To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, and Banned Books Week (September 22-28), today’s Book Club Spotlight covers both occasions! Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya is considered a definitive American text by the National Endowment for the Arts, especially when representing the Chicano people, who embrace their Mexican identity culturally and politically in the United States. Winning the New Mexico Book Association Harris Award and the prestigious Premio Quinto Sol, Anaya, wrote from his life growing up in rural New Mexico for Bless Me, Ultima, highlighting and challenging predestination, prejudice, and the struggle to find where we belong.
Antonio Juan Márez y Luna is a perceptive six-year-old who feels as if he’s facing his destiny all too soon. His mother wants him to be a priest, his father wants him to be a farmer, and his brothers, now returned from the war, want him to take over their familial duties. But what does he want? Tony’s eyes are opened when the old curandera, Ultima, comes to live out the rest of her days with his family and takes him under her tutelage. From miraculous healings to finding gods in unassuming places, many paths now lay before him and he is torn between his burgeoning Catholic faith and the religion of the Earth. A young and tender boy with a lot of questions about the world, Tony learns from Ultima that there is so much more to his world hidden in the plains of the Vaqueros.
“The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant.”
Rudolfo Anaya
Bless Me, Ultima is commonly taught in schools to middle-grade students and up. Exploring ideas of fate, right and wrong, and self-determination, Anaya’s novel is fit for anyone to discuss, making it a perfect choice for Book Club Groups of any age. Though its thoughtful discussions of religion, depictions of violence, and realistic language has led it to be the subject of book banning in the past. I encourage you to read PEN America’s incredible article arguing for the book, citing its impact and necessity as a fundamental educational text. To learn more about Bless Me, Ultima’s history of challenges, and how to implement the teaching into your group, visit its Book Resume courtesy of Penguin Random House.
If you’re interested in requesting Bless Me, Ultima for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 12 copies. (A librarian must request items)
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima. TQS Publications. 1972.
