Earth Did Not Part /

¶ … Earth Did Not Part /

Bless Me, Ultima

Bless Me, Ultima / and the Earth Did Not Part

It is not possible to read Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, and Tomas Rivera's and the Earth Did Not Part without coming to the realization that cultural identity - education, family, and spiritual acculturation - has greatly influenced in a very real sense in the lives of the Chicano peoples along the southern borders of the U.S. This paper will highlight the powerful narrative efforts of both authors, bringing special attention to the economic, historical, social and regional influences that play a dramatic role in these characters, their families and their communities.

Bless Me, Ultima

Anaya's novel actually grabs the alert reader and takes him into the world where the Latino family's traditional interests - including the spiritual and sacred interests - blend with the secular world. World War II has just concluded in this story, which takes place in the small town of Guadalupe in eastern New Mexico. Tony Marez is just six years old when the story begins, but he grows up fast and goes through his maturation period with plenty of conflicts and challenges to confront.

Tony Marez sees his brothers come home from the war then leave again, because they are too bored with the very small town. This hurts him because he idolizes them. The skill in which Anaya brings out the cultural influences that are part of Tony's growing up, and takes readers along for the ride, is superb. Tony also has older sisters in the house and an older woman named Ultima arrives in the house who was the midwife for Tony's mother during his birth and during the births of his two sisters. There are cultural corners to come around during the decision his parents make regarding whether to invite Ultima into the home or not; she is a curandera (something of a mystic healer) but is sometimes misunderstood by those outside of the family to be a person involved in witchcraft. The truth is Ultima can cure some sicknesses through her medicine, and so she is invited to come into the home. She is a big help, and she is something of a mystery because while the family is active in the Roman Catholic Church, Ultima strays a bit from Catholic dogma with her "cures" and methods for healing.

While some attention is paid to the daughters, and to the dynamics of the family, the novel zeros in on Tony, who is a remarkably polite and gracious young man in his interactions with friends at school, his parents, the priest at catechism class.

Clearly this is a story in which the author wants to illustrate the growing up of a young Latino boy through his family experiences, but also through his religious and educational experiences.

Ayala intends to show the conflicts that Tony goes through as to whether to believe in Ultima's magic or the Catholic Church. On page 98 Tony is out fishing, soaking up some sun, when he begins wondering how "...the medicine of the doctors and of the priest had failed." Ultima's medicine had cured his uncle and now he was back at work. So in his young mind he was conflicted; "I could not understand how the power of God could fail. But it did" (Ayala, 98). As time goes on, readers learn that Tony "...felt more attached to Ultima than to my own mother," and he spends "most of the long summer evenings in her room" (Ayala, 115). And so it is set up by the author that Tony's mind was to remain somewhat open as to whether the Catholic Church had all the answers or not.

In fact, Tony was learning that there is more than way to be spiritual, and that Ultima had within her power the ability to do things that the Church could not do. But in the playground at school Tony is rudely confronted by his classmates; they accuse Ultima of being a witch. "At least we don't have a witch around our house," one classmate said. "Hey yeah! Tony's got a witch!" another one chimed in. "Chingada!" "Ah la vecca!" (Anaya, 139). This is very heavy stuff for a young boy who looks up to the older woman in his parents' house. One of the boys accuses Ultima of blinding a man through "witchcraft."

The rudeness continues and into the discussion is introduced the notion that if a person is not a Catholic he or she will go to hell. "It's true," said Lloyd, "heaven is only for Catholics." A fight ensued and following the battle, no one teased Tony about Ultima again. So the book brings the religious issue onto the school playground, and in the rough-and-tumble way of young boys and their fists, in which Tony showed he wouldn't back down, Tony figures there was the "powerful, unknown magic of Ultima." Somehow, her power would protect him, he believed (Anaya, 140).

