Bless Me Ultima Analysis

In the book Bless Me, Ultima Antonio encounters many conflicts throughout his journey with Ultima such as evil spirits, brujas(witches), and religious devotion. One of the most significant conflicts was between English and Spanish speaking students at school. Another serious struggle was the clash between the two different lifestyles of the Marez blood and the Luna blood within his family. When Antonio starts school, he soon discovers a major struggle that will be there for most of his life. This contention in his school is between the Spanish and English speaking students at all grade levels from first to twelfth. This struggle started on his first day of school when he opened his lunch. Like Antonio said “My mother had packed a small jar of hot beans and some good, green chile wrapped in tortillas. When the other children saw my lunch, they laughed and pointed again,”(Anaya 58). After this event he felt like an outcast and struggled with the need to fit in with the other students and to feel …show more content…
Occasionally a character speaks in Spanish usually to show emotion or to emphasize the importance of a moment. An example of the use of Spanish language in showing emotion was when Antonio’s mother found out that her three older sons were coming home from the war. She expressed her great joy and gratitude with the following: “¡Jesús, María Purísima!” my mother cried. “Blessed Virgen de Guadalupe, thank you San Martín, ay Dios mío, gracias a San Cristóbal!” (Anaya 60). On Antonio’s first day of school his mother says to Ultima that she wants Antonio to be a great man of learning because of her family’s traditions so Ultima gives him a blessing as he begins this important time in his life: “En el nombre Padre, del Hijo, y el Espíritu Santo--” (Anaya 55). Although the use of Spanish is important in the book the presence of it decreases from the beginning to the end as Antonio learns and