What are the motifs in The Curing Woman by Alejandro Morales?

A recurring idea is the metaphor of the journey. After she leaves her home when she is thirteen years old, Marcelina undertakes many journeys. She travels to find her mother in another part of Spain, and then after seven years goes south to the port city of Cadiz, where she sails for Veracruz, Mexico. After some time, she travels again, this time to Mexico City. Then she undertakes the longest journey of all, to Simons in California. The many journeys she takes, although they are literal journeys, are also metaphors for her inner journeys, her mental and spiritual preparation for the calling she is to pursue, that of a healer.