10 • ISSUE May 2013
Volume 19, No. 8
Who are you, Ultima? REFLECTIONS ON RUDOLFO ANAYA’S NOVEL ‘BLESS ME, ULTIMA’ “My work was to do good... I was to heal the sick and show them the path of goodness. But I was not to interfere with the destiny of any man. Those who wallow in evil and brujería cannot understand this. They create a disharmony that in the end reaches out and destroys life —” Story by Elena Ivanova
Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima. “EVERY WRITER — AND READER — needs a guide,” says Rudolfo Anaya in an interview about the process of writing the novel which brought him international fame. He talks about a vision which became the cornerstone of his inspiration: an old, withered woman miraculously appeared in his room as he was writing the first draft. She said that the book would not be good if she were not in it. “A healer became my guide, so I could look deeper into the reality and time.” Ultima is a curandera, a medicine woman. Using a variety of medicinal herbs, she heals bodily disease as well as sickness of the soul caused by evil spells. She is more than a healer — she is a medium between our world and the world of spirits, between the present and the past. Her presence in the novel empowered Anaya to transcend the personal story of Antonio, a young boy coming of age, and create an epic narrative that reflected the collective psyche of Hispanic people of New Mexico. Ultima belongs to the generations of healers, witch doctors, medicine men and women, often collectively referred to as shamans*, who safeguarded their communities from multiple perils since the earliest days of humankind. Historians believe that shamanism was a dominant pre-religious practice for humanity during the Paleolithic period. Shamans performed the duties of naturopathic doctors, midwives as well as mystic intercessors on behalf of individuals and the whole community at the times when it was necessary to seek assistance of — or protection from — supernatural forces. It is believed that, in order to communicate with the supernatural, the shaman’s soul has to leave his or her body and undertake a dangerous journey to the world of spirits. The shaman achieves this by getting in a trance and entering the body of a bird or other animal. This belief is echoed in Anaya’s novel. Ultima has a mysterious connection to the owl. The owl protects Antonio and metes out punishment to evil Tenorio. The owl and Ultima are inseparably linked to each other: when Tenorio shoots the owl, Ultima dies. When organized religions replaced paganism, shamanic rituals were forced to the periphery or underground, but they never completely disappeared. For example, in Europe, shamanic traditions continued to manifest themselves in popular folk beliefs
Nicolai Fechin (1881-1955), LA ABUELA, oil on canvas, 18.375 x 14.625 inches, Stark Museum of Art, Orange, Texas, 31.28.18
through the Early Modern period (1500-1800.) Scholars argue that medieval beliefs regarding the soul were based on earlier shamanic ideas. The continuing practice of shamanic rituals might have played a role in the conceptualization of witchcraft, including the idea of the witches’ Sabbath, and led to witches’ trials in the Middle Ages and later. Practitioners of ancient rituals were known under different names in different countries, however, in all cultures they were most often referred to as “the wise men and women” or “the cunning folk.” They were the
keepers of the collective knowledge upon which the well-being and, ultimately, the survival of the community depended. Naturally, this knowledge was closely guarded and restricted to the initiated practitioners to whom it was passed orally by the older generation. In Anaya’s novel, Ultima says that her powers were given to her by “el hombre volador” (“the flying man”), and the name of this great healer has a terrifying effect on Tenorio who “drew back as if slapped in the face by an invisible power.” For centuries, “the cunning folk” were the only
