Bless Me, Ultima

by Rudolfo Anaya

Anticipation Guide

• Use a scale 1-4, where 4 = always and 1=never.• I believe in magic (things can happen which defy

scientific explanation).• Someone can go away to war and come home

unchanged.• Dreams contain special wisdom.• My father and my mother have different

expectations for me.• The best kind of clergyman is not a deep thinker,

but the kind of person with no doubts.• The presence of an owl is bad luck, or a sign of evil.

Setting

• Guadalupe, NM• Begins during World War II (1944)• llano

Coachella Valley, CA

on the other side of Arizona, to the west

Old Mexico

ColoradoTexa

sNew

Mexico

Guadalupe, NM

It’s not a real town.

But it would be in Guadalupe County, north of Puerto de Luna.

Anaya grew up in Santa Rosa, NM.

llanovaqueros = cowboys/ horsemen

lunas = farmers

rio

Las Vegas, NM – it’s not Las Vegas, NV

Setting

• Introduction PPT

Characters

• Tony (Antonio) – almost 7 at the beginning• father = Gabriel Màrez “The spirit of the

horse was very close to the spirit of the man” (2).

• mother = María• two slightly older sisters: Deborah, Theresa• three older brothers: León, Andrew

(Andrés), Eugene (Eugenio)• grandmother = Ultima

Symbols

• The owl• The river• The golden carp• The number 3

Motifs

• Coming of age• Loss of innocence• Belief in La Llorona• Belief in the Virgin

Mary• The “war sickness”• Organized religion vs.

mysticism• Europeans / Spaniards

vs. Native Americans• Wondering if God exists

More

• Unrealized dreams• Men drowning their

sorrows in alcohol and other bad habits

• Overprotective mothers

• Belief in the occult (devil-worship) / witchcraft

• Modernization / losing the “old ways” (example: family harvest… ways of the vaqueros)

Gabriel’s job

He works on the highway. In the 1950s, U.S. 66 became the main route to California from the East.

Today

U.S. 66 is now Interstate 40.

Santa Rosa, NM