AT Bless me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya tells a classical era, interweaving ancient world symbolism, especially the archetypes of nature, with the ritual traditions of the Catholic Church in a village in New Mexico at the end of World War II. These symbols are connected with each other with such historical strength that together they give depth to a fairy tale that becomes not only the story of Antonio Mares about growth in the southwest in 1944, but also one that returns to the beginning of time and becomes a universal archetypical motive for of humanity.
Sun and moon
Although all the characters contribute to the cohesion of the novel, the story belongs to Antonio, who is seven years old when the story opens, and Ultima, a curriculum that was present at the birth of Antonio and which now came to live with the family in the remaining years. While Antonio or Tony has two older sisters at home, he also has three brothers who are serving their country abroad in the war and are returning home. Tony's father is Marez, a man who has traditions clinging to the ground, a lalan, a large grassy, almost hopeless plain, where a man can ride a horse and enjoy the companionship of his wandering friends, seeking freedom in this open country. His wife is the Moon, a family of farmers who love the rich soil of the river, the roots and the tradition of living on lunar cycles. The sun and the moon come together, but is it a sacred marriage to heaven and earth?
The influence of the feminine principle
Tony's father wants him to take the path of Marez, but his mother prays every day for Tony to become a peasant priest and continue the path set by the moon family. His mother, Maria Luna, symbolizes the feminine principle associated with her name, holding on to the power of cyclical time, and her source of strength comes from this moon Queen of Heaven, the Virgin de Guadalupe, who declares that she kneels before each day. The Mother of God is the goddess of the Moon, a weaver and spinner of fate, and it is she who Mary begs for the fate of her son in the Catholic Church. It is not by chance that St. Anthony is the patron saint of poor people, because Maria Luna prays that the fate of her son Tony will also be worthy of holiness, and the priest will boast. The matriarchal influence that surrounds Tony becomes even stronger when Ultima arrives.
Poll of the Patriarchal World
Antonio develops a relationship with Ultima when she enters their home, addressing her by name and not to respectful Grande and his mother scolds him for this break. But Ultima recognizes this connection between them and takes Tony with her every day to collect the plants and herbs she will use in her medicines. He learns from her when she speaks softly about the plants that she takes, explaining to them why she should take her roots from the ground. She teaches him that all nature has a spiritual life, a presence. While Tony thrives in this matriarchal world of his mother, Virgo de Guadalupe and Ultima, he begins to question his mother’s spiritual beliefs, as well as ultimates that are broken between what is true faith, and then he discovers the spiritual presence of the golden carp his friend Samuel.
Golden carp
It is not good to fish for large carp, that summer floods are being washed downstream. Like a big fish, fighting their riding upstream to restore their abode and not fall into the trap, Tony fights for his own evolution of the spirit. Samuel tells Tony the story of an ancient god who loved the people of the earth so much that he turned them into carp instead of killing them for their sins. As the story develops in parallel with his own Catholicism, he learns that a god who loved people turned into a fish, a golden carp, so that he could take care of his people. Tony is confused about who is right - God, Virgo or the golden carp.
Ultima, Curandera
As Tony says, Ultima heals his family with his magical healing, he wonders if she is also stronger than the church and its saints. When Maria Lucas's brother suddenly becomes very sick, he was afraid that one of the daughters of Tenorio Trementina cursed him for stumbling upon her witchcraft. The family asks Ultima to use her power as a standard to heal him. Medicine and the Catholic Church were not successful. They agree with the Ultima condition: when someone narrows down with fate, a chain of events begins to move, over which they will not be controlled. They must be ready to accept this reality. They do, and the grandfather pays Ultima $ 40 for silver-silver, once again confirming the lunar feminine principle to cure his son Lukas.
Good stronger than evil
Ultimate requests for supplies and silence are met, but it also requires the help of Tony, because, according to him, his name is Juan-John, as in Saint John and John the Baptist, whose name means decoration by God, Tony observes her rituals, bathing dying uncle, burning incense, a sip of grass potion and long hours of waiting. He knows that he is in the midst of evil, but he is not afraid. Ultima soothes his fears: "Good is always stronger than evil." A lesser part of good can withstand all the forces of evil in the world, and it will become triumphant. “Tony will strengthen the good she can do because he is decorated with God, a concept that is consistent with his Catholicism.”
