Alli Donde Recuerda El Mar (Place Where the Sea Remembers)

by Sandra Benitez

Overview

Allí Donde el Mar Recuerda es un relato obsesionante de amor, ira, esperanza, y tragedia cuyos personajes subsisten mucho después de haber leído la última página. En el corazón del relato está Chayo, la vendedora de flores, y su esposo, Candelario, el ensaladero, quienes esperan que al fin Dios los bendiga con el hijo que pensaron nunca tendrían. Sin embargo, el motivo de su felicidad provoca una cadena de sucesos que marca las vidas de todos los habitantes de Santiago, una aldea mexicana. Sus esperanzas, triunfos, defectos, y fracasos hacen una impresión imborrable de un mundo en cual el destino puede depender del más mínimo hecho. Allí Donde el Mar Recuerda, un asombroso debut por una nueva voz en el género novelístico de América, es un libro que nunca olvidará.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684823881
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	04/03/1996
Edition description:	Spanish-language Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Language:	Spanish

About the Author

Sandra Benítez is the author of A Place Where the Sea Remembers and the winner of the 1998 American Book Award, Bitter Grounds.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Remedios

La Curandera (curandera, n.f. healer)

Remedios, la curandera, stands at the edge of the sea. The old healer is weary, a result, in part, of the countless times she has cocked her head in the direction of someone's story. Remedios knows the town's stories. Just as the sea, as their witness, knows them, too.

Remedios looks out over the deep. Tucked under an arm is the swordfish beak that is one of her prized possessions. She has owned it for many years. Usually she keeps the sword in her hut, on her altar, la mesa santa. Not today. Today she has brought the sword to the sea because it signifies the waters and the mighty fish that live there. She has brought it because el pico de pez espada helps her find those who have drowned.

Today Remedios awaits the one blue wave that will bring a corpse to shore. The body we wait for, she thinks, the sea will yield up. Today. Tomorrow. The sea cannot be rushed. The others wring their hands, hold their breaths on the far side of the crag, at the place where the river joins the sea. But not Remedios. El pico has led her to this spot, and it is here she'll keep her vigil.

Gathering her long dark skirt between her legs, Remedios squats on the shore. She lays el pico across her lap. Around her neck is the cord from which her medicine pouch hangs. The pouch rests directly over her heart and contains the secret talismans that fortify and empower her. Remedios spreads a palm over the little pouch, then reaches for the line of foamy brine rippling toward her. In the biting honesty of salt, the sea makes her secrets known to those who care to listen. She touches a finger to her tongue and the stories come.

The sea remembers. So it is the sea retells.

Copyright © 1993 by Sandra Benítez

Editorial Reviews

Chris Bohjalian The New York Times Book Review Maravillosamente realizada...merece un lugar junto a la nueva e hipnotizante literatura con raíces en la América Latina.

Jane St. Anthony Minneapolis Star Tribune Un regalo para los lectores quienes esperan la verdad en sus novelas.

Denise Chávez El mundo de Sandra Benítez es un mundo conmovedor, apasionado, agridulce. En él no hay don nadies. Sus personajes son magníficos, compasivos, criaturas con almas arraigadas a la costa.

From the Publisher