To be completely honest, the second half of this book caused me some confusion, so I am just going to ramble a bit in this post.  First off, does the owl symbolize Ultima?  In the first half of the book I didn’t really know what to make of the owl, but now it seems like the owl represents Ultima.   Of course, Tenorio tells us that the owl represents Ultima’s spirit: “‘It is the owl! Do you hear, little bastard! It is the owl that is the spirit of the old witch'” … but is there anything more to this?  At the end the owl dies, and shortly after that Ultima does as well.  Then, upon burying the owl, Antonio realizes that he has buried Ultima. Throughout the book however, the owl does not seem to have the “qualities” (for lack of a better word) that Ultima does.  For example, Ultima is known as the healer and we don’t see a lot of violence from her.  On the other hand, we see a lot of violence from the Owl, like when it rips out Tenorio’s eye.  There definitely are similarities between the owl and Ultima, perhaps one of the most important things that stood out to me about them both is that they are protectors; the owl protects Ultima like Ultima protects Antonio.  There are endless layers to Ultima, and her connection with nature is very obvious through the owl; it seems that the owl shares its soul with a ‘human being’ – they are both connected by the same spirit.  However, this brings me to my next question: is Ultima a human being?  I get the sense that she is, but that her strong connection to nature, especially the fact that (from my observations) she shares a spirit or soul with the owl, is what makes her appear to be non-human.  I found that my questions about Ultima distracted me from what I think this book is truly about: Antonio growing up and learning how to form his own opinions and build his own path.  At the beginning of the book Antonio seemed like a shy, somewhat anxious child who seemed to be torn between two sides that he didn’t even fully understand.  However at the end, Antonio has now learned so much more than he ever thought possible, and most importantly, has realized that his future depends on him and his actions, not anybody else’s.  He also learns how to navigate himself through the ‘magic’ that exists all around him.  It’s even weird for adults to attempt to explain spiritual or magical things, so imagine trying to figure all this stuff out as a child.  At that age, it’s hard to figure out that there isn’t just one single truth, and Antonio realizes this at the end.