As the book goes deeper into the lives of Tony and his family, and of Ultima, it becomes clear that a good deal of Tony's education is gained not just through school but also through his association with Ultima. She is the pagan influence - also very much an earthy, honest disciple of herb medicine and magic - while his mother and father are Christian in their influence. Ultima is really more into the original, authentic native world of Mexican history (Aztecas, Mayas) while Tony's parents are Catholics, a religion that was brought into Mexico from Europe and in the big picture of things, is considered perhaps less pure.

On page 227 we find out that Tony's friend Cico goes to the Catholic Church only for his mother, "to please her." Cico tells Tony that he has to choose "...between the god of the church, or the beauty that is here and now" (Anaya, 227). Tony and Cico have been fascinated with the story of a golden carp, a mythical creature that is linked to the magic that Ultima brings into Tony's life. Though all the church influences and school influences have made a mark on Tony, he nevertheless ends up choosing the natural world's lure rather than the Catholic Church. On page 227 the boys see the golden carp, and Tony is locked into his decision on page 228. "We let the sun beat down on us, and like pagans we listened to the lapping water and the song of life in the grass around us."

At about the same time that Ultima placed a pouch of her special herbs around Tony's neck (118), replacing the Catholic scapular - that right there was the symbolic change in Tony's life from Christianity to pagan. It should come as no surprise to readers that Tony would become in effect a pupil of Ultima. On page 14, the author reveals the kind of education that Tony is receiving from this older woman who cures with herbs and relies on her magic for power, rather than the traditional Latino spiritual authority, and who will win over his beliefs later in the book.

And I was happy with Ultima. We walked together in the Llano and along the river banks to gather herbs and roots for her medicines. She taught me the names of plants and flowers, of trees and bushes, of birds and animals, but most important, I learned from her that there was a beauty in the time of day and in the time of night, and that there was peace in the river and in the hills.

She taught me to listen to the mystery of the groaning earth and to feel complete in the fulfillment of its time. My soul grew under her careful guidance."

Even Tony's father understood that there are things the young man needs to learn outside of the family structure. Gabriel drives Tony to visit with his Luna uncles on a farm some distance away from the family. "It will be good for you to be on your own this summer, be away from your mother," he says to his son (235). And when the young man asks why it would be good to be away from his mother, his dad answered, "I can't tell you why, but it is so."

In reviewing this book - and the lessons learned through religion and school - a reader should keep in mind that Tony actually received an education - besides his formal schooling - from three age groups. His own peers were one age group; his parents were the middle group in terms of age; and Ultima represented the old and wise age group. This trio of age groups was a great benefit to Tony as he learned something different from each one, and it helped him to come to terms with the great moral and spiritual questions in his mind.

The author has not written very much in this novel about Tony's mother Maria Marez, at least in comparison to Tony's world. Readers know that Maria is very religious, and that she prays often and cooks for the family. On page 7 readers learn that in her haste to keep the Catholic ritual of crossing herself, she mixes cooking and religion. "She breathed a prayer and crossed her forehead. The flour left white stains on her, the four points of the cross." Her life is not at all about her, but about the men in her family. And it seems she is a literary counterpoint to Ultima, who is spiritually as strong as Maria is faithful to Catholicism.

On page 50 it is clear that Tony will not depend on his mother's nurturing for a long period of time. "He will be all right,' Ultima said. 'The sons must leave the sides of their mothers,' she said almost sternly, and pulled my mother gently." And as the friendship between Tony and his classmates in school grows stronger, he begins making his own mind up about what he should do and when he should do it. He in fact is asked to go fishing with his buddy Samuel, and after a brief hesitation, he explains: "I thought of my mother. I always went straight home after school, but today I had something to celebrate. I was growing up and becoming a man and suddenly I realized that I could make decisions" (Anaya, 70).

And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him

Unlike Anaya's book, the Tomas Rivera book is a series of stories that stand out in how they show the reader, they do not "tell" the reader, about the people, the culture, the challenges of being a Chicano in that period of history. They do not preach, but they give a voice to their characters. In a literary sense, his stories relate not only to migrant workers, but also to the underdog everywhere. The stories stand on their own but they all weave themes of humans confronting suffering and prejudice with the strength of hope, love, faith and family bonds. it's a terrible shame that Rivera died at such a relatively young age (48), because one can only imagine how many more wonderful stories he may have written - even though his demanding profession and his high social status as the Chancellor of the University of California at Riverside did not allow an extraordinary amount of time for serious writing.

