Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima: A Psychological Critique of Religions

In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, one of the main characters, Ultima is accused many times of being a witch. Ultima is a curandera who uses herbs and medicines to cure people. She goes to live with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents and two sisters due to the fact that she cannot live by herself and had nowhere to stay. Although many people think she is a witch, her use of herbs, medicines, and scapulars show that she is merely just a curandera. With her use of chants and having her spirit in her owl, many are led to believe that she is really a witch.

Context: Antonio greets Ultima, a curandera, and welcomes her into his residence. He initially cannot respond to her, for he is taken aback by her “magic powers”.

Anaya shows Antonio’s quest for knowledge that begins with his questions after witnessing the shooting of Lupito. As Tony and Ultima head to church together on Sunday, he questions, “‘But, Ultima, how can he go to communion? How can he take God in his mouth and swallow him? Well God forgive his sin and

The final source of understanding for Antonio is God. He is expected to understand God, because his mother dreams for him to become a priest. He is also expected to believe in God because his mother is Catholic and that is what is expected of Antonio. "I hoped that in a few years the taking of the first holy communion would bring me understand"(77). Antonio is basically going through the motions that are expected of him. He is not genuinely excited to be taking his communion; it is just something that he feels he needs to do. He thinks that if he takes his first communion maybe he will have some answers for why there is good and evil going on around him. He says, "I want to know. I want to know the mysteries of

The wisest man asks questions pertaining to the complexities of life. However, when no answers are delivered said man seeks answers in a place that seems most correct. The spiritual life relies on believers who have strong fundamental beliefs in hope. The unshaken foundation relies on believers who give their everlasting hope and have solace in this faith alone. The faith goes deeper than understanding, but full reliance on the church and its holy deities to solve the world 's most mysterious questions, cure even the most powerful illness and still have faith when such actions do not occur. In Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima Antonio sought to find the answers he was so desperately in search for, however he never received an answer. Antonio’s religious ambivalence is created through his journey of life from several encounters, life and death alike, and not receiving answers to the questions that he most desperately sought for. The aspect of Antonio’s ideal benevolent God verses the God he was presented, and external sources, would all create different epiphanies that would lead him astray from the traditional church and into other spiritual realms. These realms would be an outlet for him to receive enlightenment to the situations of which he was presented.

Ultima’s role as demonstrates how Chicano culture is a mixture of multiple, conflicting influences. When Spanish Catholics arrived, they claimed curanderismo is a form of witchcraft. Thus, they killed those that practiced the act. But their interaction brought about a mixed culture where curanderismo existed in harmony with Catholicism. Anaya shows this religious blend by describing Antonio’s mother as a devout Catholic who also respects the Ultima’s powers.

Ultima is the towns “curandera” who is staying with the family and everyone in town thinks she is a bad witch. Antonio seems to adapt to Ultima quite quickly soon after she arrives and starts learning her way. He is seen looking up to her as if she were a mother figure and, at some point, as if she was the Virgin de Guadalupe. Antonio often finds comfort in Ultima and confides in her regarding his faith. Antonio then witnesses Ultima save his uncle when the evil twitches had done some bad witchcraft on him that nearly led him to death. Antonio then begins to see that the God he was raised to believe in is not the only one in power. Ultima comes in to place and teaches Antonio that he doesn’t have to pick one belief, rather he can identify with a little bit of both. Before Ultima’s death in the book, Antonio asks Ultima for her blessing and she is more than happy to do so because she did everything she could have to prepare him mentally to find the real

His parents have ideas which conflict each other when it relates to their precious last son’s fate. Like a hawk swooping down on its prey, Ultima, an elderly curandera comes to occupy a room in the Marez residence. To everyone else in the house Ultima staying with them is negligible, but the bond Antonio and Ultima soon begin to create is the first step into Antonio’s quest in finding his fate. “When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood.”(Anaya 1) Ultima’s presence alone lifted Antonio’s spirits, even the little things such as the llano he lived on all his life that had become mundane to him, began to glisten with great importance.

Hardship in childhood can cause children to be wise beyond their years. A child 's experiences are what shape their future, making them evolve both mentally and spiritually. In Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio’s system of beliefs is greatly influenced by the perception of God that is instilled in him mainly by his mother. His understanding of God is forced to evolve as Antonio goes through many experiences throughout the course of the novel, including the tragedies that befall Narciso, Florence, and Ultima and his exposure to these characters. God is a being that is characterized by his punishment of those who sin and his protection of those who do not. As the events in this novel unfold, Antonio sees on many occasions how the God that he believes in does not perform the roles that he believed he did.

Ultima helped guide young Antonio with her wisdom. As Antonio feels the loss of his

As the story unfolds, Antonio is struggling with his own mind for an answer to the sinful nature of man and the forgiveness of his God. Under the guidance of Ultima, he learns that he must decide for himself the moral basis of life and live by it so as not to drown in the world of sin he lives in. The theme is expressed when Antonio excitedly enters the church for his first communion, thinking it will bring him an understanding of that that has been troubling his mind, ”A thousand questions pushed through my mind, but the voice within me did not answer. There was only silence.” When he feels nothing at the end of the communion and wonders why his God would not answer his questions, he begins to learn that he cannot rely on his church or his priest to provide him with what he needs to define morality. He learns that moral independence is important and as he fulfilled Ultima’s dying wish, he then understood and forged his own moral independence. Another theme is that culture and blood have a great influence of one’s identity. It can be easily seen that his family’s religious ways and the pride they carry in their blood is greatly troubling Antonio on his road to finding his moral

She represents the Native American minority culture and Christianity as a curandera. She is a Native American spiritual healer who is derived from Rudolfo Anaya's own experience, "of a woman who was said to have powers to cure sickness"(Hispanic Biography 42). The syncretism of Ultima's Christ like abilities are given in two illustrations.

Throughout the book Antonio is introduced to many new ideas. The first is the experiences he has with Ultima. Ultima is a healer who learned

Religion is a cultural event that occurs in the life of the Lunas. Antonio’s mother brings that aspect with her when she marries with a man that has Marez blood. The presence of religion stays with Antonio throughout the course of the novel. It can easily be said that religion defines an enormous portion of who he is from the point of birth. He makes his best efforts to stay away from horrible experiences and put his thoughts out of anything that may make him doubts and God and heaven. But even for him it reaches to a point that he can’t bear with much more. But religion remains present even at home. While Antonio’s three older brothers, Andrew, Leon and Eugenio are away at war, Antonio and his family pray for them all the time and even when they have returned. They do this on a day to day basis to keep the presence of religion alive.

Ultima teaches Antonio of this magical strength as she tries to help him understand the murder of Narciso. The townspeople do not seek justice because Narciso had been the town drunk and his life seemed worthless, “Because Narciso was the town drunk, nobody cared much”. Ultima explains that Narciso had died trying to help a friend and that was honorable. Once Narciso had been a respectable young man but hard times had fallen upon him after the death of his young wife. Narciso had turned to alcohol to ease the pain but had remained forever indebted to Ultima for trying to save his wife. Ultima uses the death of Narciso to teach Antonio the ways of his ancestors. She explains, “The old people…always helped each other; through good or bad they stuck together, and the friendships that were formed in that desolate llano were bonds for life”. It was through Ultima that Antonio discovers life is not what is always seems. Narciso had died trying to warn Ultima but few remembered anything good about him. Narciso had an inner goodness that had been hidden by his use of alcohol. Ultima taught Antonio to see the magic in Narciso, just as she had thought him to see the magic in the river and all that surrounded it.