Before Ultima cures Lukas ’throat, she fashioned three dolls from her magic oils and fresh black clay. She puts them on and lets Lukas breathe on them, and then she dips three pins in the oil and inserts them into the dolls. Tony does not quite understand what Ultima did before the time when two of the daughters of Trementine die. He is embarrassed by his power, which seems to be one and even more than God.
Narciso, the life and death of Dionysus
Tony Samuel's friend tells Siko about the golden carp. When Samuel goes to the flock of sheep with his father, Siko takes Tony to see the arrival of the golden carp, but on the way they stop at the house of Narciso, the figures of Dionysus, who get drunk in the spring and turn the moonlight at night. When he leaves, and the two boys slide into his hidden garden, Tony realizes what Siko means when he says: "The garden is like Narciso - he is drunk." Tony is awakened by the fertility of this garden, grown in the moonlight, but in fear or perhaps superstition he will not take part in generosity.
Narciso is trying to warn Ultima Tenorio of intent to kill her in retaliation for the accused curse, which she imposed on her second daughter, who is dying. Tony, returning home in the snow, rehearsing school Christmas competition, secretly follows him. When brother Tony Andrew cannot tear himself away from Rosie's house to help, the aging Narciso must set off on his own, and Tony continues to follow him. Tenorio shoots Narciso, who dies under a juniper tree. Although confused by his role in the Catholic Church, Tony makes a sign of the cross over Narciso and accepts his confession, acting as the priest his family expects. Yielding to pneumonia, Tony dreams of the omnipresence of evil in his village, because everything in him dies a violent death and burned, and the golden carp swallows everything and shines as brilliant as the new sun.
Emptiness: Where is God?
It is time for Tony to study his catechism with other boys in the church in preparation for his first communion, but he is still surprised if the golden carp is more powerful than the God of his Catholic church. He wonders if the Virgin Mary rules or the golden carp in God. On Easter Sunday, when Tony takes the plate for the first time, he prays for the answers to his question: why is there evil, death and torture? He feels only emptiness. He thinks: “God, whom I did not so readily have,” and later he recognizes his teacher that growing up is not easy. He tells her: “Ultima says that man’s destiny must unfold like a flower.”
Again, Tony is witnessing Ultima’s ability to heal when she performs rituals to raise a curse from her father Tony Tolles. That night, Tony still has not received any message from God. He asks what is really God's power? Siko tells him that he must choose between the God of the church and the golden carp. When they watch the greatness of a godlike carp floating in a stream, they decide that their friend Florence, the one who could not take his first communion, because he did not confess his non-existent sins, deserved the right to witness the golden carp for himself. However, when they go searching, they discover that he was drowned in a floating accident under Blue Lake.
Tony dreams again, and in this dream, all he believes in death is even Ultima and the golden carp. Restraint, he goes to his uncles in Los Puerto to learn about farming. Before he leaves, Ultima says: "Life is filled with sadness when a boy becomes a man." Tony asks his father if a new religion can be created. Father Tony Gabriel Marez explains to his son that understanding does not come from God. It comes from the experience of life, and it takes a lifetime to get this understanding. He understands, in particular, Tony's confusion about religion and healing, and he tells him that Ultima is not afraid, because "she sympathizes with people, so full that she can touch their souls and heal them." That summer, Tony gets stronger from everything that happened to him.
Ultima and the Owl: Antonio's Blessing
But the second daughter Tenorio dies and in his madness, he first tries to kill Tony, who runs away from him, and then goes to Guadalupe to find and kill Ultima. Instead, Tenorio shoots an owl, and, pointing to Tony's rifle, Pedro, who is Uncle Tony, kills him with his gun. Ultima, whose life is connected with the life of an owl, is dying. She whispers to Tony that she, like an owl, "makes its way to a new place, a new time." Before she dies, he asks for her blessings. “Her hand touched my forehead, and her last words were:“ I bless you in the name of all the good and strong and beautiful Antonio. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and owls sing in the hills. I'll be with you ...
Tony will bury an owl under a juniper tree in the moonlight, a symbol of his mother's family. He covers the owl with the land of the lala, the house and the symbol of his father. Regardless of whether Tony has an obligation to comprehend the totality of blessings, as well as the evil that performs his rites, he was deeply touched by the feminine archetypes of the moon, the three fates, the river and the fish, the owl and the juniper, as well as cyclical changes around him to recall the advice Ultimates with great understanding and wisdom when he turned into a man: "Take life experience and create strength from them, not weakness."
