Bless Me Ultimas
Bless Me Ultima is the story of how a curandera named Ultima and her owl come to live with the Marez-Luna family in the their small home on a rocky hill in Guadalupe, New Mexico during World War II, and of how she helps influence and teach the hero of the story, young Antonio Marez in the ancient customs of healing and magic.
We learn that Ultima was the midwife during Antonio’s birth, and that after performing his birth, Ultima has a special bond with the boy, and this becomes evident in a dream where Antonio remembers how Ultima presided over his birth, and of the differences between his father’s family – vaqueros or cowboys – and his mother’s – a peaceful farming family who were part of the original settlers of New Mexico. His father is not religious, while his mother is devoutly a Catholic, and there is tension in the home due to this. Both parents agree to bring Ultima into their home because she is old, and they respect her, and while she is not related to them, she is closely linked to their family.
Following a horrific shooting of the towns sheriff by Lupito, a damaged and disturbed returning Mexican G.I. – Antonio witnesses Lupito’s own murder on the river by his father, and a group of towns men seeking vengeance for the senseless murder of the sheriff by Lupito. Here, Antonio sees how Narciso, the town drunk is kinder even than his own father, as Narciso tries to prevent the group of men from killing Lupito – but fails.
With Ultima in the house, Antonio spends the summer with her, sitting by the river, and gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains, and learning the ancient ways and myths of his people. Ultima impresses Antonio with a sense of her powers, and he respects her deeply, and her ways excite his imagination, and his longing to make sense of his cognitive dissonance at growing up in two very different and incongruous belief systems, those of Catholicism, and those of the ancient Chican@ customs and myths.
We learn that Ultima was the midwife during Antonio’s birth, and that after performing his birth, Ultima has a special bond with the boy, and this becomes evident in a dream where Antonio remembers how Ultima presided over his birth, and of the differences between his father’s family – vaqueros or cowboys – and his mother’s – a peaceful farming family who were part of the original settlers of New Mexico. His father is not religious, while his mother is devoutly a Catholic, and there is tension in the home due to this. Both parents agree to bring Ultima into their home because she is old, and they respect her, and while she is not related to them, she is closely linked to their family.
Following a horrific shooting of the towns sheriff by Lupito, a damaged and disturbed returning Mexican G.I. – Antonio witnesses Lupito’s own murder on the river by his father, and a group of towns men seeking vengeance for the senseless murder of the sheriff by Lupito. Here, Antonio sees how Narciso, the town drunk is kinder even than his own father, as Narciso tries to prevent the group of men from killing Lupito – but fails.
With Ultima in the house, Antonio spends the summer with her, sitting by the river, and gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains, and learning the ancient ways and myths of his people. Ultima impresses Antonio with a sense of her powers, and he respects her deeply, and her ways excite his imagination, and his longing to make sense of his cognitive dissonance at growing up in two very different and incongruous belief systems, those of Catholicism, and those of the ancient Chican@ customs and myths.