Cultural, Religious and Language Conflicts in Bless Me, Ultima

1741 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: 4 page essay on chicano literature

Cultural, religious and language conflicts in Bless Me, Ultima
Bless Me, Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya and published in 1972, has become one of the most widely read as well as critically acclaimed novels in the Chicano literature. It is first in the trilogy of novels by Anaya, with Heart of Aztlan (1976) and Tortuga (1979) following it. This novel can be viewed from many angles as well as layers, as it intertwines issues or themes of psychological maturation, social changes, identity crisis and importantly cultural conflict, all into coherent and interesting story of a young boy and his guide. Antonio Márez y Luna or Antonio is the young protagonist who with the guidance of his curandera (Traditional Native American healer) and mentor, Ultima faces various life situations in a positive manner. The story starts off when Antonio is about to turn seven, and to satiate his curiosity and to guide him, Antonio’s parents request Ultima to join the family. With Ultima’s guidance, Antonio internally as well as externally debates about his’ beliefs regarding culture, religion, personal identity and language, and eventually finds many answers. The themes of cultural, religious and language conflicts is prominently featured in the novel as it reflects the Chicano culture in rural New Mexico during 1940s, along with its confrontation with Catholicism and English language. Thus, the focus will be on how Antonio gets involved in various cultural, religious and language conflicts, starting with the cultural conflict involving his parents, religious conflict between his Catholic and indigenous cultures as well as conflict between English language and Spanish, and how with the aid of Ultima, Antonio finds a common ‘ground’ or balanced perspecti...

... middle of paper ...

...Different cultural convections of his parents leads to cultural conflicts, which gets managed by Ultima’s wise counsel of taking best aspects of all cultures and forming his own perspective. This advice of Ultima was also applicable during the religious conflict. When Antonio questions existence of Catholic God due to the initiation into pagan gods, it was Ultima who guided him. As far as language conflict is concerned, although Antonio struggled initially, he was able to optimally manage it.

Works Cited
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 1999.
Hostetler, Ann. “Anaya Rudolfo.” In Emmanuel Sampath Nelson (ed.). The Greenwood
Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature: A - C. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Publishing Group, 2005.
Kevane, Bridget A. Latino Literature in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group,
2003.

Show More
Related

  • Ultima is a Curandera in "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ultima goes to stay with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents, two sister, and three brothers. This is because Ultima is too old to live on her own. Antonio and Ultima grow very close. Antonio helps Ultima cure his uncle Lucas and lift the curse on the Tellez home. Ultima collects herbs from the mountains and uses these to make remedies and medicines. She used remedies and medicines to cure Antonio’s uncle, Lucas.

    Read More

  • Who Is Huitzitzilin In Song Of The Hummingbird

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    Listening is an important skill that many people take for granted. Listening empathelicay means putting oneself in “someone else’s shoes”. Listening only to get information takes away much of what the speaker is saying, by being able to empathize with someone one is on the same wavelength. In this world, there exist many different cultures and subcultures. In Graciela Limon’s novel, Song of the Hummingbird, Huitzitzilin tells her story as Father Benito listens. She tells Father Benito the native view of what has happened- she tells him things that he has never heard of from his people. Huitzitzilin and Father Benito are products of two different cultures: Aztecs and Spaniards, respectively. Limon portrayed that the Spaniards didn’t even try to understand the Aztecs ways. Limon uses the literary elements of characterization, point of view, and internal conflict to show that in order to understand another culture, one must be able to treat his/her’s history with the same compassion and understanding as if it was their own's.

    Read More

  • Religion and Belief in Bless Me Ultima

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    After reading the book, Bless Me Ultima, I realized the integral importance of religion and need for religion and answers to life’s questions. At first, while reading this book, I thought it was just about relationships and the meaning in them but as the plot progressed I realized the book, is more than that, it questions the structures that decide the rules, morals and values that society is composed of. There were three types of religion that I identified in the book that young Anthony chose to pursue. The first was the paganistic rituals of Ultima. Ultima came into the life of Tony at a very young age and had great influence n the child. Ultima saved the life of Lucas through Tony’s strength. Physical pain was brought unto Anthony because of Ultima's ritual, showing actual validity of the rituals themselves, that they were had tangibility. She brought torment on the Tenorio’s family (he was the antagonist in the book-the bad guy) saving Lucas though using ritualistic dolls and chants. This showed her magic was not only good but bad as well. Ultima guided Anthony through all of the mental and social torment during his early years of grade school. So in away Ultima was a guide for Tony through his early years to make sense of all of the storms in his early life, but also was an instrument of religion to base his life on. But in the end of the book Ultima ultimately dies and the strength he once found in her is destroyed. She is ...

