Santiago yet separate from it. She represents all the knowledge and wisdom of ancestors long gone, and there is a sense that she may be the last of her kind. After her passing, who will take up the mantle of la curandera, of the healer?

As la curandera, Remedios ties the characters to their ancestral roots. While the town of Santiago struggles with modern life (economically and technologically), Remedios is a bridge between the present and the past. She carries her magical totems; she invokes the four elements of earth, air, water, and fire; she casts spells and counterspells; and her spirit walks among the stars with her animal familiars.