Marisa Tobias
Dr. Romo
EN7317
3 April 2017
Bless Me, Ultima: Women and Power Rudolfo Anaya’s novel, Bless Me Ultima is a coming of age story of a young boy, Antonio, growing up in New Mexico in the 1940s around the end of World War II, although it is a story of self-identity, it contains feminist tones particularly in regards to the title character, Ultima and the boy’s mother, Maria. Throughout the novel, Antonio is deeply torn between his mother’s dream of him becoming a priest and his father’s desire for him to live the life of a vaquero. However, he realizes, as a result of Ultima’s guidance and lessons about his culture, that he must make his own decisions and possibly create a way of life that might not be either one of his parents’ wish. Bless Me, Ultima, in the long run, shows the importance of Chicana women as mother figures and as leaders, Ultima and Maria are important and powerful women that break free from the traditional roles that women were expected to play during that moment in history and within that patriarchal society. Anaya is “hailed for helping the Latino way of life, traditions, and values become nationally recognized with his first novel, Bless Me Ultima (1971). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Anaya was known as the premier voice …show more content…
It is noted by one critic that “although Anaya presents Antonio's mother as conventional in her priorities and interests, readers will note, nonetheless, that Maria's constancy has a steadying influence on her impressionable son” (Fuse) thus proving that even though she is a woman in a male dominated society, Maria exerts a sort of power in her