    Read More

  • Summary of Bless Me, Ultima

    887 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bless Me, Ultima is a story about the maturation of a young Mexican-American boy, Antonio M’arez, struggling with many questions about his destiny, life and death, and good and evil. Ultima who comes to live with Antonio becomes his caretaker and his teacher. Antonio learns there are powers in the world that differ from his beliefs in the Catholic faith. Ultima teaches Antonio “that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart”. Ultima shows Antonio how to experience the magic of life with his heart and not with his eyes. For the first time, he sees the river not as something to be feared but as a source of life, “I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things”. The river is both creative and destructive in nature. It is this new magical way of seeing the river that will help Antonio understand many of the events that occur in the novel.

    Read More

  • How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

    1942 Words  | 4 Pages

    of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it’s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story about Latin Americans , when

    Read More

  • Mexican Folk Music: El Corrido

    1821 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late 19th century and early 20th century, a form of Mexican folk music called the corrido gained popularity along the Mexico-Texan border (Saldívar). Growing from the Spanish romance tradition, the corrido is a border ballad “that arose chronicling the history of border conflicts and its effects on Mexican-Mexican culture” (Saldívar). A sort of “oral folk history,” the corrido was studied intensely by Américo Paredes, who then constructed his masterpiece, George Washington Gomez, around the “context and theme” of the corrido (Mendoza 146). But the novel is not a traditional corrido, in which the legendary hero defends his people and dies for his honor. Instead, through its plot, characterization, and rhetorical devices, George Washington Gomez is an anti-corrido.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Religion In Bless Me Ultima

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel, Bless Me Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya, two different religions are introduced. The religion of Catholicism is the religion originally practiced by the novel’s main character, Antonio. Throughout the novel, the religion of the Golden Carp is introduced and causes a crisis of faith for Antonio. Antonio must learn to choose between the conventional values of the Church and the modern beliefs of the Golden Carp by comparing and contrasting the two religions.

    Read More

  • The Chicano and The Black Power Movements

    3047 Words  | 7 Pages

    Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.

    Read More

  • “The Rain God”: Repression Within the Angel Family

    1493 Words  | 3 Pages

    Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.

    Read More

  • The Latino Culture in America

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).

    Read More

  • Taming Anzaldua’s Contact Zone Analysis

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...

    Read More

  • Bless Me Ultima

    584 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book “Bless Me Ultima”, by Rudolpho Anaya, there were two families represented, the Marez family and the Lunas family. These two families were very different, but were brought together by the marriage of Gabriel Marez and Maria Lunas. Through the eyes of their son Antonio one may see the comparison of the two. The differentiation of these two families is very clearly noticeable, such as in their personalities, the expression of their religion, and their everyday ways of life.

    Read More

  • Antonio's Dreams in Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

    838 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a boy goes through many more experiences than any child in the hot summer days in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. He witnesses the deaths of his close friends and family. This boy expresses his emotions and grief through his dreams, only to wake up with fear and confusion in his mind. Antonio’s life is filled with dreams that foreshadow future incidents, as well as influences Antonio’s beliefs of religion and ideas of innocence.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    The contrast between the Mexican world versus the Anglo world has led Anzaldua to a new form of self and consciousness in which she calls the “New Mestiza” (one that recognizes and understands her duality of race). Anzaldua lives in a constant place of duality where she is on the opposite end of a border that is home to those that are considered “the queer, the troublesome, the mongrel and the mulato” (25). It is the inevitable and grueling clash of two very distinct cultures that produces the fear of the “unknown”; ultimately resulting in alienation and social hierarchy. Anzaldua, as an undocumented woman, is at the bottom of the hierarchy. Not only is she a woman that is openly queer, she is also carrying the burden of being “undocumented”. Women of the borderlands are forced to carry two degrading labels: their gender that makes them seem nothing more than a body and their “legal” status in this world. Many of these women only have two options due to their lack of English speaking abilities: either leave their homeland – or submit themselves to the constant objectification and oppression. According to Anzaldua, Mestizo culture was created by men because many of its traditions encourage women to become “subservient to males” (39). Although Coatlicue is a powerful Aztec figure, in a male-dominated society, she was still seen

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Conflict In Jhumpa Lahiri’s This Blessed House

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    This Blessed House by Jhumpa Lahiri is a short story that follows a small period of time in the two characters’ lives. Having known one another for only four months, newlyweds Sanjeev and Tanima, called Twinkle, are finding it difficult to adjust to married life. Both have very different personalities, a theme that Lahiri continuously points to throughout the story,. Their conflict comes to a head when Twinkle begins finding Christian relics all over the house. Sanjeev wants to throw the relics away, but Twinkle collects them on the mantle and shows them off at every opportunity. As a character, Sanjeev is unadventurous and exacting, while Twinkle is free-spirited and does not care for the fine details. The root of the conflict between Jhumpa Lahiri’s characters Sanjeev and Twinkle in “This Blessed House” is the clashing of their two very different personalities in a situation that forces them together.

    Read More

More about Cultural, Religious and Language Conflicts in Bless Me, Ultima

Open Document