Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

María/Sabine Olivares is one of the three protagonists of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. She’s described as having red hair and hazel eyes. She is born in a small village in Spain in the 16th century, and her father died when she was young. Raised by her mother, who works as a seamstress, the prescribed gender roles of the 16th century are drilled into her from an early age, introducing the novel’s engagement with The Impact of Societal Constraints on Personal Agency. María’s mother tries to smother María’s light and charisma, even forcing María to cover her red hair in mud to mute the color. María notes that her mother “would not mind so much…if the hair were honey-colored, or earthy, even auburn, but such an angry shade of red, she says, is a bad omen. Not a warm color, but the hot orange of an open flame. One she cannot seem to douse” (5). The brightness of María’s hair acts as a physical symbol of María’s inner brightness, her outgoing personality and boundless ambition.

Schwab emphasizes that, even within the strict constraints placed on her by society, María continually finds ways to assert her own agency.