Zia

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, child abuse, illness, and death. 

Zia is a dynamic character, the protagonist and narrator of the story. She is a 14-year-old Nicoleño girl growing up in the Santa Barbara Mission in early 19th-century California, under Spanish colonial rule. The novel explores her coming-of-age journey, navigating Mission life alongside her younger brother, Mando.

Zia is biracial; her mother was a Nicoleño woman, and her father was Spanish. Zia’s tribe was forcibly relocated to the Mission from their homeland on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Zia spent time in a Cupeño village with her mother, who remarried. Her early childhood is marked by loss. She grows distant from her homeland and loses her mother, who ultimately died from an illness brought by white settlers. Following her death, Zia and her brother relocated permanently to the Mission. Zia and Mando are close, but they have different perspectives on life.

Like other Indigenous people in the Mission, Zia is coerced into unpaid labor. Despite her struggles, Zia is a determined and resilient young girl, enduring Mission life with patience and courage. However, she remains “homesick for the mountains” (19), and her village.