Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolpho A. Anya is an example of a magical realism novel. It can be read as a bildungsroman as it chronicles the growth of Antonio, a young boy whose life takes a turn when a Ultima, a medicine woman, comes to live with his family.
Themes: women, community, the power of dreams, family and ancestors, man vs nature, and religion (organized vs pagan).
Ultima is a curandera, “a woman who knew the herbs and remedies of the ancients, a miracle-worker who could heal the sick” who “could lift the curses laid by brujas” and “exorcise the evil the witches planted in people to make them sick. And because a curandera had this power she was misunderstood and often suspected of practicing witchcraft herself” (4).
Antonio’s fathers’ “forefathers were men of the sea, the Marez people, they were conquistadors, men whose freedom was unbounded” (23).
Maria Luna’s (Antonio’s mother), brothers “are honorable man. … They were the first colonizers of the Llano Estacado. It was the Lunas who carried the charter from the Mexican government to settle the valley” (49).
Trementina girls as witches and performing Black Mass.
Cico, “people, grownups and kids, seem to want to hurt each other- and it’s worse when they’re in a group” (103). Mermaid, in the Hidden Lakes, sings and drowns people.
Golden carp, “But why had the new god, the golden carp, chosen also to punish people? The old God did it already. Drowning, or burning, the punishment was all the same. T soul was lost, unsafe, unsure, suffering- why couldn’t there be a god who would never punish his people, a god who would be forgiving all of the time? Perhaps the Virgin Mary was such a god? She had forgiven the people who killed her son. She always forgave. Perhaps the best god would be like a woman, because only women really knew how to forgive” (130). Cico, “The golden carp accepts all magic that is good, but your God, tony, is a jealous God. He does not accept competition” (228).
Antonio’s father, “we lived two different lives, your mother and I. I came from a people who held the wind as brother, because he is free, and the horse as companion, because he is living, fleeting wind- and your mother, well, she came from men who held the earth as brother, they are a steady, settled people. We have been at odds all of our lives, the wind and the earth” (235).
Teaching resources:
- Lesson plan in Annenberg Learner.
- Lesson plan in Web English Teacher.
Lesson plan in The Big Read. - Lesson plan in Teacher’s Pet Publications.
- Lesson plan by Graham Wilson.
- Teacher’s Guide in Archive.
Resources:
- Review in LA Times.
- Review in Latinotopia.
Anya, Rudolph A. Bless Me, Ultima. Berkeley, Quinto Sol Publications, 1972.
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