Bless Me, Ultima Mass Market Paperback – April 1, 1994

Great book, nicely written.

I really loved this compelling and thrilling tale about a young boy in New Mexico and his unique grandmother, Ultima who is a healer (curandera with extensive knowledge of herbs and natural and spiritual cures). My copy had a lovely picture of an owl on the cover. The story is about how the young boy's life changes when his grandmother comes to stay and a series of uncontrollable events ensue. The magical realism elements are a belief in magic, traditional folklore, and descriptions of dreams.I think the story is appropriate for Halloween as it has some horror elements to it - an evil man and his three daughters who cause immense pain and trouble for people, versus Ultima who represents all that is good and thwarts evil at every turn. She has a great love for the land and nature and passes on stewardship to her grandson.The story seamlessly threads together Catholicism vs Traditional beliefs which the young boy feels caught between and his desire to have both in his life somehow. It is also about the loss of land by Native Americans, as well as traditional life such as farming versus life as a migrant labourer.I did not like the ending of the book - I thought it could have been more dramatic. It is a sad and poignant tale about love and loss and moving on with change that is inevitable. The story is nostalgic and I believe ultimately hopeful for the future where one can hold onto past traditions, yet also forge ahead with something new. This is definitely a wonderful and well-written tale and truly unique.

Great story of a journey about Antonio... It was very good to read about a young mind who is so impressionable yet with a greater understanding than most of the adults that were trying to teach him! I loved Ultima's role in his life.. She didn't lean him one way or another in his decisions when it came to which road to travel.. She helped to develop the gift that he was born with regardless of the man he decides to be. Loved it.. Their bond and lack of fear on both of their parts when facing a situation was heartfelt and wonderful. Now if you are not familiar with some Spanish at first sight you will read and not understand.. But keep reading because the context of what's being said in Spanish is reflected in the remaining text of a certain sentence, paragraph or passage.. Great read!

This is a wonderful story, a wonderful book. My only criticism is that there were quite a few phrases in Spanish that I had difficulty translationing. That is my only criticism. I loved the story, and the only thing more I have to say is 'bless me, Ultima.

This was a book for a friend, one of my favorite books.

I love this book! I 1st got this book in my Mexican/English class in 1982. I felt it was awesome reading this book, that I ordered it 40 yrs later for my son! He loved reading it!

Our book club is looking at banned books. This was at one time banned in four states, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California. It was written at the time "Chicano" studies were popping up. This was considered a "must read". The story is told from the view of a young boy, Antonio whose family takes in the aging curandara, Ultima. She is a "folk doctor" who uses herbs to cure. One paper I read said the book was banned because of all the swearing by Antonio and his classmates. Others banned it because it "might cause unrest among young Latinos. Some places considered it un-American. The story takes place in the mid-1940s in rural New Mexico.

The religious and spiritual symbolism in Anaya's book, Bless Me, Ultima blend beautifully with the powerfully described New Mexican setting and culture that surround the novel's main charatcer, Antonio, and place him at the center of a series of thematic struggles including the classic struggle of good vs. evil, the difficult decision of choosing between one's apparent destiny and giving in to one's choices, and the intense discovery and formation of alternate beliefs in a higher being.Anaya places Antonio in a Catholic household of Mexican descent in the rural setting of Las Pastures, New Mexico; illustrating the natural beauty and land-based lifestyle that Antonio grows up knowing. Tony's mother is a faithful and passionate Catholic, believing in the imporatance of direct prayer to God and the adoration of the Virgin Mary. She sees and feels the holyness that surrounds Tony's being from his birth, and raises him in hopes that he will some day become a priest. The characterization of Tony's father provides a nice contrast that lends an insight into the formation of Tony. His father is a man of the land, using it respectfully and living in symbiance with it to ensure the heathly lifespans of both his family, and his family's land or llano. The contrast in Tony's parental upbringing sets the stage for his future conflicts concerning the true existance of a God, and the reasons for the existance of good and evil that he witnesses in life.Symbolism is a cetral tool that Anaya uses to artistically convey Tony's journey and his discoveries, amazments, and disappointments along the way. Perhaps most finely crafted is Anaya's creation of the golden carp, used to represent the startling effect of peace and joy that Tony feels after discovering its existance. The golden carp itself is a symbol of an alternate idol of worship besides the Christian God that Tony had grown to believe in through the teachings he recives at home, school, and at church. The fact that Tony is willing to belive in the golden carp's existance, as he is both amazed and mystified by its beauty, is made to appear especially surprising through the description is the things that Tony is denying in order give into the peace and happines he feels in the golden carp.At one point, Tony is at sunday school at church, and the priest is describing to the students the concept of an eternity. An eternity, he proceeds to explain, is the amount of time it would take a bird to pick up every grain of sand on a beach, one by one, and fly it across the pacific ocean to deposit on a shore in Japan. And then, when the entire beach has been transported, he does it again, and brings every grain to the other side, a million times. That's how long an eternity is, and that's how long you will stay in heaven or in hell. This concept frightened me like a week ago, I can imagine how it might affect an eleven year old boy. Yet, the beauty of the golden carp, and the balance that it's existance creates within Tony is more than enough to allow him to betray the doctrine he has been taught to believe in and risk finding out the hard way exactly how long an eternity is.The book's symbolism is far deeper than what I can describe in this review, and it includes themes like free will vs. destiny that I have not mentioned. Overall I can say it is a beautifully written book, with easy to recognize parallels to the inner-turnmoil of the reader, and I recommend reading it at least twice to truly appreciate the ideas and messages conveyed in Anaya's novel.

Loved the book. I recommend it to readers.

Es un libro espectacular. No soy un experto en literatura pero definitivamente es uno de mis favoritos. Una historia fantástica y una novela obligatoria dentro de la literatura chicana.

The story of ten-year-old Antonio/Anthony Marez is a Bildungsroman in which a ‘curandera’ (a healer) by the name of Última guides the boy through his passage into maturity. It is set against the backdrop of the Chicano culture, a people for whom magic and religion are intertwined.The Chicanos are Spanish-speaking people whose ancestors had been living in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, etc. for generations when the US took these lands from Mexico in the 1840s. Living in-between the Anglo-American and the Mexican cultures, they eventually generated their own, which is marked by hybridity and liminality. Anaya portrays Chicano culture, but this ain't a documentary: it's a page-turning story of magic realism and borderlands, one with which any reader may empathise.

Great book! For non-Spanish speakers - while it is primarily in English (97%) the Spanish is not what Spanish 101 gives you and it doesn't have a glossary. However the same Spanish words are repeated (so you may only have to look them up once - write them down if your memory isn't the best), also you will know these words/phrases by the time you're done with the book. It's worth the effort!

It paint a nice picture of chicano culture but I didn't think it was that special. It seemed slow at times and nothing really happened.