A Place Where the Sea Remembers

Chapter 7 tells the story of Rafael Beltran, a second-grade teacher who lives alone with his mother in Santiago; his two older brothers have both moved away to big cities. Rafael has taught for 16 years and, at 41 years old, he feels life is passing him by. He has a fondness for the cultural stories of Mexico’s native Indians, and he is compiling a book of these collected tales. Every day Rafael comes home during the two-hour siesta period and eats lunch with his mother, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. One day he comes home to find his mother has hired Inés, a young Indian girl of Nahuatl descent, to help with cooking and serving. His mother is dismissive of Inés. She doesn’t pay her much, as “she’s just a little Indian girl” (69). Inés, however, is determined to become literate, and she asks Rafael to teach her how to read and write. He willingly agrees, despite his mother’s objections. Although his relationship with his mother is strained and he finds her classicism objectionable, he cannot seem to defy her.

One day he visits the poor neighborhood of El Cerro to check on an absent student named Beto Burgos. The boy’s mother explains that he’s out fishing with his father, César. Fishing is César’s livelihood, and by working with his father, Beto helps ensure the family’s income. Rafael sympathizes but feels compelled to assert the importance of education. He encourages the mother to send Beto back to school.

While speaking with Beto’s mother, Rafael notices Inés carrying buckets of water up a hill to her home. He sees an older man who he assumes is her father verbally abuse her, but he doesn’t intervene. One day, at lunch, Inés collapses on the floor, bleeding profusely. Esperanza, the town nurse, says she has had a miscarriage. Rafael’s mother accuses him of being the father but blames Inés, arguing that “Inditas like her, they take advantage” (81). Esperanza later informs Rafael that Inés’s abuser is in fact her husband, not her father. Esperanza cares for Inés until she is well enough to travel to Guadalajara, where the nurse has arranged for her stay with friends. As Inés prepares to board the bus, Rafael gives her his prized leather satchel that his mother gave to him on his first day as a teacher.

Chapter 8 recounts the tragic story of César Burgos, a fisherman and father to Beto, the absentee student of Rafael Beltran. César and Beto live alone after the death of César’s wife, Concha, and his two younger sons, Rodolfo and Reynaldo. Concha and the young boys were killed in a bus accident in the time between Chapters 7 and 8. Ever since, Beto has been sullen and uncommunicative despite César’s attempts to be both father and mother. César’s sister-in-law has offered to raise Beto with her family, and César has considered it, believing himself to be a failure as a parent.

One morning, as César and Beto are out fishing, César’s grief, which he has held in check since the accident, spills out and he weeps openly in front of his son. He suggests that Beto might be better off in the care of Concha’s sister, but Beto refuses.

They return home, and Beto takes out his seashell collection. He begins gluing the shells to the roadside shrine César is building for Concha and the boys. He has agonized over it, never able to choose the right color or ornamentation, but together, César and Beto decorate the shrine with shells and polished bits of glass. Then, they take a bus to Santiago to purchase paper flowers from Chayo. Chayo’s husband arranges for his neighbor Santo to drive César, Beto, and the shrine to the site of the bus accident. They set the shrine in place, and as Beto drapes Concha’s rebozo over the shrine, he confesses his feelings of guilt to his dead mother. Beto was supposed to be on the bus with his mother that day, but he chose to attend school instead. He feels guilt as the sole surviving son as well as feeling like a burden to his father. César embraces his son and tells him, “You are all I have in the world and I never want to lose you” (101).

Remedios sits by the sea. She watches its rhythms and cadences, and her spirit is revived. She muses on the stories she hears from the people of Santiago and how their griefs and aspirations take a toll on her. Her spirit flies over the water alongside the magpie, her animal familiar. She tastes the salt from the sea, which now listens to her story.

