As Alice Braga begins her promotional tour in support of the fifth and final season of USA Network's Queen of the South, she looks back proudly at all she and her character Teresa Mendoza accomplished together.

"What captivated me about the character, years before I shot the pilot when I read La Reina del Sur from Arturo Pérez-Reverte, was that Teresa is a survivor," Braga recounts to EW ahead of the drama's final series premiere on Wednesday, April 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.