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Summary: Beautiful imagery embeded in an enticing conflict
Review: Brothels, the devil, shoot-outs, witchcraft, and pagan religions are all viewed and examined by the innocent eyes of a child in Rudolfo A. Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima. By telling the story through a child's mind, Anaya gives the reader a fairly unbiased view of the conflicts in the story. Since Antonio, the protagonist, is constantly having internal conflict, the reader is also kept occupied by the book, which also contains a lot of action. The vaqueros often parade through the story, riding on horses and carrying their guns. If a reader knows Spanish, they would also be quite amused while reading because some of the characters frequently use Spanish swear words. The Spanish dialogue in the book sometimes causes a problem, because the reader can't always understand what the characters are saying to each other, and the dialogue is not always clarified in the narrative. As was reading this novel, I was frustrated when I couldn't know exactly what the characters were saying without depending on my Spanish-English dictionary. Another problem I had with Bless Me, Ultima is that the beginning few chapters are a bit too slow because they focus mostly on the setting up the story. This book is also packed with significance and symbolism, and is perfect for an English class to read together. Although the reading was slow and hard to understand in the dialogue at the beginning, I would definitely recommend this book to any age group of mature readers. Jennnifer Shaw Lowell High School
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Summary: Great book by a great Chicano literature writer.
Review: Bless Me Ultima, a book that defines a little bit nof Lation culture. One thing that I can relate to is that of a curandera (one who helps people ) which is an old lady named Ultima. Ultima is always there for Antonio which has many problems in his life. But Ultima is always there to help him out. What I could relate to is that of the Latino last name, which defines the family and who you are. One main symbol of this story was that about Ultima's owl which was to her like a guardian angel. This book is great and gets your mind involved very quickly
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Summary: read this book, it is a beauty
Review: This is a lovely first novel from the very talanted Rudolfo Anaya, an upcoming Southwestern writer who teaches creative writing at the University of New Mexico. It is a mystical, NOT New Age journey through the troubled times of a young Nuevo Mejicano coming of age in Hispanic New Mexico. The characters are rich and likeable. The scenery is gorgeous. Read his subsequent books for a completely different aspect of his writing. This man is going somewhere
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Summary: Will make any Chicano feel at home. Brings back memorys!
Review: This author really reaches the child in all of us and how we feel watching the world go on around us.My grandfather was a native Mexican of New Mexico, and told me storys that were in Rudolfo's Book. Great book, great subject, great characters, great author! A book that would help non-mexican/chicanos understand some of our culture.
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Summary: Bless Me, Ultima
Review: This is the coming of age story of Antonio, a young boy lost in his search for religion and torn between his parents' expectations of him. I was required to read this book for school and did not enjoy it as much as some of the other books that I have read. The plot is somewhat dry and not very exciting. What was interesting was the character development throughout the book and what each character represented in Antonio's life. I'm not sure I would recommend this book to others but you may want to read it if you are interested in culture and religion.
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Summary: Book review for "Bless me Ultima"
Review: "Bless me Ultima" is a wonderful story based on the "Chicano" or Northern New Mexico native people culture, religion, and customs that tells us about the relationship between a six year old boy called Antonio and an Old wise Lady called Ultima who is a "curandera" or healer, and how Anotonio faces a lot of difficulties and has to deal with curses, healings, dead people and mean friends and becomes a man of learning throughout his chilhood with Ultima's help. Since the author is from Northern New Mexico and the book takes place in two real small villages called Las Pasturas and Puerto de Lunas wich are located North of New Mexico i think Rodulfo Anaya put a little bit of his life experience into the story to remark the origins of a culture that tends to dissapear as new Chicano generations come to this world which makes the book more exciting and more valuable. I really enjoyed reading this book because i could follow the story very well considering that english is my second languaje and that i'm still having some problems with grammar and sentence structures and because i like reading mythical stories and i'm very familiar with them. Another aspect of this book that i liked and i found familiar was that New Mexican culture and Colombian and Latin Americna culture in general have a lot of things in common such as believing in ghosts, witches, curses, spirits, etc; and that the religion is the same and that there are not really too many differences within it.
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Summary: Original but not all that interesting
Review: Rudolfo Anaya has written a novel in the first person, so it of course does seem autobiographical. Antonio Marez starts telling us his story at the age of about 5, before starting school, and then takes us through a few years until, as a self-defined "man," he tells his mother to take his sisters away, in the face of the final tragedy.
And that final tragedy is..........?
The death of his beloved Ultima, the curandera who has blessed him.
Antonio is the youngest son of a cowboy-type father (Marez) and a mother from a farm people (Luna). Unlike his brothers, who take after their father, Antonio has a lot of his mother in him, and spends time learning to farm with the Lunas. His mother would like him to become a priest, or at least a "man of learning."
So, this is a sort of "coming out" novel, but the protagonist is younger than usual and he never does really come out, in that sense. Catcher in the Rye this book is not.
His school mates are pretty funny, with one tragedy, Florence, the non-believer, who drowns. I think some of the names didn't translate well, especially Florence. Florencio is a fine name in Spanish, but Florence in English is almost always a female name. Same with Bones (Calaveras), Horse (Caballo), etc., they are nicknames that sound a lot better in Spanish than when they are translated into English.
Tenorio? Well, he is painted as evil, and he does act pretty stupidly, but Ultima does show her true nature when she tells Antonio to forgive him (Christ-like, "for they know not what they do").
This book is worth reading, but it will take a while to finish it. Maybe have something a little lighter on the side to read while you dip in and out at intervals, like other chores you have to do little by little. Diximus.
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Summary: Bless Me Ultima
Review: Bless Me Ultima is one of the unsurpassed book I had read in all my life because it is thrilling and attention-grabbing. My favorite character is Antonio because he is courageous. Bless Me Ultima tells you about how Latin people live and their cultures. What I liked about the book is that it has Spanish words in it like ! una mujer con un diente, que llama a toda la gente. I thought that was really creative. What I didn't like about the Bless Me Ultima is that the brothers could have been nicer. I advocate Bless Me Ultima to people who know how to read Spanish and to people who like superstition and mystery books.
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Summary: I appreciate good literature. This is not good literature.
Review: I hated this book. It's supersticious. You can't understand some of the pages because they are written in Spanish!! English teachers should not assign this.
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Summary: ABSOLUTELY AWESOME
Review: THIS BOOK IS A WONDERFUL CELEBRATION OF GROWING UP IN A SMALL RURAL TOWN, BUT ESPECIALLY SO IN NEW MEXICO. MY MOTHER GREW UP IN THE TOWN ADJOINING THE ONE IN THE BOOK, ABOUT THE SAME TIME RUDOLOPHO ANAYA WAS GROWING UP IN THE AREA AND TELLS ME MANY OF THESE EVENTS WERE QUITE TRUE. ALSO, IVE VISITED THE PLACES OF SOME EVENTS IN THE BOOK AND THEY DO EXIST. THIS BOOKS IS A WONDERFUL MIXTURE OF GIFTED STORYTELLING, CULTURE, TRADITION, AND NATIVE NEW MEXICAN, (NOT JUST HISPANIC) FOLKLORE. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, FROM A NATIVE NEW MEXICAN!
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