Hola! I did Spanish A-level last year and dug up some notes
I remember seeing a sample question on the importance of herbal medicines in the novel. You can definitely link this to La Kikapú and how regardless of her medicinal practices being unconventional and the fact that the rest of her in-laws did not bother even acknowledging her customs and traditions, she proved herself successful when she healed John’s great-grandfather Peter from lung disease. This was after his wife Mary, who knew something about medicine tried to save him using modern techniques: “no con hierbas como la kikapú!” - p 122.
(Ironically La Kikapú’s traditional method works instead which is the main point lol)
“A partir de ese día, la Kikapú se convirtió en el médico de la familia y fue plenamente reconocida como curandera milagrosa entre la comunidad norteamericana.’ - P. 124
I think it's important to remember the difference between her 2 names as well; you can use 'La Kikapú' as evidence as to how her husband's family degraded her to begin with.
- La Kikapú - the ‘offensive’ name given to her by John’s family (P.121-122): “Para los Browns, la palabra kikapú encerraba lo más desagradable de este mundo”
- Luz de amanecer - “… pero no así para Luz del amanecer” ... “para ella significaba todo lo contrario y era un motiva enorme de orgullo. “ - p 122.
Despite being called a derogatory name because of her indigenous origins I suppose she ignored this and maintained the name ‘Morning Light’ for herself whilst continued pursuing her personal studying - which shows her resilience.
Also, she was the one who founded the matchbox theory (where one needs to find someone they love to strike their ‘matches’), one of the key ideas in the novel which John tells Tita about, in which he acknowledges that it originally came from his grandmother.
Remember this is what happens to Pedro and Tita at the end (when they die after having sex lol) because they ‘lit all the matches at once’.
The other part of the theory was to not be near people who are cold (Mama Elena for Tita) otherwise they can ‘extinguish your matches’.
Essentially, La Kikapú’s theory outlines major events (throughout the whole magic realism vibe of the novel) regarding Tita’s relationship with Mama Elena as well as being manifested in the last scene where too much intensity led to the death of Tita and Pedro.
Also, towards the end of ch. 6 John says that his grandmother was able to read his thoughts.
From this you can infer that she was a very wise and intuitive woman, in addition to her medicinal talents. So perhaps these are some examples you can talk about if you get a character question on her. Having said that I would say relative to the rest of the other themes in the novel she is not quite as big, but nevertheless still important to remember!
I suggest you reread chapter 6 of the novel - when Tita has escaped the ranch and stay’s at John ’s house - to remind yourself of her role in the novel and you can find good quotes