Bless Me, Ultima

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Summary: Bless Me, Ultima: A Story of Growth and Development.
Review: From the moment I picked up Bless Me, Ultima (BMU), I had a strong sense that this was going to be a story of coming of age. BMU is a Bildungsroman. However, this definition does not limit the range of BMU but rather provides Rudolfo Anaya the framework within which to pen his masterpiece. At the website The Victorian Web, a Bildungsroman is defined: A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society." Having cited this source, the rest of the review is an explanation of how BMU fits into this genre.

BMU does not neatly fit into the Bildungsroman genre which leaves room for other interpretations like the "Hero's Journey." Moreover, there are problems with the Hero's Journey model as well, as it does not necessarily fit 100% with that angle either - but this is an issue for other reviewers to ponder. BMU is an examination of religion, of life, of Antonio's heritage. Life is the classroom while the culture clash is the curriculum.

BMU is the tale of a young Antonio Marez. Antonio's "apprenticeship to life" (which fits nicely with point number one) starts at six years of age. At the start of the book, the curandera (In this case the curandera almost mimics a shaman - she uses herbs and magic to heal, defend and teach.) Ultima is asked to live with his family. One of the main themes of BMU deals with Antonio's coming of age. In this journey Antonia has Ultima as his guide through this most turbulent of times. Ultima gives Antonio the valor to cope with his own trials and tribulations. Antonio has to deal with the duality of maturing under the pressure of his mother, a Luna, and his father, a Marez. Witness this from Anaya:

"Ultima," I asked, "why are they so strange and quiet? And why are my father's people so loud and wild?"

She answered. "It is the blood of the Lunas to be quiet, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary for planting - They are quiet like the moon - And it is he blood of the Marez to be wild, like the ocean from which they take their name, and the spaces of the llano that have become their home."

I waited then said. "Now we have come to live near the river, and yet near the llano. I love them both, and yet I am of neither. I wonder which life I will choose?"

"Ay, hijito," she chuckled, do not trouble yourself with those thoughts. You have plenty of time to find yourself -"

"But I am growing," I said, "every day I grow older -"

"True," she replied softly. She understood that as I grew I would have to choose to be my mother's priest or my father's son (Anaya, 1972, p. 41).

The tension of the two opposing forces (Luna/Marez) is a leitmotif that stretches the length of the book. The Luna legacy, on the one hand, is tied to the land. Antonio's mother is hopeful that one day he will become a priest. Conversely, the Marez heritage, akin to la Mar (the sea) which is the name's origin, is unstable and roving. Antonio's fraternal line is filled with vaqueros who traveled the llano and did not like to settle down (Anaya, 1972, p. 41). Antonio's father dreams of Antonio following his vaquero "nature" in California. Antonio is inhabits a unique space constantly walking the tightrope that separates these two forces (which fits well with point number three - the long journey under the auspices of a watching - not to mention judging - community.

The theme of Ultima is yet another key angle to explore. Much like Milan Kundera, Anaya plays this story like a musical piece - with many themes and movements that in the end crescendo in climax. In this tale of innocence, the curandera Ultima, as mentioned earlier, comes to live with the family. The two destinies are fused. Antonio begins to learn from Ultima the wonders of healing using the natural environment. Ultima is respected for her ancient wisdom and renowned power. Antonio is immediately seduced by her inner peace and is taken under her wing to her (no pun intended despite the Owl allusions by Anaya) and she builds an awareness of the primal forces that exist in his innocence. Anaya writes:

I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things. But the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across the bridge and enter my life. Ultima's owl gave the warning that the time of peace on our hill was drawing to an end (Anaya, 1972, p. 15).

Antonio gathers herbs and visits the sick and beings to grasp a link involving healing and nature - lessons that he gains from his mentor Ultima. This notion, it is argued, furthers the explanation of a Bildungsroman at it becomes at this point an apprenticeship tale. Despite never 'really' receiving a scientific or grounded explanation for how Ultima predicts future occurrences, heals infirmed, combats the witches and spells, or even the reason for when Ultima decided not to get involved, he intuits. BMU is a story, in its lyrical sense (in the sense that Milan Kundera uses it in Life is Elsewhere - a time of innocence it is a story of redemptive powers and a joy to engage in. There is learning in tension and this catharsis was superb.

