MWA #1

While reading “Bless Me Ultima” I was inspired me to think about was my summer trips to Walsenburg, Colorado much like Tony’s journey to El Puerto to see his family. The summer trip that Tony’s family takes to El Puerto is never very complicated, but his mother takes it very seriously because it is the only time she gets to see her family, the Lunas. The trip is one of comfort and familiarity to Tony; he is comfortable around his quiet and thoughtful uncles. All the feelings and images described by Anaya only brought back memories of my family’s excursions to see family in Colorado.
Usually this trip is much more relaxed then all the other trips that usually fill summer vacation, because normally my family takes this trip near the Fourth of July. Most normal trips during summer vacation require me to wake up at zombie hours of three or four in the morning to catch a plane or get on the road for the longs car ride west to California. Also I always seem to stress about packing for most summer vacations, because I’m going somewhere a lot farther than Colorado so I fear the situation of forgetting something vitally important. On trips up north to my Uncle’s house all of those worries seem to fade away, everything just seems to go alright. I'm even ok with leaving my phone charger at home for the weekend.
Usually these trips to Colorado are a family thing, so my brother comes home from college and both parents take off enough work so that the weekend is completely open to whatever the wilderness and wide space of Colorado has planned for us. Since these trips are usually no more than a weekend to three days long packing is never really an issue because I don’t service at my Uncle’s house anyway, so why take a phone charger?
Usually the day begins late in the morning and with a big breakfast. My dad will cook all the fixings to make sure we have enough to eat for the four hour ride up to the country. The house usually has the rich aromas of bacon (turkey bacon that is), eggs and potatoes telling my stomach it is about time to get out of bed so I can eat the most important meal of the day. After that delicious breakfast is in my tummy to make my stomach shut up for about another five hours I go back to my room to make sure I have everything packed for the long weekend. By this time I can usually hear my older brother grunting while my dad usually tries in vain to wake up the half-dead college student. My brother will usually get up about forty minutes later mumbling an unrecognizable “Good Morning” at me as he heads for the bathroom.
No schedule means my family usually will not leave the house till around one o’clock in the afternoon. I like this part of the trip though, because we never really have anything planned, the only concrete part of the weekend is that at some point we’ll get to the house in Walsenburg. The drive up to Colorado always inspires something in me, whether we’re going on the Fourth of July weekend or have an unexpected visit up there during the winter. Scenery on the side of the I-25 highway is, simply put, a gorgeous natural backdrop to any thoughts you may think on the quiet car ride. I like to think on the four hour drive and all those beautiful mountain ranges and long desert plains usually put my mind in the right place to truly think up something that will help make this weekend one to remember. Also long hours in a car usually means some interesting topics are talked about by my family, from music to how my mom is still nervous about me having a girlfriend even though I’m seventeen. Loud laughter and noisy conversations fill the car as each one of the four people in my family try to out duel each other with whose jokes can inspire more laughter.
The laughter in the car usually gives way to a couple hours of tranquil peace where both my brother and I plug our iPods in to escape into the realms of our own imagination where we provide the soundtrack. It’s these hours I enjoy the most, because I know once we arrive at my Uncle’s place there will be little time to think or ponder much of anything. So I use the quiet hours to really prepare for three days of pure, chaotic fun.
Once we begin to near Walsenburg I always get the same sense of soaring excitement mixed with a tight kind of anticipation, hoping that nothing will go terribly wrong. Once the gate is closed and the car is pulling slowly closer to the house on the long gravel driveway is where most emotion is replaced by a kind of repressed contentment. It’s then when I realize how tired the trip has made me and how loud my stomach is yelling for food. My uncle is usually the first outside to greet us with my cousin Marcus, who’s my age, following closely behind. My other cousin, Mikey, is my brother’s age and is third out the front door. Greetings include everything from long hugs with my auntie to fist bumps with one of my cousin’s eight children. Yes, my cousin does in fact have eight children. Every single one is awesome and every single one is so loud it hurts your brain at the end of the weekend. After my family crosses the threshold of the front door what awaits always changes from visit to visit. My brother and cousin Mikey disappear for long amounts of time on dirt bikes doing who knows what in the vast country that surrounds the house, to them as long as their life is in danger it is worth trying. The three sets of grown ups all take turns helping watch one of the eight smaller ones, which ages range from 13 to under a year old. Amongst all this I find myself filling most of the time hanging out with my cousin Marcus digging holes for no good reason under a blazing sun, playing video games and talking about life in general. Adventures that happen here can only be described while sitting around a camp fire with roasted marshmallows and Mountain Dew, so I won’t even try. Overall these weekends are some of the greatest times of my life and hold so much of who I am within these three day weekends.
Memories like these weave in and out of my mind as a read “Bless Me Ultima.” That is why I like to read BMU, because Tony’s story mixes with my own memories to create a personal reading experience that seems very real. As Tony struggles to become a man in the tough surroundings of the Southwest, Anaya uses all five senses as well as memories to create a story that is unique and very well crafted. That is why I like picking up this book to read, because it inspires me to think about times in my life that I have learned the lessons that are valuable to what helped create me.