The legacy of Chicanos in America has many stories within stories, and many of them are sad and tragic. For example, even though Mexican-Americans worked long hard hours for very little money, and were treated like the dirt they worked, they also served in the U.S. Armed Forces. In fact between 300,00 and 400,000 Chicanos went into the army to fight in World War II, and many served their country in Korea, too. And like the sons of Caucasian and African-American families, many of those men did not come home. That makes Rivera's story "The Portrait" very meaningful, both in the sense of the family that wanted to remember him, and the exploitation of that family by the man who sold them the portrait that they never received.

How sad indeed that a family still in mourning over their missing son gave a stranger the only photo they had of their son. They believed and had faith that the money they paid to the man would result in a beautiful framed portrait. The sadness is multiplied many times over when someone finds the sack of photos that was discarded, like taking a bag of garbage out to the dumpster. But the story, even though it is full of irony and tragedy and exploitation, shows in the end that a father will not stop until he achieves some justice for his family. Even though the photo of Chuy was "completely destroyed," the father tracked down the man and forced him to produce something that made the family feel better about it all. And there the portrait stood, probably a picture of the father, not the son; but it was next to the Virgin, symbolic of the importance of religion in this family, and that was the best the family could do in a difficult situation.

Meanwhile, the theme of the faith that binds the family together is used in a great number of quality literary pieces; but while reading Rivera's wonderful prose one comes into contact with and even becomes immersed in a wealth of powerful family images.

In "The Children Were Victims" story the boss is so viciously uncaring that there is a shortage of water in the field this is a situation he neglects to rectify. This is of course cruelty, and callous disregard for human survival. But a father's steady voice and leadership kept the child going. It was a good vs. evil, light vs. dark, but it was also a human family sticking together on a very hot April day against an enemy (boss) who should have been on the side of his employees.

In "Christmas Eve" the problems that beset a poor family that is barely eking out an existence are put in perspective by Rivera. This is a story that does not necessarily have a happy ending, but life's situations and circumstances don't always have happy endings - it just works out that way. Christmas is of course an important religious holiday in addition to being a commercial holiday, but sometimes the commercialism outweighs the religious aspects. This story shows the bonds of a family, even a family in desperate straights. Children nearly everywhere in the world love Christmas, they look forward to Christmas and whether they still believe in Santa Claus or not, they hope for and expect presents. Gifts are part of the season, and when all your friends get them but you don't, it leaves a cold, awful feeling for a child.

In this story Rivera sets the stage poignantly, so perfectly that in fact this is not a story about Christmas or children's desires; it's a story about family, how families work through challenges and difficulties. The theme is family but there is a theme within a theme, as is often the case with Rivera's stories. Rivera's life growing up in a migrant worker family of course has had a huge influence on his writing - writers create narrative and characters based on what they know and what they understand.

In this case, the suffering he saw as a child, moving from place to place while his parents worked in the fields with the short hoe, comes through in the struggles that the family goes through. The father in "Christmas Eve" is working eighteen hours a day in the kitchen of a restaurant, which shows the reader at least three things: father is a provider who cares not what the working conditions are; father is a man with no education and will be stuck with menial jobs his whole life; and three, father does not get to spend much time with his children since he is working all the time to put food on the table.

Meanwhile in this story, the pressure to buy toys for children is enormous; even though the children know their family is poverty stricken, they also know that their friends and kids everywhere are getting toys as gifts for Christmas. Mother tries to change things this Christmas but racism, meanness, ugly stereotyping and violence at the store prevent her from doing so. How horrible that the mother begins to believe that she may be insane, when all she has done is try to make Christmas a bit more special for her children.