Bless_Me_Ultima

Marez with a side of Luna (The moon meets the ocean in a young boy’s quest for understanding) The story of “Blessed Me Ultima” tells the story of two separate existences of cultures, beliefs that have encountered a common ground named Antonio. Antonio a Chicano was conceived by parents with two different culture and religious backgrounds. His whole quest is to figure out who he is, A man of the Ocean like his father’s people the Marez’ […] his forefathers were men of the sea, the Marez people, they were conquistadors, men whose freedom was unbound.” (25) or a man of the Moon and earth like his mother’s people the Luna’s “[…] the moon of my mother’s people the moon of the Lunas.” (23). Guiding Antonio through his quest is an old wise curandero name Ultima. Throughout the book she will gently and ambivalently teach him a little about both sides as he gains understanding to make his choice. Among the many conflicts Antonio wants to resolve the difference between his parents and what they each want for him. Antonio’s mother, Maria Luna Márez is a devout catholic and the daughter of farmers. She wants her fourth and last son to become a priest. The priesthood is something held sacred in the Luna’s family “Perhaps God will bless our family and make the baby a priest”, (5) although they have not had one in the family in a few generations “[...] my mother had dreamed of me becoming a priest, […] had not been a Luna priest in the family for many years.”(5) Maria’s goal is to salvage the family tradition by way of Antonio “This one will be a Luna, the old man said, he will be a farmer and keep our customs and traditions.”(5) Antonio’s father, Gabriel Márez, is a former vaquero, or cowboy, whose free and wandering spirit “[…] the freedom of the wild horse is in the Marez blood, and is gaze is always westward.”(25) has not rested despite marrying a Luna woman and having six children. Gabriel dreamed to move his family to California's vineyard country. He has not succeeded. Instead, Gabriel works on the highway, stays drunk and fights with his wife constantly. Gabriel’s connection with the llano is made clear. Gabriel appears to live in a state of depression and regret; he does so by holding on to the memories and fondness for the vaquero way of life. His choice to live on barren rather than fertile land results from his desire to be near the llano “she [mother] wanted to buy along the river where the land was fertile […]. But my father [fought] to be close to his llano.”(24) The family’s barren surroundings may suggest the notion the family lives on a threshold of civilization and isolation; another pre-existing conflict. Then there is Ultima, an herbal healer. She embodies the earth “a woman who knew the herbs and remedies of the ancients, a miracle worker who could heal the sick.”(4) She becomes one with the earth by cautiously listening to what it has to say to her “She taught me to listen to the mystery of the groaning earth and to feel complete in the fulfillment of its time”. She asks permission and she appears to be obedient to what the earth is telling her. The book does not state that she is a wanderer like the Marez but as a curando who spiritual healing is sought by many one can assume she does move place to place. She is very wise on the Chicano, Mexican and Spaniard history, something she could not have come by this by standing in one place “I felt more attached to Ultima than to my own mother. Ultima told me the stories and legends of my ancestors. From her I learned the glory and the tragedy of the history of my people, and I came to understand how that history stirred in my blood" (p. 123). Who better to guide a Luna-Marez child to his understanding of who he is I was happy with Ultima. We walked together in the llano and along the river banks to gather herbs and roots for her medicines..... My soul grew under her careful guidance." The book does not give specifics on what the Marez religious beliefs are, they merely state that the family does not like Priest “My father’s father had taken a priest from the church and beaten him on the street for preaching against something my grandfather Marez had done.”(29) And Gabriel does not believe in witches. But the fact the author chose to give the main characters names that are translated into meaning “the moon” and “the ocean” he is giving us the foreshadowing of constant conflict: ‘”It is the blood of the Lunas to be quiet, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary for planting—They are quiet like the moon- And it is the of the Marez to be wild, like the ocean from which they take their name, and the spaces if the llano that have become their home’” (41) The moon that gives light unto the earth at night yet has a gravitational pull on the oceans causing high tides and sometimes storms show that even though they are separate they are connected. This book reflects on a lot of other conflicts such as paganism and religion but I found its most compelling points to be of the struggles we all face in our adolescences of trying to figure out who we are. We are created by two different sexes usually from different backgrounds or understandings yet we are connected to the very things that are of conflicting entities“[…] Now we have come to live near the river and yet near the llano. I love them both and yet I am of neither. I wonder which life will I choose'” (41). Rather we are part earth, part wind, part water or part fire they all become connected within us as we search for our one true self. Antonio’s journey ended not by becoming one or the other “but as Ultima puts it “Antonio [became] “’ a man of learning”’.