The Camino de Santiago is one of the oldest pilgrimage routes in Europe. For over a thousand years, Christians have traveled across northern Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela, where tradition holds that the remains of Saint James the Apostle are buried. During the Middle Ages, the Camino was one of the most important pilgrimage routes in the Christian world. Over time, however, wars, political changes, and declining religious participation caused the number of pilgrims to decrease dramatically.

The Camino experienced a dramatic modern revival in the 20th century. The revival was encouraged by the fascist government of dictator General Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain from 1939 to 1975. Franco promoted the Camino as part of a broader effort to strengthen Spanish nationalism, repress regional identity (for example, Galician, Catalan, or Basque), emphasize the country’s Catholic heritage, and attract international tourism. In this way, the Camino became a form of soft power and propaganda, helping Spain to project a positive image abroad while promoting conservative values at home.

Interest then resurged in the 1980s, in large part due to the efforts of Father Elías Valiña Sampedro, a parish priest who tirelessly researched the original route and marked it with the now-iconic yellow arrows. This revival was further amplified when the Camino Francés was declared the first European Cultural Itinerary in 1987 and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1993. What was once a route traveled by a few thousand people each year now attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from around the world. According to Solvitur Ambulando, which tracks Camino statistics for potential pilgrims, around 74,000 people traveled the trail in 2003, while the number jumped to over 530,000 in 2025 (“Camino de Santiago Statistics 2025.” Solvitur Ambulando).

This modern Camino is the one depicted in Call of the Camino. The international community of pilgrims, the network of albergues (pilgrim hostels), and the tradition of carrying a credencial (pilgrim passport) to collect stamps are all products of the resurgence. These shared traditions are experienced by both Isabelle and Reina in the novel. The Camino, which is both an ancient pilgrimage and a modern global phenomenon, serves as a backdrop for the novel’s exploration of community and shared struggle. It brings together people from different countries and backgrounds who are all searching for meaning, healing, or a new direction in life.