The Wind Knows My Name

Anita plans to dedicate a secret area of the garden to tea parties, and she wants to make a trap to catch any bad guys, like Carlos, Mr. Rick, or Gusano. She’s nervous about the eye doctor she met with because he plans to give her a cornea transplant to restore her eyesight. Leticia said that this transplant involves replacing her eyes with a dead person’s eyes, but Samuel clarified that only the cornea is transplanted. Anita can’t see the ghosts in the house well but senses their presence. She can smell Nadine’s ghost but avoids using Nadine’s perfume because it upsets Samuel. On the phone with her grandmother, Doña Eduvigis tells Anita that she should stay in the US because that’s what Marisol wanted, but Anita is sad to think that she might not see her grandmother again. Samuel agrees to let Marisol live with them if Frank and Selena find her, but he’s also sad at the prospect of losing Anita.

Samuel and Selena meet via Zoom once a week, and Samuel updates her on Anita’s progress: She’s learning the piano, preparing for the cornea transplant, and gaining some weight as her appetite returns. Frank plans to petition for Anita’s residency, which will allow her to stay in the US even if they can’t find Marisol. Selena talks with Samuel about her romantic life, expressing her doubts about Milosz and her attraction to Frank. Selena discovers that Nadine was the founder of the Magnolia Project, and Samuel isn’t surprised to learn that Nadine was secretly involved in activism during their marriage, noting that she was largely negligent as a wife and mother. Nonetheless, Samuel empathizes with Anita’s retention of Claudia’s memory, as he often feels like Nadine is still with him. Samuel is grateful to Selena for bringing Anita into his life, and she did so through the Magnolia Project that Nadine started. Selena calls Samuel suddenly one day, explaining that Carlos Gómez was arrested for multiple murders of women and girls. The police found a mass grave on his property, and Selena suspects that one of the bodies is Marisol’s.

Selena breaks off her engagement with Milosz, planning to begin a more casual relationship with Frank. As soon as possible, Frank gets Selena and himself tickets to El Salvador so that they can investigate Carlos’s murders and potentially find Marisol. In El Salvador, they spend the night together and then go through the morgue and the crime scene to see if they can find evidence of Marisol’s being there. Doña Eduvigis orchestrates a protest concerning violence against women, noting how gendered violence is common, but nothing is done about it. Doña Eduvigis believes that Marisol is dead, and she hopes that Anita can stay with Samuel if they find Marisol’s body. Days later, Frank and Selena go to Samuel’s home to tell him that Marisol’s body was found on Carlos’ property, but they’re unsure how and when to tell Anita. Samuel advocates for telling Anita immediately, noting how he lived without knowing if his parents were alive for a long time and saying that the trauma will be painful regardless of whether they tell her now or later.

Selena is attending law school in California, and she and Frank visit Samuel, Leticia, and Anita often. Anita’s corneal transplant was successful, and she’ll attend regular schooling soon, though at a grade lower than her current abilities would indicate. No one could tell Anita that Marisol died, but Frank managed to get Doña Eduvigis a last-minute visa to spend a week at Samuel’s house. At the end of the week, Doña Eduvigis broke the news that Marisol died, and after Doña Eduvigis’s departure, Anita experienced a period of intense grief. This grief allowed Samuel to express his own emotions about his childhood trauma, and he passed down the medal that Volker gave him to Anita, telling her the same story: that the medal can give her courage. Anita invited Samuel to Azabahar, and Samuel told Frank and Selena that neither he nor Anita is “crazy.” Azabahar is a place in their hearts where they can revisit people from their pasts, like Claudia, Marisol, and Nadine.