What does “radicar en” mean in Spanish?

Radicar en means “to lie in,” “to reside in,” “to be rooted in.” It comes from Latin radix — the same root as raíz — so picture something planted there, not just located there. In the clip, las áreas donde radica la memoria is “the areas where memory resides.” The move to memorize is the abstract one: el problema radica en… = “the problem lies in…,” pointing to where the real cause sits.

Keep radicar en for causes, essences and locations of abstract things: la diferencia radica en el precio, su fuerza radica en la constancia. There’s a separate administrative sense — radicar for a company being “based/registered” somewhere, and in Colombia radicar un documento means “to file/submit” it — but those don’t take the same en-plus-abstract-noun shape. For the “lies in / resides in” meaning, anchor on radicar en and its raíz connection.