Bless Me Ultima

             Bless Me, Ultima .
             I enjoyed reading Rudolfo A Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima because it show the many different religions and beliefs people have and the conflict they deal with in everyday life.
             The story starts in the past in the mid 1940's, during and after the World War II in Guadalupe, New Mexico.
             The main character is Antonio. The major conflict in this story is when Antonio tries to reconcile his parent's different conflicting cultural, traditions, and religion as well as his community he is living in. Coming to terms with what everyone believes and ways of life even though he constantly feels there way don't always answers his question and lets him down.
             Some of the things that happens to Antonio start when he is 6 yrs old and continues on into when he starts school. He makes friends and learns that everyone has there own points of view and witnesses a murder and helps Ultima cure his uncle threw him.
             This only confuses him more. Ultima is a close friend of his family and helps deliver Antonio. They believe there is a tie between him and Ultima. And that Ultima can see his future. Ultima tells Antonio that he should think for him self and only he can make the choices in life he wants to take.
             Gabriel is Antonio's father. He is a Vaquero, who before his life with Antonio's mom, would wonder across the llano. He wishes Antonio would fallow his foot steps. Maria his mother was a daughter of a farmer and a catholic and wanted Antonio to be a priest. This was conflicting for Antonio.
             Antonio would have dreams about his family and his conflict over him. And trying to understand what he saw with the golden carp and how the people believed in it even though it let them down in their eyes and understanding his feeling of the virgin of Guadalupe. When Ultima's owl dies and soon after Ultima dies Antonio understands it is up to him to figure these things out.