Bless Me, Ultima: The Cultural Distress of a Young Society

Lytvyn Roman

Eng. 320

Pr. Tolchin

Bless Me, Ultima: The Cultural Distress of a Young Society

An answer to the discussion question of whether or not there is a defined border culture would need a great number of years in field research, but we can also observe a few of the characteristics of such border culture just by looking at scholastic essays and books related to the topic. Within the research that I did, I found a number of scholars who, while defining the border, mention all the specific or special characteristics of this new emerging society, but who also very few times defined it as such. In the book that I researched, Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo A. Anaya, we find many of those characteristics. There is already much work on this piece of literature, therefore, I decided to present my research and study in two ways. First, I will give a personal analysis of the work, in which I will discuss the different topics and parallelisms that I believe are related to an emerging border culture, and second, I will discuss and complete analysis made by Roberto Cantu, published in The Identification and Analysis of Chicano Literature.

The main characters of the novel are Antonio, his father, mother, two sisters, three brothers, Tenorio and his three daughters, and Ultima. The argument presents how a child, (Antonio), matures in one year, thanks to the different episodes that he goes through. Antonio, a seven year old child, narrates in first person, and describes the events that changed his life from the moment that Ultima arrived at his house. During the beginning of the book, his thoughts and actions are typical of such age, but as the events take place, Antonio changes and matures incredible fast through the text. It is even hard to find where the changes in his behavior take place, due to Rudolfo's smooth literary transitions.

Carl and Paula Shirley condense their presentation of Bless Me, Ultima by simply mentioning the story line of the book:

She (Ultima) is present from the boy's earliest experiences growing up, family conflict, school, religion, evil and death... Much good in this novel, beauty, magic, New Mexico landscape, legends... (Shirley and Shirley, 105).

All of this is true, but there is more that they did not mention. The novel is full of inner conflicts. Each of the story lines of thought of Antonio represents not only a personal conflict, but also a social one. An old society vs. a new one, Spanish vs. English, good vs. evil, Catholics vs. Protestants vs. legends, the town vs. the llano and so on. In each one of them we can see the formation or foundation of a new society ruled by Antonio's generation. A new society not yet aware of itself, but new nevertheless.

For a better understanding of my analysis I have defined several different components that present essential keys in the underlined development of a border culture. The development if the Mexican border culture is called to be a mixture of two worlds. Tom Miller says that:

Ironies and contradictions thrive on the border between the US and Mexico, a region that does not adhere to the economic, ethical, political, or cultural standards of either country (...) It is a third country of its own, its own food, its language, its music (...) It is a colony onto itself, long and narrow, ruled by two faraway powers. (Tom Miller, xii)

In the same way, Anaya's description of Antonio's life represents ironies and contradictions, first in a main cultural collision of Mexican, Spanish and Indian culture, family structure and language; and then, in more deep levels of religion, and basic understanding of oneself. Inner fights and double realities are present through out Antonio's development. Ramon Saldivar does an extensive study of Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, and as well as Shirley and Shirley, he seems to be afraid of calling or recognizing a representation of a border culture.

Saldivar says:

Bless Me, Ultima thus can be said to capture in the form of romance critical and complex transition period in literary-cultural history of the South west: the simultaneous existence within Chicano communities of pre-Columbian myths, beliefs, legends and superstitions, and mid-twentieth century technological, literate mass media culture. (Saldivar, 108).

As I mention before, Bless Me Ultima presents the struggle between two different life styles and cultures. On one hand, we have the Mexican traditional life style: Antonio's father was a man of the llano, a vaquero; his mother is from a family of three farmers. On the other hand, we find a very strong influence of American individualism. We see this influence in Antonio's three brothers: after they returned from W.W.II, their parents are hoping that they would become part of their family again, but the three brothers decide to have a life of their own: not as farmers, not as vaqueros, not as highway workers, not even in the same town, but an independent life in the states. Only one of them decides to stay, but not for long. Due to these series of facts, Antonio lives a struggle in his mind. Should he become a farmer or a priest as his mother wanted? Should he decide his own future no matter what the consequences are? Talking about his families Antonio says: "I love them both, and yet I am of neither (Anaya, 38).

At he same time, Antonio is going to school across the bridge, to an American school. This is one of the most important aspects of his cultural development as well as our main point in identifying a border culture. There is a two level explanation for this chapter: first, we have to remember that Antonio's father Gabriel was a man of the llano, a vaquero who thought that freedom is the most important thing in anyone's life. Gabriel blames the Texans, (Americans), over and over again for putting fences across his llano, across his freedom. Gabriel never gets accustomed to the life in the city. Furthermore, he drinks more and more, and looks forward to the visitors of the llano who come to his house once in a while to remember old stories. His Mexican culture is too strong. There will be no possible adaptation for him. In the same way, Antonio goes to school; he does not understand