Rudolfo Anaya, "Bless Me, Ultima"

November 6th, 2012

     When I told my roommate that I was going to be reading Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a book that he had read his freshman year of high school, I was bombarded with nothing but negative comments and predictions of future visits to Sparknotes in search of refuge from mind-numbing literature. With bruises still visible from my experiences with Iracema, reluctancy crept over me as I opened the book and scanned over those first few pages. However, to my surprise, I found the first seven chapters of Anaya's novel to be extremely down to earth, reader-friendly, and engaging for the reader in the sense that Anaya really helped me find and identify the similarities between my own life and Chicano culture.

     "My father's dream was to gather his sons around him and move westward to the land of the setting sun, to the vineyards of California. But the war had taken his three sons and it had made him bitter. He often got drunk on Saturday afternoons and then he would rave against old age. He would rage against the town on the opposite side of the river which drained a man of his freedom, and he would cry because the war had ruined his dream. It was very sad to see my father cry, but I understood it, because sometimes a man has to cry. Even if he is a man."

(Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 14-15)

 

     For me, tears have always been an interesting thing. I have never been a horribly emotional person. The women of my family have always been the type of people that wear their emotions on their sleeves and are never afraid of putting the "waterworks" on display for all to see. As a missionary, in the Missionary Training Center and also the mission field, I experienced frequent displays of emotion, namely crying, on a consistent basis for really the first time in my life. I was often so overcome by the kinds of experiences that I was having, both positive and negative, that my pride and attempt to maintain a respectable level of "manhood" came crumbling down. As others around me, investigators and members alike, spoke of life's ups and downs and the various things that had happened to them, it was amazing to watch the physical manifestation of a deeper, inner feeling come forth. It's as if tears are nature's way of humbling her inhabitants. A man can deny what he feels until the tear makes its way from the duct to the cheek, providing sufficient evidence for all to see that something very real and deep is ocurring. There is no denying what others can see.
 

     Now for the fun part: Metallica. Forget the Disney songs that so many of us seem to be able to tie in to Latin American Humanities, Metalica's "One" could not be any more relevant. Looking beyond the power chords, long hair, and shredded jeans, "One" tells an extremely interesting tale of a war-torn soldier and his fight for happiness in a future lifestyle that will have little to offer him. While fighting in World War I, his face is blown off  by a mortar which deprives him of his ability to hear, see, smell, and taste. Finding himself with no arms or legs, he is consigned to a hospital bed where he spends his days reflecting on his life and the things that his father had taught him. Doctors are stunned by his frequent "spasms" that, oddly enough, don't seem to be harming his health. In an attempt to better understand the apparent medical phenomenon, the soldier's general is called in to see what he can do. As the general and a soldier accompanying him enter, immediately a spasm occurs. After a few minutes of continued movements, the accompanying soldier realizes that there is no spasm. The wounded soldier had been using morse code to communicate with the hospital staff. His message? K-I-L-L-M-E.
 

     From what I have read thus far in Bless Me Ultima, the war (WWII) is viewed as a curse of sorts that changes both men's desires and who they are. Immediately after the aforementioned quote was given by Antonio's father, Gabriel, Lupito kills Chavez. In search of an explanation for the sudden tragedy, Gabriel says: "Ay que Lupito, the war made him crazy." Just as Gabriel is brought low by what appears at this point to be a shattered dream, so to was the nameless soldier whose fortune would never change. Two men, humbled by life's challenges, were forced to sacrifice their "manhood" and submit to the will of a higher power.

 



    

     (Metallica, "ONE" - watch this video and this whole thing will make a lot more sense)