In the story “Bless Me, Ultima,” Rudolfo Anaya tells a story of a boy named Antonio

Marez and his family who take in a curandera, a healer, out of respect for her powers and the

service she provided for the community. The curandera’s name is Ultima and she is Antonio’s

midwife and with the powers she has, she alone knows what lies in Antonio’s future. The parents

want to write his future for him and say that he should either become a priest or he shall become

a vaquero, cowboy, who wanders the lands of New Mexico. Many themes are present throughout

the story of “Bless Me, Ultima.” Since it takes place in a Hispanic community the novel focuses

on the influence of culture on identity but it also introduces a theme of the importance of moral

independence.

Throughout the story, the main theme introduced by Anaya is the importance of moral

independence. An emphasis on thinking independently about moral decisions pervades in “Bless

Me, Ultima.” Anaya portrays Antonio’s progress toward moral independence is the main marker

of his maturity and development all throughout “Bless Me, Ultima.” Antonio’s skirmish to bring

together the difficult problems of his experience with his religion leads him to think in the end

that he must make his own decisions. He becomes increasingly frustrated by the failure of the

church to explain the most pressing questions about morality and human experience. Ultima

takes the initiative as Antonio’s guide as he learns the importance of moral independence. Ultima

instructs and educates him that the most difficult questions about life can never be answered

completely by a single religion or cultural tradition. Antonio has questions about evil,

forgiveness, truth, and the soul, questions he can answer only for himself throughout the

journeys and adventures he is taking throughout the story. Antonio once believed that the
Communion ritual would answer all his questions, but Ultima teaches him that he must think for

himself and arrive at his own conclusions and thoughts.

“Bless Me, Ultima” explores the difficulty of bringing together conflicting cultural

traditions. In the end, Anaya proposes that a person can extract certain aspects from several

cultural traditions to cast a more complicated and flexible identity. Antonio is so anxious to find

a single and definitive answer to the questions that frighten him because he has been influenced

by many conflicting cultures. The first major conflict involves his parents. His Luna mother

wishes for him to become a priest for the Catholic church, while his vaquero father wishes for

him to ride the llanos of New Mexico. Each parent has deeply rooted cultural judgements that are

tied to things that they practice themselves. Next is the conflict within his town between its

Spanish and indigenous cultures. We see evidence of this conflict in the conspicuous pressure

between Ultima’s mystical folklore and the Catholic church. Another conflict takes place at

Antonio’s school between Spanish and English speakers. Anaya uses these conflicts to explore

the influence of culture on identity. Many characters in the book are limited by their cultural

disadvantages and never learn to look beyond their own assumptions. For example, the

townspeople condemn Narciso for being a drunk and refuse to acknowledge that his traumatic

experience in the war might play a part in his psychological state. Ultima teaches Antonio to

avoid the limitations inherent in abiding by one culture, one religion, or one creed. Instead,

Ultima encourages Antonio to embrace all of the cultural influences in his life to become a better

person.
 Anaya expresses the story of Antonio as a journey he takes to find out what the future

has for him. He uses symbolism to show what the future someone's life can hold. An example of

symbolism in “Bless Me Ultima” is, “The orange of the golden carp appeared at the edge of the

pond. . . . We watched in silence at the beauty and grandeur of the great fish. Out of the corners

of my eyes I saw Cico hold his hand to his breast as the golden carp glided by. Then with a

switch of his powerful tail the golden carp disappeared into the shadowy water under the

thicket.” This quotation from Chapter 11 is Antonio’s description of his first sighting of the

golden carp. The quotation is important because it represents Antonio’s most notable encounter

with a non-Christian faith. It is also an important example of how Anaya modifies his prose style

to the emotional and psychological contexts of his characters’ situations. The golden carp is a

pagan deity compared to the Christian God Antonio is used to worshipping. Anaya portrays the

golden carp in a style that highlights its stunning and astonishing beauty, rather than focus

immediately on the crisis of faith that the carp causes for Antonio. The language Anaya uses to

describe the carp is simple, elemental, and powerful. Anaya chooses to have the narrator describe

the carp rather than have Antonio tell us about it. This distance emits the admirations that the

carp inspires in the boys, who observe the carp in mesmerized silence. Cico even puts his hand

on his heart, a subtle gesture that conveys the depth of feeling that the carp inspires in the boys.

Throughout the story of “Bless Me, Ultima” Anaya portrays different themes and

symbols to show the life and future that Antonio has and will have. Ultima plays a big part of

Antonio’s life and travels along with Antonio to find out his future and how his life is supposed

to turn out. Anaya effectively gets the theme across to the reader. The themes are portrayed

differently. Anaya also used literary techniques which helped along with the themes he was
trying to convey. He mainly used symbolism throughout the story and with Ultima and the

golden carp. In our opinion, Anaya’s work of “Bless Me, Ultima” is astonishing and he

portrayed themes and literary techniques very well. We highly recommend “Bless Me, Ultima”

for future readers who are interested in cultural identity.