Role Of Antonio In Bless Me Ultima

A young boy of Hispanic decent is torn between two worlds. Both his adventures and experiences serving to be guides for interpersonal awareness. This boy is the star of a bildungsroman themed novel entitled Bless Me, Ultima. As the reader follows Antonio Juan Marez y Luna on his journey for existential understanding, they witness him transition from a young carefree adolescent to a self-content child.

Furthermore, after reading and analyzing the novel one will notice the clear internal conflict possessed by Antonio. The young protagonist finds himself entangled in a family dispute over who he should become as a man. Gabriel Marez, Antonio’s father, strongly believes that Antonio should become a man of the llano. Llano meaning flat

plains in Spanish and referring to the barren country side of Mexico where vaqueros live a free life under the open sky. However, his mother refutes this idea with the notion that Antonio should bring honor to their family by becoming a priest. He is then forced to experience change as a wise woman named Ultima moves into his household, as well as the start of public school. Aside from these three keys unlocking the chest to Antonio’s character development, there is a war partaking in the background of the novel and religious affinities that help shape Antonio’s beliefs. Ruldolfo Anaya asserted the development of Antonio’s character through a vicious clash of cultures shaping his behavior, rigorous family values imposed on the young boy, and spiritual growth driven by both religious and supernatural ties.
One of the culture collisions presented in the novel is Antonio’s culture versus himself.

Being the youngest male member of the Marez family, Antonio was born with the burden of fulfilling his parent’s dreams. In Mexican culture women and girls tend to stay inside the house, cook, clean, and do other traditionally female occupations. However, since Antonio is a male he is more inclined to go out into the world, explore, and pursue an education. In doing so, Antonio has life changing experiences that begin molding him into a ‘man’. Aside from this, Antonio possesses a closer relationship with Ultima because he is the youngest, and because he is male. Males are typically favored in Mexican households; often receiving special treatment and leniency from women, but extraordinary pressure from men. Young boys are given freedom with the expectation that they will learn to become strong, independent, hardworking and value-oriented men. This freedom nevertheless, gives Antonio opportunities and experiences not presented to his sisters; therefore, making him the star of the novel. Antonio flexes his cultural-given independence at the beginning of the novel when he has his first life-changing encounter. The altercation happens when his father goes to hunt down the man who killed the police chief. The man being hunted is named Lupito, and Antonio find himself hiding in the river where Lupito inevitably gets shot by the town’s men. Antonio listens in fear as Narisco declares, “Let

us act like men!” (Anaya 20) to fellow hunters on the bridge. This statement implies that men in Mexican culture are supposed to be wise and self-controlled. The irony in the statement is that Narisco is a town drunk, however due to cultural stigma implying men are powerful and almighty, Narisco is deemed ‘wise’ enough to vocalize the statement. Hearing these words at such a vulnerable moment in Antonio’s childhood implements an image of what men are supposed to be. Antonio finds himself conflicting with this ideology because he believes that the men have committed murder, yet Antonio understands that this is a situation he may find himself in one day. The death of Lupito can be seen as a symbol for Antonio’s loss of innocence. At such a young age Antonio is already witnessing the pressures of being a man in Mexican society. The cultural affects of being a young boy in such a brutal environment encourage him to become a stronger character.
Another cultural collision that shapes Antonio’s behavior is due to him being a Mexican-American boy in a predominantly Anglo nation. The upbringing of children between the two cultures contrast one another through the expectations of their youth and personalities created through their various upbringings. This dramatic shift in cultures is visible when Antonio begins public school for the first time. Antonio’s schooling serves as his first institution where he must interact with American children and is exposed to their way of life. An obvious cultural barrier is revolves around language. Antonio enters school without knowing a lick of English and as described by Crossroads, A Journal of English Studies, “…it is a well-known fact that language is one of the most important elements of human identity and culture”. Antonio’s language separates him from the other children and makes him feel alienated. It was hard enough leaving home when his parents were arguing over his future as a man. Not only does his language build an initial barrier between himself and the English-speaking children, but by throwing him into an institution where all of his teachers speak only English, he is forced to adapt to the new culture. Aside from his language barrier, Antonio finds himself being antagonized because of the food that he eats. Food symbolically is supposed secure and fulfilling, but instead Antonio’s Mexican lunch brings upon abuse from the other students. This new terrifying reality which Antonio lives in brings about thoughts of running away and other miserable feelings. However, Antonio is able to conquer his situation and the school goes from being an institution of suffering, to one of achievement.
By the end of the novel Antonio is also able to achieve a basic set of family values that are imposed on his character development.

As stated before, Antonio’s parents are divided over the man that Antonio should become. Antonio even states that he does not understand how two people so different could have ever married. Nevertheless, his mother wishes for him to bring honor to his family’s name by becoming a priest, while Antonio’s father encourages him to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and become a man of the llano. Throughout the novel we see Antonio conflict with his parent’s desires as he seeks to find himself and develop his own aspirations. Antonio’s initial family values are to be a puppet of his parent’s creation and do whatever they want him to do. He is completely obedient to their demands and could be described as a ‘people pleaser’. This value inevitably becomes difficult to uphold due to the opposing desires of his parents. Antonio must “decide upon [his parents] importance and allow or disallow their influence as he grows into adulthood” (Klien 23). At first Antonio struggles to decide if he wants to follow one of the paths laid out for him by his parents, and if so which one. We experience Antonio feel the rush of the llano and occasionally have the spirit of a vaquero but suppress these emotions so that he may obtain his mother’s validation. The internal confusion caused by Antonio’s parents drive him find his identity and serves as

the backbone of Anaya’s bildungsroman themed novel. The family values learned from Antonio’s confliction with his parents include a healthy balance of respect for their authority and independence.
Antonio doesn’t learn to become independent on his own. Ultima helps guide Antonio onto a path of his choosing and teaches him that the world is not all black and white. Although Ultima is not family by blood; in Mexican culture respect for one’s elders and friends is important. Instead of allowing Ultima to live out the rest of her days alone they offer her a home to live in with people who will provide for her. Because his family values allow this, Ultima is placed into Antonio’s life and begins helping him break away from his parent’s tunnel vision. Ultima can be defined as one of “[the] slew of common characters, themes, and plot devices that authors historically have used when writing novels in the Bildungsroman genre” (Bulger). In this case according to LitCharts Ultima specifically falls under the branch of ‘Kindly Teachers’. Being the kindly teacher that she is, with Ultima’s guidance Antonio finds himself deep in self-thought and reflection. The reflections he makes help define and reinforce his family values both with Ultima becoming a member of his family, with the independence she helps him achieve, and through the empathy that grows on him and manifest itself through his love of both people and nature.