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.

The next chapters!..

This week I read to the fifth chapter of “Bless Me Ultima” and it just keeps getting better and better. This book is heavy with details of every event that happens, and while some may not like that, I love all the fine points of an event that Anaya takes the time to describe.

            The book continues on after the murders of both the town sheriff and the man who killed the sheriff, Lupito. Antonio rises on the next morning with his family about to go to mass, and he remembers all the things that had transpired the night before. His family heads to mass and from there comes home. Tony also spends sometime with Ultima near the river picking herbs for all the natural potions and remedies that Ultima uses to cure the sick that come to visit her. The fourth chapter ends with Tony and his family having a rosary to remember his brother’s who are off fighting the war against the Germans and the Japanese.

            As far as content or plot goes, these two chapters I read this week weren’t jam-packed with places or people like the first two chapters of this book. What make these two chapters worthwhile are the descriptions that help reinforce the culture and characters of the book. When Tony wakes up and his mother is calling him to get ready for mass that reminded me of the days when I was younger when my father would never be late to wake me up by seven thirty so that we could get ready and go to church on time.

This little event that Anaya wrote about brought back strong recollections on when I was younger. When I would awaken early enough to say the golden rays of the sun stream through my window while I heard my brother argue groggily with my dad in the next room about not wanting to get up for church. Soon after I would hear my dad start to move pots and pans around with the familiar clanks as they were set on the stove to make breakfast for the family. From here the morning ritual to get ready for church would move on, though sometimes slowly. As the comforting smell of eggs, potatoes and toast would waft through the house I would take a shower and put on that awkward button up shirt and stiff pants that were customary for church wear.

To me that’s what I like most about this book. As I read I will be reminded of things that happened long ago, sometimes I remember events or people I haven’t thought about in a long time. This book connects very deeply, because I feel that all the characters are almost like the family I hear about from my grandpa or older uncles and aunt. My family also owned a ranch in the small town of Reserve, New Mexico. My family and all my cousins are traced back to the original twelve siblings that shared this ranch with my parents. Now my great uncles and aunts were not the kind of people that most would want their sons of daughters to hang around with. My family owned a dancing hall and the local tavern, and the men of the family usually stuck together for protection, as well as carrying some brass knuckles in their back pockets just in case. This small town was pretty much run by my family’s likeable qualities as it was run by the fact that there were twelve willing brothers and sisters willing to fight for anything you didn’t agree with them on. However, it didn’t stay like this. As the siblings were getting older a Christian missionary passed through the town one day. I don’t recall who or how, but one of the twelve converted to Christianity and that was the beginning of a movement within my family. One by one, my uncles and aunts put down the alcohol and stopped the womanizing and violence to convert to Christianity. All that helped shape the way I live life now or even how my dad grew up.

Overall, I really like this book.

Response to "Bless Me Ultima" Part I

So this week in the book “Bless Me Ultima” I read the first two chapters. I have to say, after reading these first few chapters I’m lucky I had a homework assignment to do. Because if I hadn’t I might not have gotten to bed at all and I would have gone out the next day with no sleep because I stayed up all night reading this amazing book.

First off, I love this book not because my English teacher told me to read it, but because I can connect with book on many levels. The setting feels like home to me, the characters feel like family and the story seems like one my grandfather would have told me when I was still a child. The book’s main character’s name is Antonio, and he is part of family who lives in the southwest. I believe they live somewhere in the New Mexico providence, but I couldn’t quite get an accurate impression from what I’ve read thus far. The book begins by telling the story of Tony’s family and how they came to be in the town they live in now. I would attempt to retell the story, but I’m afraid I could not replicate the attention to detail and rich story telling that Rudolfo Anaya uses to write of this family history. The main plot that has developed now is the woman named Ultima has come to live with Tony and his family at their house. This woman is highly respected and very old, she has come to stay because Tony’s parents did not want this special woman to die alone. They believe that Ultima has done her fair share of good deeds, and is entitled to live out the rest of her days in peace. Within a couple of days after Ultima’s arrival the town sheriff is killed. The sheriff is the brother to Tony’s neighbor and the neighbor recruits Tony’s father to help with manhunt of the killer, a local man. During the chase Tony sneaks out of the house and witnesses the death of the killer at the hands of the mod.

Again, I wish my summary could do this story true justice. I tried my best to cover the main elements of the plot, but this story is so full of great writing that summarizing it does the book a great misdeed. Initially my first reaction as reader was to place myself into this well written story, because everything about the book thus far I have enjoyed. Anaya does so well with explaining the details of the land, people and culture that I can almost smell the desert air and feel the cool nights of the southwest as the story unfolds. One reason this story is seems so genuine to me is because I believe Anaya would have been a part of this culture, so he does well with representing the southwest. I can already feel a strong connection to Tony; the character is created with care making him someone I can easily relate too. I’m excited to keep reading the book so I can see what other things Anaya will throw at the reader.