154 Anaya, Rudolfo
answers that he is a painter, but he is quick to qualify
his answer by distancing his painting from any sense
of practicality: he does not paint houses, nor does
he paint “pictures of trade unionists or town halls.”
For Bertram, the goal of art should not be political
or useful. His paintings range from an eight-foot
nude whom he describes as a “real smasher” and
a self-portrait set against a brick wall (“more wall
than Welch”) to a small painting just started of three
workman in a pub reading a newspaper. The trivial-
ization of the latter subject reiterates the Welches’
disdain for actual work.
On the other hand, Julius Gore-Urquhart
appears to represent an opposing conception of
work. Although the novel indicates that Gore-
Urquhart is a member of the upper class, there is the
sense that there is something more substantial to
him that the class snobbery of the Welches. While
Gore-Urquhart possesses formal, refined manners
(“quite the real thing,” according to Margaret), he
is also marked by his accent and accepted demeanor
of a Scottish lowlander. It is the job of personal
assistant to Gore-Urquhart in London that appeals
to Bertram throughout the novel, but it is clear
that Bertram believes that the job would not entail
much work. In the end, however, Dixon gets the job
after he is fired from the university and freed from
its odd conception of work. Discussing his position
in the university earlier, Gore-Urquhart diagnoses
Dixon’s unhappiness with the position: “Where’s
the trouble? In you or in it?” His question suggests
that there is a very real concern with a personal
propensity for work, but at the same time, there is
an understanding that some jobs are not worthwhile.
Dixon’s reply encapsulates the attitude toward effec-
tual and ineffectual work as he claims that it is both:
“They waste my time and I waste theirs.” When
Gore-Urquhart offers Dixon the job, he notes that
many have the qualifications for a job, but few do
not have the disqualifications, referring offhandedly
to Bertram. The novel does not make clear that the
job with Gore-Urquhart will be any more satisfac-
tory for Dixon than his previous position, but Gore-
Urquhart’s lack of pretension contrasts completely
with Welch and academia.
Eric Leuschner
ANAYA, RUDOLFO Bless Me,
Ultima (1972)
Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima has been extremely
popular—and controversial—since its publication at
the inception of the Chicano arts movement. Cel-
ebrating a rich continuum of ancient indigenous
Southwest/Mexican cultural inheritances, along
with innovations in language, art, and spiritual
expression, Chicano artists and writers like Anaya
(b. 1937) rebelled against the previous erasure of
Hispanic American history and culture in U.S. arts
and education.
Set in rural New Mexico during World War
II, Bless Me, Ultima is reminiscent of Anaya’s own
childhood. Six-year-old Antonio, confronted by
identity conflict within his family and com-
munity, discovers his true self with the help of
the curandera (midwife/spiritual healer) Ultima.
Against the proscriptive Catholic Church, which
controls the pious farmers (represented by Antonio’s
mother’s family) and the equally limiting “cowboy”
mentality of the vaqueros (represented by Antonio’s
father’s kin), Anaya suggests through Antonio’s tale
a new cultural frame of mind rooted in the spiritual
“presence” of nature, a way of thinking and being
that resists labels and restrictions on personal free
will.
Bless Me, Ultima received the prestigious Premio
Quinto Sol literary award in 1972, but the novel has
also been censored in several municipalities in the
United States—burned or otherwise disposed of—
as recently as 2005. It appeared on the American
Library Association’s most commonly challenged
books of 1990–2000. The young boys’ innocent use
of certain curse words in Spanish and the discussion
of witchcraft have been considered threatening by
some community leaders, who may also object to
Antonio’s ambiguous, independent spirituality in
the novel.
Elizabeth McNeilcOminG OF aGe in Bless Me, Ultima
Published during the final years of the Vietnam
War, Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is set during
World War II in a New Mexico mestizo (Spanish-
Indian) community at odds with itself as well as
with the greater Anglo society. The novel’s coming-