millinocket's Full Review: Rudolfo Anaya - Bless Me, Ultima
Swearing. Sex. Violence. I see these words a lot when reading about why a book is being challenged by an individual or group. The word challenge itself is but a euphemism - it means someone wants to ban a book so that others may not read or access it. It's an attempt to censor - very often directed at the libraries in schools from elementary through college. When I see the objections to sex or swearing or violence, I pause. Do those same people watch every television show that plays in their home? Every movie? Do they read every magazine, examine every website, question the families of every friend their child might meet? Do they, honestly, try to eliminate any and all references to swearing, sex and violence from the lives of their children and families? If so, how do any of them ever leave the house? We live in a culture filled with swearing, sex and violence - from the news to our "entertainment". So are those challenges really about the swearing? Or the sex or the violence? Or are they really about something else?
It is the swearing that seems to lead off most challenges to Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima. After reading the book, I didn't understand - what swearing? I didn't recall any, and if there was any, it was certainly mild enough for me not to take notice. Then I looked up a couple of the Spanish words used throughout the book by both children and adults. Ahhhhh, there's some swearing. Bless Me, Ultima is the story of Antonio Marez. Tony lives outside a small town in New Mexico during World War II. His is a life of contrasts. His mother is a woman of the earth, from a family of farmers. His father is a man of the plains, from a family of cowboys. The youngest in a family of six children, Tony must decide which way his life will go. But he is just a child - seven years old. The arrival at his home of Ultima, an elderly woman known as a healer and revered by both his parents, serves as catalyst to Tony's search for truth, guidance and some sort of comfort in his constant internal battle between the traditions of his mother and those of the native peoples who settled the land upon which he lives. Pagan tradition, the Catholic Church, good and evil, magic and the harshness of life all descend upon the boy as he struggles to make sense of his world.
So yep, there's a whole heap of Spanish swearing throughout Bless Me, Ultima. There's some violence and a little bit of sex in there as well. Mind you, this is not a book for little children. The prose is dense and filled with symbolism, the characters are beautifully complex and the themes are rich and complicated. Any child younger than high school aged that can even get through it is likely to miss most of the content. It took me weeks to finish, as I struggled with my own lack of understanding, not only of the bits of Spanish (which doesn't really matter), but also of the cultures depicted. I learned as I read, about this Mexican American family and town, their lives and pasts, their hopes and dreams and how all was rooted in their ancestry. There is a lot going on here - Tony may be a child, but his life is not filled with the innocence of childhood. The book may be about children, but it's not a "children's book". Any child old enough to handle the challenging prose, themes and overall content is certainly going to have heard every single swear word on the planet. They're also probably not going to realize it's there - unless they speak Spanish. How many of you with teenagers have ever seen your child look up a word voluntarily? None? That's what I thought. I know mine wouldn't. Not knowing the meaning of those expletives does not hamper comprehension of the book - one does not need to speak, read or understand Spanish to understand the vast complexities of Tony's life. The swearing (or "vulgarity" as some would-be censors term it) is not only going to pass most people by, it's also completely contextually appropriate for the age group reading the book. If your child does speak Spanish, they've heard the words in that language, too. And many more that you will probably never know. Or want to know. It's what kids do and no book is going to stop it or start it - it is what it is.
So I don't buy that lame excuse for trying to ban Bless Me, Ultima. I think it's just that - an excuse. Usually a challenge starts out with the swearing and then moves on to the real meat of the objections - the depiction of the Catholic Church. Ahaaaaa. This, I believe, is the type of root cause of challenges. People do not like to see their values, choices, religions or lifestyles portrayed in a less-than-glowing fashion. The church does take some lumps here, as Tony begins to realize that the things he has been taught about communion, faith and the Catholic God are not literally true. He is still a child, the literal matters to him, especially when the pagan traditions that surround his family and are embodied in Ultima prove to be much more tangible in many ways. They do not depend on a vague faith and provide far more concrete "results" to the problems Tony encounters throughout the story. Not without consequence, but results nonetheless. I believe that the challenges come from those unable to see their faith compared with another and found wanting - even if in the eyes of a child. Mysticism trumping Catholicism is simply going to be unacceptable to some people. It is those people, the ones who fear challenges of their own worlds, who attempt to censor the worlds of others. Perhaps it's a sign of their own weakness of faith - if they believe strongly, how can a simple work of fiction shake them enough to want to (literally in at least one case) burn it, destroy it and keep it permanently from the eyes of others?
There are a lot of wannabe censors in the world. Those who think they are protecting children from dangerous ideas, those who want to impose only their worldview on others, those who believe that all children should be presented with only books that don't threaten to make them think or question or learn to critically analyze their lives and choices. Each of them takes into their hands something we should hold most sacred - the right to think for ourselves and the right for our children to do the same. The older child for whom Bless Me, Ultima is appropriate is one who can understand that there is more than one set of values in the world and that exploring outside one's own sphere not only offers the opportunity to learn about other cultures but also to examine faith, traditions and culture and decide how to live a life based on many experiences, not those hand chosen by a narrow few. It's a lesson in critical thinking, one in which we are in desperate need. Let students everywhere read Bless Me, Ultima, see where it takes them and applaud them for digging deep into Tony's life and maybe their own. Only when we question do we learn - that's what Tony discovers throughout the book. And that's what every student needs to learn at some point lest we devolve further and further into a herd of sheep, led to slaughter by our own ignorance and unwillingness to look further, ask more and become more involved in our own world. Censorship is always a dangerous game, and never more so than when it keeps young adults from broadening their view of the world and questioning their place within a larger context. We owe them that chance and I am willing to fight for it. My children deserve it. So do yours.
This review is part (late as usual) of pestyside's Banned Book Week Write-Off. Go here to see the other contributions and maybe find yourself a great banned book to read!
A masterpiece of Hispanic literature from "one of the nation's foremost Chicano literary artists" (Denver Post). This is the involving story of Antoni...More at HotBookSale
A masterpiece of Hispanic literature from one of the nation s foremost Chicano literary artists (Denver Post). This is the involving story of Antonio,...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.