Bless Me, Ultima

Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by American author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020). Published in 1972 by independent Chicanx publishing house TQS Publications, it is one of the first literary accounts of Chicanx culture to attain widespread acclaim in the United States. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account based on Ayana’s experience of coming of age in post-World War II New Mexico. Anaya explores themes of the Multiplicity within Chicanx Identity, Catholicism, Innocence Versus the Power of Understanding, and Masculine and Feminine Influences on Manhood.

Bless Me, Ultima was awarded the Premio Quinto Sol upon publication, and in 2013, it was adapted into a movie of the same name. Anaya went on to garner other awards for his work, including the American Book Award and a 2015 National Humanities Medal. This guide refers to the 1994 Warner Books edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This guide includes references to violence, death, and sex work present in the original text.

Summary

The book is divided into 22 chapters, which Anaya titles in Spanish “Uno,” “Dos,” “Tres,” etc. The text is written in English with Spanish words and phrases interspersed throughout.

Six-year-old Antonio Márez, “Tony,” lives in the town of Guadalupe, New Mexico. His mother, María, is the devout daughter of a Catholic farming family, the Lunas, and hopes that her son will one day become a priest and a scholar. His father, Gabriel, is a former vaquero, a cowboy who used to work on the open plain called the llano. Gabriel hails from the Márez family, a family of adventurous wanderers. Gabriel wants Antonio to follow in his footsteps and become a vaquero, even though that way of life is fading. Antonio frets about which dream he will choose, and experiences vivid dreams that reflect his waking dilemmas.

When Antonio is almost seven years old, the elderly healer Ultima and her spiritual familiar, a large owl, come to stay at the Márez home. Ultima has a deep connection to Antonio, having been the midwife at his birth. She quickly establishes herself as his guide and the guardian of his fate. Ultima begins teaching Antonio about his place in the larger harmony of the universe, emphasizing the great power that lies in the natural world.

One night, Lupito, a local man who has been traumatized by war, kills the sheriff during an episode of PTSD. Antonio sneaks out to follow Gabriel as he joins a group of men from town and tracks Lupito to the local River of the Carp. Despite the pleas of Narciso, a local man with an alcohol addiction, the men execute Lupito in a volley of bullets. Antonio witnesses Lupito’s final moments and is traumatized by the experience: He begins to question all he knows about sin, morality, and forgiveness. In particular, he struggles with the idea that God is unforgiving and punishes impure souls with eternal damnation. As he ponders eternal damnation, Antonio becomes preoccupied with preserving the purity of his soul against corrupting influences.

Antonio starts school and is quickly recognized as an excellent student. He enjoys learning, even though some of the white students mock his language and food. He continues to struggle with doubts about Catholicism, but María reassures him that he will experience enlightenment at his First Communion.

As Antonio eagerly awaits communion, a series of trials challenges his faith. He makes a new friend named Cico, who introduces him to a legend about a kindly god who takes the form of a large golden carp. Antonio sees the golden carp in a local creek and feels intensely moved but frets because the Catholic God allows no other god to be worshipped besides himself.

The Márez family learns that Antonio’s uncle Lucas has a deadly illness, having been cursed by the “evil” daughters of local saloon keeper, Tenorio Trementina. After a priest fails to cure Lucas, Ultima brings Antonio along to El Puerto, where she lifts the curse herself by employing Indigenous herbal remedies and magic. Her ritual succeeds, but one of Tenorio’s daughters dies soon afterward, inciting Tenorio’s wrath. Ultima warns that altering fate can have unintended consequences.

Seeing Ultima’s magic succeed where the church failed, Antonio begins to doubt the power of Catholicism. He turns to the legend of the carp but is disappointed to learn that even the golden carp punishes sinners with death. Searching for a more forgiving religion, Antonio finds a connection to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Antonio loses his naiveté in a series of tragedies. His older brother returns from war experiencing PTSD but soon leaves town again, shattering Gabriel’s dream of moving to California. One day in winter, Antonio witnesses Tenorio murdering Narciso for trying to protect Ultima. Ultima comforts Antonio and continues to teach him about the value of independence, responsibility, and kindness: She urges him to forgive Tenorio and not to seek revenge. Antonio realizes that he has lost his purity and hopes that taking communion will save his soul.

The following summer, Ultima takes Antonio along as she lifts yet another curse set by Tenorio. Soon afterward, a second Trementina daughter dies, strengthening Tenorio’s desire for revenge. The following summer, Antonio’s friend Florence drowns in a local lake. Antonio grapples with the idea that Florence’s soul is condemned to hell due to his atheism and ultimately turns his back on the traditional Catholic ideas of sin and punishment.

Antonio has an apocalyptic dream in which he witnesses the destruction of all three belief systems: the church, the golden carp, and Ultima. He feels like God has abandoned him and doesn’t know how to move forward.

Antonio is sent to work on the Luna family farm in El Puerto to recover. On the way, he discusses religion with Gabriel, who admits that the vaquero lifestyle is dying out and encourages Antonio to look past the old Márez-Luna feud and forge his own future. The experience of working on the farm helps him understand the devout Lunas, and he comes away with the knowledge that he does not have to choose between the two sides of his family.

While in El Puerto, Antonio learns that another Trementina daughter has died and that Tenorio is en route to the Márez family home to kill Ultima. Antonio runs back to Guadalupe in an attempt to warn Ultima but arrives just in time to see Tenorio shoot Ultima’s owl before being killed himself.

Antonio goes to Ultima’s deathbed, where she blesses him in the name of all goodness and appoints him her spiritual successor. She tasks him with burying her owl out on the llano. Antonio fulfills her dying requests by forgiving Tenorio and burying the owl under a juniper tree. He knows that despite the physical location of Ultima’s body, her spirit lies with the owl.