Miguel Llora

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Summary: Wonderful Book
Review: A wonderful book that makes people really think about it long after they are finished with it. It makes people question thier religion and the importance/ value of thier lives. I would really recommend it to people who enjoy using thier brain.

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Summary: ENNUISM LIKE YOU'VE NEVER EXPERIENCED!
Review: Honestly, i couldn't even get through the first couple of pages. The whole book is just about his conflicting views with his mother and father. I mean, we've all got brains...why can't he just decide for HIMSELF?! I'm sure Anaya is an excellent writer, it's just...this book might not be one of hist best...i would suggest Lord of the Rings.

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Summary: great chicano novel
Review: I was required to read this novel for an Ethnic American Lit class and it was a great book. Antonio is a super kid who has to deal with his own religion doubts while being introduced to the myth of the golden carp. There are alot of religious encounters: Ultima and her white magic; Florence's disbelief of the Christain religion; Narciso's tragic death, among others. The religious atmosphere kept me wondering what Antonio would beleive in at the end. He is really a wonderful kid and is the center of attention throughout the novel. There's not a boring part of the book. I can't wait to try some of his other work over semester break.

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Summary: Identity Struggle
Review: Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" is a wonderful depiction of the Mexican-American culture. I highly recommend this great work of literature to young adult readers since it not only serves as a window that allows them to take a look into the experiences of a Mexican-American family divided by war, but also allows them to view the world through the eyes of a young boy struggling to find his identity.
The universal human concern which seems to be most prominent in "Bless Me, Ultima" is the coming-of-age and self-realization of the young boy, Antonio Marez. Antonio is confronted with numerous conflicts and the need to reconcile the opposites in his life. The strongest conflict for Antonio to face is the clash between his father's pastoral lifestyle and his mother's farming tradition.
Antonio's mother, Maria Luna, represents the farming tradition-settled, modest, devout. As in his dream, the mother's family has expectations of Antonio. "This one will be a Luna,...he will be a farmer and keep our customs and traditions. Perhaps God will bless our family and make [him] a priest" (5).
Antonio's father, Gabriel Marez, is linked to a lifestyle which Maria Luna considers coarse and wild: the life of the cowboy roaming the free plains. Like the Lunas, the Marez family also expects Antonio to carry on their traditions. "He is a Marez... His forefathers were conquistadores, men as restless as the seas they sailed and as free as the land they conquered. He is his father's blood" (6).
Througout the novel, Antonio is being pulled by opposing forces and it is Ultima who in the end helps him find a middle ground. His father and mother's traditions are not the only conflicts he must face. He is also torn between good and evil, love and hate, a Christian God and a pagan deity. It is Ultima's advice that helps Antonio discover who he really is. "LIfe is filled with sadness when a boy grows to be a man, But as you grow into manhood you must not despair of life, but gather strength to sustain you" (245). In the end, Antonio finally understands what Ultima means and thus gains passage from innocence into awareness, finding a balance between the divided forces which tug at him and being able to define his own identity. "Take the llano and the river valley, the moon and the sea, God and the golden carp and make something new,...That is what Ultima meant by building strength from life" (247).

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Summary: Bless Me Ultima
Review: Rodolfo Anaya's book Bless Me Ultima, is a story of a young six year old boy trying to make the right decisions in life for himself, for his mother and his father. He is torn between growing up being a farmer like his father or a priest like his mother's wishes. He witnesses a lot of sin and a lot of bad things for a kid his age.
A lady of great respect and the wisest woman in his family comes to stay with him and his family, Ultima, or La Grande. He looks up to her in the highest way, as she teaches him various things, from her curandera (a folk healer) practices, to the way she used the earth for her cures. People thought of her as a witch, which was one of Antonio's arguments to the people, and kids of the town.
This book gives a really good description of how it is to have questions on the Catholic religion as a kid, or as an adult, especially if you grow up in a Hispanic family. Having some words is Spanish gives it a better feel for the way it is growing up in his household, and imagining his family interacting with one another.
The description of the house and the windows in the winter put me there in the kitchen. The smell of breakfast in the morning before school, and his mother calling him and his sisters down for breakfast, was also a great description that also brought me back to when I was a kid, and getting ready for school and having my mother call me down to my mornings feast.
Overall this book gave me a great feeling, as I imagined myself there. I found it hard to put the book down when it was time to come to a stopping point and do my everyday things. Each chapter was such a great adventure and learning experience, that it always left me in suspense. I highly recommend this book to anyone because it gave me such a good feeling and understanding of the Latino culture and how it is growing up in a Catholic household.

