Bless Me, Ultima

Ultima is a curandera, a traditional Mexican folk healer who uses herbal remedies and practices magic. She possesses empathy so great that “with it she can touch […] souls and heal them” (248). Ultima’s magic represents a mixture between Catholicism and pre-colonial Indigenous spirituality, and she acts as a conduit between all the different cultures, viewpoints, and traditions in her community. Because of her esoteric practices, some in the community are wary of her, conflating her healing magic with dark witchcraft.

Ultima’s role in Antonio’s life is his mentor and the mediator of the conflicts within his soul. Having been present at his birth, she has a special connection to him. She guides him into maturity while shielding him from the overbearing wants of his parents and assuaging his spiritual anxieties.

Through her presence in his life, Ultima broadens Antonio’s perspective on the world. Several times, her folk magic succeeds where the power of the church fails, creating cracks in Antonio’s strict adherence to Catholicism. While she never denigrates the church, she encourages him to explore other belief systems. She also teaches him that life and death are part of a larger cycle of fate that balances out seasons of tragedy with seasons of joy.

Due to her experiences of helping all kinds of people, Ultima’s character is multifaceted. Though she practices magic, she attends Catholic mass. Rather than adhering to a single religion, she knows that there is a wide range of equally valid belief systems through which one may choose to view life.

Ultima teaches Antonio the power of independent thought and self-direction, encouraging him to stay free of prejudice. From her, Antonio learns to make choices based on his own moral beliefs and to stand behind his actions. At the end of the novel, Ultima is murdered by Tenorio, restoring the balance she and Tenorio upset by tampering with fate. Rather than having her death being an ending, she bequeaths her spiritual legacy to Antonio.

Gabriel Márez is Antonio’s father. He is a former vaquero who repairs highways for a living and nurses a dream of moving to California with his sons. Gabriel often fights with his wife over their different lifestyles. Like the sea after which he is named, Gabriel has a restless nature and dislikes living in a town. He longs for the freedom of the llano, sharing a spiritual connection with the land that mirrors Ultima’s.

Despite his frustrated ambitions, Gabriel doesn’t try to force Antonio into his lifestyle. Instead, he encourages Antonio to choose whatever future best suits him. Over the course of the novel, Anaya peels back the layers of Gabriel’s stubbornness, revealing that his stubbornness is a result of the only lifestyle he has ever known being rapidly lost to postwar modernization.

María is Antonio’s mother. She hails from the Lunas, a family of farmers who value education and practice devout Catholicism. María is steadfast and grounded, like her namesake moon. María frets about Antonio’s maturation, believing that to become a man is to become sinful. She encourages him to become a priest in order to save him from this fate.

María is an important character in Antonio’s development because much of his angst about losing his innocence comes from his fear of disappointing his mother. These fears take the form of dreams: In Chapter 2, his dream of la Llorona symbolizes his mother’s sorrow at losing her child, and in Chapter 9, his dream of his mother appearing next to a naked woman at Rosie’s symbolizes his inevitable transition from innocence to sinful maturity. María accepts Antonio’s coming of age when she acknowledges that he does not have to follow the path that she or his father set out for him.

Tenorio is the primary antagonist of Bless Me, Ultima. Tenorio’s daughters practice the kind of malicious witchcraft of which Ultima is falsely accused. After Ultima lifts the curse Tenorio’s daughters place on Lucas, Tenorio swears revenge, which he achieves at the end of the novel by killing Ultima’s owl. Like Ultima, Tenorio meddles with fate, so his death is necessary to restore the world to harmony. Antonio’s encounters with Tenorio ultimately teach him the folly of seeking vengeance. Tenorio serves as a foil for Ultima because he too tampers with the natural order. Whereas Ultima uses empathy to change people’s fate, Tenorio uses violence: His powers are destructive while Ultima’s powers are healing.

Antonio’s three brothers are absent at the start of the novel, away fighting in WWII. When they return, they exhibit signs of PTSD as well as a desire to break free of their parents’ dreams and live independently. Their arc symbolizes the profound effect the war had on small communities like Guadalupe in the 1940s, pushing young men to seek out a new way of life beyond familial traditions.

Antonio’s brothers are a foil for him because they represent the model of manhood that awaits him should he follow in their footsteps. Like María, he believes they are sinful, and his fears about their salvation manifest in his dreams. in Chapter 9, he dreams of Eugene and León at the brothel, and in Chapter 14, he sees Andrew walking through hellfire. Earlier, in Chapter 7, he dreams of his brothers as giants, symbolizing how large a presence they are in his life even though they are absent most of the time. Their move to Santa Fe solidifies their choice to live beyond their family’s traditions and foreshadows Antonio’s choice to live his own life rather than following in their footsteps.