Chapter 10 is the story of Justo Flores, the Birdman. Justo is 70 years old and lives alone; his dog Yoyo and his three prized canaries are his only companions. The canaries are Justo’s sole source of income; they perform for tourists and the residents of Santiago. Justo, 10 years sober, has two daughters, Justina and Ernestina, both from his first marriage, but he is estranged from them. Justo harbors deep feelings of guilt and regret over his past relationship with his daughters.

One day Justo receives a telegram. He has negative associations with telegrams, as his mother received one when he was a child and somehow it led to grave misfortune. Justo cannot read the telegram—he is illiterate—so he visits his neighbor Luz, hoping she can read it for him. She is working, cleaning rooms at the hotel with her friend Marta (Benitez reveals in this chapter that Marta has given birth and retained custody of her child). Justo takes his birds to the beach, hoping to earn some money and take his mind off the telegram, which he assumes is bad news. While at the beach, the birds perform for a young couple. Justo asks the young man to read the telegram. It says simply, “Come home, Papá. Justina is gone from us” (114). It was sent by his other daughter, Ernestina. Walking home from the beach, Justo thinks “a little tequila would be good to have just now” (114).

In an alcoholic binge, Justo ruminates about the death of his first wife and his alienation from his daughters. When his second wife wanted nothing to do with Justina, he raised no protest. Later, deeply hung over, he discovers the dead body of Rita, his favorite canary, lying in his bed. Awash in grief, he resolves to travel to Guadalajara possibly to look for Justina.

The focus of Chapter 11 is Esperanza Clemente, Santiago’s midwife and primary medical care provider. She is 35 years old and childless, and Benitez hints at a dark secret in her past. Marta Rodriguez works with her, and the two have become friends. Esperanza has not allowed herself to become romantically involved with anyone because she feels she is unworthy of a man’s love.

One of Esperanza’s regular patients is doña Lina, mother of Rafael Beltran. Esperanza visits the Beltran house every week to treat doña Lina’s rheumatoid arthritis. Rafael and Esperanza want to spend more time together, but doña Lina’s demands and Esperanza’s shame over her past have been insurmountable obstacles. Rafael arranges for his mother to take a vacation to Veracruz to spend a month with his older brother. He and Esperanza hope that, with doña Lina out of town, they will be free to pursue a romantic relationship. However, days before she is to leave, doña Lina’s condition worsens. Desperate for a solution that will allow Rafael’s mother to travel, Esperanza consults Remedios, who prescribes a variety of herbs. The treatment is successful, and days later doña Lina boards a train for Veracruz.

Temporarily free of his mother’s domineering presence, Rafael courts Esperanza. They go out for coffee and pastries, they dine at don Gustavo del Norte’s restaurant (the restaurant from which Candelario was fired), and they stroll along the beach. For the first time Esperanza feels she may deserve some measure of happiness; but the price of that happiness, she decides, is honesty. She tells Rafael her long-held secret. When she was 17, she was raped by the son of an elderly woman in her care. Immediately, an emotional distance opens between them, and Rafael walks away.

A few days later Candelario calls for Esperanza’s help. His son, Tonito, is sick. Esperanza diagnoses anaphylactic shock from an ant bite, and they rush Tonito to the hospital. Chayo, Tonito’s mother, recalls how her sister Marta tried to curse Tonito while Chayo was still pregnant. Although Tonito was born healthy, Chayo has never forgiven her sister and fears that the curse may be finally working its dark magic. Tonito lives, however, although forever under the threat of severe reactions from ant bites or bee stings.

Later that day Rafael comes to Esperanza’s clinic and apologizes for walking away that night on the beach. He begs her forgiveness, and she invites him inside for coffee.

In this short chapter, Remedios lies on her cot, gazing up at the stars. The element of air carries her soul into the sky, where her ancestors reside. Along with magpie, bat, dragonfly, and her guardian angel, she walks among the stars, listening to the stories of her descendants and remembering her own story, of the connection to the elements she felt as a girl and how that connection has sustained her into old age. Her spirit returns to her body, and she sleeps until sunrise, revitalized.