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Summary: Bless Me, Ultima is remarkable
Review: Rodolfo Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima tells a remarkable story about a boy named Antonio whose pure heart, innocence, and spiritual bond with a curandera named Ultima give him the strength to survive in world that surrounds him with nothing but evil, sin, and death. Tony's bravery and ability to cope with the evil he is forced to witness, while still managing to maintain his innocence helps the reader sympathize with him, his confusion about the Catholic religion, and his quest for being a good person. Many of us are brought up going to church every Sunday with our families, and we are forced to believe that everything we hear during mass or read from the Bible is true; we are also lead to believe that it is wrong to question our religion and its teachings. However, sometimes things just don't make sense, and Rodolfo Anaya does a wonderful job in this book of demonstrating many inquiries of the Catholic religion that most of us have sometime in our lives, but are too afraid to actually question them out loud.
As I read Bless Me, Ultima, I was taken on an enchanted journey filled with both mythological tales and the reality of both religion and family life. I could not tear my eyes away from the pages of this novel, without anticipating a new twist that would await me in the next chapter. The author's vivid description of the Christmas play that Antonio and his friends put on at school was one of my favorite parts in the book. I think Rodolfo does an excellent job of providing such thorough descriptions of each one of the boys that the reader is able to envision the comedic and chaotic mess occurring on stage as Tony and his classmates attempt to tell the story of "The First Christmas."
Not a word is wasted in Bless Me, Ultima; every word is a contribution to the novel and the powerful story that it conveys. Rodolfo Anaya's way of writing is magical and powerful; it touches the reader's emotions on a very spiritual level. I really look forward to reading more of Rodolfo Anaya's work, especially if they are all as extraordinary as Bless Me, Ultima.

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Summary: Two worlds
Review: Anaya's storytelling abilities blew me away. The rich descriptions and beautiful stories are what attracted me to the novel. Though I am unfamiliar with spanish, I did not find that to be distracting to the novel, but enhanced the culture that the novel was centered around. Antonio being torn between two worlds and wanting to make both of his parents happy was a theme that I thought many people could relate to. Several people have had to go through an experience of choosing between living their life as they want, or following the wishes and demands of their parents. Ultima became a great role model to not only Antonio, but any reader who might have gone through or going through an experience like that. But it was the myths and legends throughout the novel that proved to be my favorite part of the novel. These stories not only allowed me to look closely at a culture that I was unfamiliar with before, but also showed the richness of Anaya's descriptions.

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Summary: the ULTIMATE novel...
Review: Honestly, I didn't read this book for pleasure, I read it because it was assigned to me in my Chicano & Latino Arts & Literature class. However, as I read it, I couldn't put it down. It was an easy read, I'd say a high school book, and although there were dabs of spanish words throughout the novel, I who have only taken spanish class in early high school remembered most of the words, and helped to add a more native feel of the book.

This book is a coming of age story of young boy, and what his family goes through when Ultima, a curandera ( folkhealer) moves into their home. I've read other naive reviews, who really don't appreciate what this book is giving. It brilliantly combines both Latino culture with Native American culture, which is known as Chicano culture. As the reader, you get to watch Antonio mature as he deals with thing that most 7 year olds don't deal with like seeing death. You can relate to him no matter what your background, whether your parents pressure you, or you've ever felt left out at school or among your friends, or if you've ever stuck up for something you believe in even if others don't.

He grows with the help of Ultima, and her owl, which is her symbol. He feels safe whenever the owl is near. His dreams at time can be really symbolic but they just foreshadow his innerconflicts with religion and being pressured whether or not to follow his mothers way of life, or his fathers way of life or if he should branch out on his own.

I'd highly reccomend this book because it really does give a better understanding of the chicano culture, while presenting a heartwarming story about a young boy coming to age.

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Summary: Decent Theme, but highly flawed
Review: I read Bless Me, Ultima for a summer reading and although I gave it a chance, I couldn't get into it. There is a nice story in here, but with half the dialogue in Spanish, it is hard to understand what is going on. I understand the need for authenticity, but for people like myself, who don't speak Spanish, this just cripples the story