Sandra Benitez, birth name Sandy Ables, was born in Washington DC on March 26, 1941. Due to her father's work as a diplomat, she lived most of his life. childhood in Mexico and El Salvador. During Benitez's teenage years, she lived with her family in the United States where she assimilated into American culture. In 1979, she decided to quit her job and began taking a creative writing course. “His first novel, a murder mystery set in Missouri, was never published. She took the novel to a writers' conference, where she was told it was terrible. (“About,” Benitez) This led her to become the person she is today and focus on writing about her Latino heritage. By 1993, Benitez had published her first novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, where she received the Minnesota Book Award and the Barnes and Noble Discover Award. A Place Where the Sea Remembers is set in Santiago, Mexico and consists of short, linked stories, where each story focuses on a single character. The story depicts the victory and disasters of the common people of South America. The characters struggle to survive and conquer this harsh and bizarre world. The life of one of the characters ends in the rhythms and power of the sea. This novel takes place in a word filled with love, betrayal, despair and hope. It reveals stories like a bittersweet portrait of the people of Santiago, a village near the sea; the triumphs, the hope, the failures and the flaws of this novel. These characters offer a faithful representation of life in Latin America. In A Place Where the Sea Remembers is filled with guilt and regret. Some characters experience the pain of trying to live with the disasters that impacted their past. One of the characters points out that it is important... middle of paper ... to become stronger when he finds out that his daughter, Justina, is no longer there. While drunk, he accidentally kills his bird, Rita, because it reminds him of the guilt inside him. “Although tragic, this death also lends itself to rebirth. » With the guilt lifted from his shoulders, he will finally be able to live the rest of his life. Regrets cost Esperanze and Rafael their lives. For Esperanze, she feels guilty for having been raped and never having told anyone. For Rafael, he feels guilty for not being able to live his life because his mother is all he cares about. When the two reunite, they are unable to forgive each other and begin their new life together. For all of these characters, they all had to overcome guilt or regret that helped shape the person they were. But being able to forgive themselves is the only way they can turn their lives into something better..