Cross-Cultural Identity in Anaya, Silko, and Baca

Introduction

Several works in American literature can be viewed as groundbreaking both for the era in which they were created and for the subjects they address. The 1970s and 1980s represented a critical period in United States history, reflecting the struggle of the American people for acceptance and recognition. Certain works from this era portray particularly well the efforts of Americans — regardless of their national or ethnic origin — to be accepted in society while maintaining their cultural identity and beliefs.

Among these, three works stand out: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, and A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Each text illuminates a particular aspect of the challenges involved in cross-cultural communication. In every case, the author tries to convey the feelings and emotions that struggle to cross the barrier of culture — and that effort constitutes the core of each writer's endeavor. The cultural challenge and the desire to share one's cultural experience represent the connecting thread between all three books.

Bless Me, Ultima and Mexican-American Cultural Identity

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is a significant work in large part because it functions as a form of autobiography. Anaya explained in one interview: "Bless Me, Ultima is autobiographical in the sense that I use my hometown, the Pecos River, Highway 66, the church, the school, the little villages and ranches around the town. My parents were very much like Antonio's parents. My mother grew up in a farming family in Porta de Luna. My father grew up on the llano as a vaquero, as a cowboy, so as a child, I saw the tensions that a conflicting way of life created" (National Endowment for the Arts, 2010).

Anaya led a troubled life both as a child and as an adult. More importantly, he used the novel to underscore the need for communication and storytelling as a means of transmitting cultural messages across generations. Bless Me, Ultima portrays the environment in which he grew up during the 1940s and 1950s, as well as his later adult experiences. It is clear that the author's subsequent experiences shaped his perspective, and that perspective played an important role in dictating the novel's plot. This is most visible in the figure of Ultima, who in real life would be a healer; in the book, however, Ultima occupies a space at the border between healing and witchcraft, between good and evil.

The presence of Ultima is crucial because she functions as a symbol of mysticism and hidden knowledge — a hint at the deeper, more arcane dimensions of culture. As Anaya himself stated: "In Bless Me, Ultima, I took that very real world of women who are healers, or curanderas, but I moved it a little bit into witchcraft to set up the conflict between good and evil" (National Endowment for the Arts, 2010). Through this device, Anaya explores the tensions within Mexican-American cultural identity — between folk tradition and institutional religion, between the old world and the new.

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a second work that conveys the differences between cultures and peoples. The novel follows a Native American man as he attempts to reconcile with his own past, come to terms with the events that shaped his present, and confront the possibilities of his future. The narrative is filled with recollections, with secrets drawn from Native culture, and with the protagonist's struggle to overcome the atrocities he witnessed during the Second World War.

The plot itself is relatively straightforward. Silko did not set out to write an action story or even a purely personal one. Her primary goal was to express the inner life of a man — a Native American veteran — who returned from war to find himself alienated from his own world. It was not so much the environment that had changed, but rather the man himself, who no longer felt he belonged. In this way, the story is simple in action yet complex in ideas.

The title carries deep significance. The ceremony described in the novel represents the means by which Native Americans connect with their ancestors, their history, and their past. Ceremonies are the link between the old and the new, between past and future generations. As Silko writes at the opening of the book:

Ceremony and the Power of Native American Tradition

"Ceremony — I will tell you something about stories, [he said] / They aren't just entertainment. / Don't be fooled. / They are all we have, you see, / all we have to fight off / illness and death. / You don't have anything / if you don't have the stories." (Silko, 1977, p. 2).

Unlike European cultures, where oral tradition was largely supplanted by written records after the Middle Ages, Native American cultures — despite the diversity that distinguishes each nation from the others — have historically relied on the spoken word to transmit their heritage. Ceremonies bring these words and practices together, reminding community members of their place in the universe and in the tribe. The protagonist connects with his identity and sense of belonging through precisely these rituals.

The strongest message the novel conveys is the power that tradition holds over the individual and the community. It provides shelter and a sense of belonging, while also offering unity — ceremonies are moments when everyone comes together to celebrate and reaffirm shared values. This unity is especially important in the face of the constant pressures confronting the Pueblo people. Through symbolic ceremonial practice, the community maintains resilience against those pressures.

Ultimately, the novel suggests that the best way to transmit cultural heritage in the modern world is to adapt to contemporary conditions without surrendering cultural identity or spiritual values. The challenge of living on reservations and navigating the expectations of Anglo-American society must be met with care, but tradition need not be abandoned in the process.

The third book is more a statement than a narrative. A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is considered a truly powerful voice for all those who were misjudged, misrepresented, or misunderstood. Drawing on his background as a formerly incarcerated man, Baca regards it as his duty to speak out in the name of justice — social, political, and economic — and the book is the expression of that commitment.

Unlike the other two works discussed here, A Place to Stand is an autobiography. The personal nature of the narration is evident throughout. The story unfolds in New Mexico, and Baca's descriptions of that place convey the full emotional texture of his life, from early childhood through adulthood. One particularly revealing passage addresses his incarceration directly: "The last time I was in prison was five years ago. It was serious time in a serious place — Florence, a maximum security state prison in Arizona. I landed there as I had landed in the others, by being a poor kid with too much anger and the wrong skin color" (Baca, 2001, p. 3). Here, Baca identifies the key elements that defined his experience as a Mexican-American: poverty, anger, and racial identity — the forces that put him in conflict with society.

According to the book, his time in prison changed him profoundly. Most significantly, it transformed him into a poet. Prison taught him the necessity of survival and self-improvement in pursuit of a higher purpose. In that sense, incarceration functioned, paradoxically, as a form of salvation.

Conclusion

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Viking, 1977.