Bless Me, Ultima

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1972

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-19

Chapters 20-22

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Background

Authorial Context: Anaya and Autofiction

Anaya (1937-2020) is a Chicano author who is credited as one of the founders of the Chicanx literary movement. Bless Me, Ultima (1972) is his first novel. It is a work of autofiction, combining elements of Anaya’s real life with fictional characters and situations.

Anaya was born in Pastura, New Mexico, before moving to Santa Rosa as a young boy. Anaya’s father was a former vaquero, and his mother was the daughter of a farming family, so the cultural conflict at the center of Bless Me, Ultima is drawn from his life experience. Anaya was born into a time of flux, when the economy of New Mexico was shifting away from agriculture and toward modern wage work. This cultural shift is the backdrop for Bless Me, Ultima, which explores the idea of change on both a personal and cultural level.

Anaya modeled Antonio’s experience with cultural exchange on his own as he moved between a Spanish-speaking household to an English-speaking school. He was raised Catholic, but his family also taught him about Mexican and Indigenous folk healing practices, which inspired the character of Ultima.

Aside from personal and cultural details, much of Bless Me, Ultima is fiction. The healer, Ultima, is a product of Anaya’s imagination. In a 2013 interview with C-SPAN, he revealed that her character appeared to him in a vision and said of the novel, “you’ll never get it right unless you put me in it.” The novel is heavily imbued with magical realism, which is a genre prevalent in the Latin American literary tradition. The elements of autobiography and fiction combine to create a work that is both personal and fantastical.

Literary Context: Anaya’s Influence on the Chicanx Literary Canon

Bless Me, Ultima is widely considered one of the foundational works of the Chicanx literary canon. At the time of its publication in 1972, there were few mainstream works that spotlighted Chicanx culture. The term Chicanx is a gender-inclusive form of the words Chicano and Chicana and refers to Mexican American ethnic and cultural identity. Chicanx people resist assimilation into Eurocentric American culture and express pride in their Spanish language (though not all Chicanx people speak Spanish) and ties to Mexican and Indigenous culture.

Though the Chicanx socio-political movement known as El Movimiento was in full swing as Anaya wrote Bless Me, Ultima, the book was rejected by dozens of publishing houses for fear that it wouldn’t sell. After several years of rejections, Bless Me, Ultima was finally picked up by Berkeley-based Quinto Sol, the first independent Chicanx publishing house.

Anaya’s initial struggle to get his novel published reflected doubts that a story about a Chicanx protagonist would do well, but Bless Me, Ultima shattered these expectations by becoming an instant bestseller. It has since sold over half a million copies and garnered widespread acclaim, including a 2013 film adaptation.

Bless Me, Ultima was controversial at the time of its publication. It dealt with themes unfamiliar to much of the public and faced backlash for its critical depiction of Catholicism as well as references to folk magic, sexuality, and violence. Some accused Anaya of writing an anti-Catholic novel. Over time, its reputation as a classic and a cultural artifact eclipsed this criticism though it remains on the list of the most commonly challenged books in the US as compiled by the American Library Association.

The success of Bless Me, Ultima carved out a niche for other Chicanx writers to have their work seen and published. Anaya eventually expanded the novel into a trilogy, including Heart of Aztlan (1976) and Tortuga (1979), which both present perspectives on the Chicanx experience in New Mexico. The success of Anaya’s novels helped to establish a literary tradition, which nowadays includes other acclaimed authors like Sandra Cisneros and Luis J. Rodriguez.