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''Bless Me, Ultima'' is a novel by Rudolfo Anaya in which his young protagonist, Antonio Márez y Luna, tells the story of his coming-of-age with the guidance of his ''curandera'', mentor, and protector, Ultima. It has become the most widely read and critically acclaimed novel in the Chicano literary canon since its first publication in 1972.〔Writing the Southwest () retrieved March 31, 2012.〕〔Tonn, H. (1990). ''Bless Me, Ultima:'' Fictional response to times of transition. In César A. González-T. (Ed.),''Rudolfo A. Anaya: Focus on Criticism''. La Jolla, CA: Lalo Press.〕 Teachers across disciplines in middle schools, high schools and universities have adopted it as a way to multiculturalize their classes. The novel reflects Chicano culture of the 1940s in rural New Mexico. Anaya’s use of Spanish, mystical depiction of the New Mexican landscape, use of cultural motifs such as ''La Llorona'', and recounting of ''curandera'' folkways such as the gathering of medicinal herbs, gives readers a sense of the influence of indigenous cultural ways that are both authentic and distinct from the mainstream. ''Bless Me, Ultima'' is Anaya's best known work and was awarded the prestigious Premio Quinto Sol. In 2008, it was one of 12 classic American novels selected for The Big Read, a community-reading program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts,〔( *The Big Read | Bless Me, Ultima )〕 and in 2009, it was the selected novel of the United States Academic Decathlon. ''Bless Me, Ultima'' is the first in a trilogy followed by the publication of ''Heart of Aztlan'' (1976) and ''Tortuga'' (1979). With the publication of his novel, ''Alburquerque'' (1992), ''Newsweek'' proclaimed Anaya a front-runner in "what is better called not the new multicultural writing, but the new American writing."〔 Because ''Bless Me, Ultima'' contains adult language, and because some of the content is violent and contains sexual references, it has been included in the list of most commonly challenged books in the U.S. in 2013.〔()〕 Those characteristics notwithstanding it is also important because it was one of four novels published in the last third of the twentieth century which gained academic respect for Chicano literature as an important and nonderivative type of American literature. ==Creation and purpose as an autobiography== Bringing ''Bless Me, Ultima'' to fruition took Anaya six years. It took another two years to find a publisher. From 1965 to 1971,〔Hispanic Heritage Rudolfo Anaya () retrieved January 6, 2012.〕 he struggled to find his own "voice" as the literary models he knew and had studied at the University of New Mexico (BA English, 1963) did not fit him as a writer. He has also remarked on the unavailability of any authors at that time who could serve as mentors for his life experience as a Chicano.〔''Bless Me, Ultima'' Audio Guide - Listen!() retrieved and transcribed January 2, 2012.〕 Anaya says that the great breakthrough in finding his voice as a writer occurred in an evening when he was writing late at night. He was struggling to find a way to get the novel to come together and then: This was the epiphany that Anaya believes came from his subconscious to provide him a mentor and his spiritual guide to the world of his Native American experience (115).〔Anaya, R. (1987). An American Chicano in King Arthur's Court. in Judy Nolte Lensink (Ed.), ''Old Southwest/New Southwest: Essays on a region and its literature, 113-118.〕 In Anaya's first novel his life becomes the model for expressing the complex process of growing up Chicano in the American Southwest. Michael Fink characterizes Anaya's work as "the search for a sense of place."〔Fink, Michael (2004). ''Narratives of a new belonging: The politics of memory and identity in contemporary American Ethnic Literatures''. Masters of Arts thesis, Institute for American Studies, University of Regensburg,Germany--Bavaria. ISBN (eBook):978-3-638-32081-8,ISBN (Book):978-3-638-70343-7.(cf. Chapter 4 " The Search for a Sense of Place").〕 And the author tells us,"''Bless Me, Ultima'' takes place in a small town in eastern New Mexico and it is really the setting of my home town Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Many of the characters that appear are my childhood friends."〔 The autobiographical relationship between Anaya and his first novel best begins through the author's own words as he reflects on his life's work as an artist and as a Chicano: Anaya's authenticity to speak about the Chicano worldview is grounded in the history of his family. He is descended from among those ''Hispanos'' who originally settled the land grant in Albuquerque called "La Merced de Atrisco" in the Rio Grande Valley (2).〔Fernández Olmos, M. (1999). Rudolfo A. Anaya: A critical companion. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.〕 Anaya chooses Maria Luna de Márez as the name of Antonio's mother which parallels his own mother's surname, and her cultural and geographical origins: Rafaelita Mares, the daughter of farmers from a small village near Santa Rosa called Puerto De Luna.〔 In additional ways Anaya's family and that of his young protagonist parallel: Both Rafaelita's first and second husbands were ''vaqueros'' (cowboys) who preferred life riding horses, herding cattle and roaming the ''llano,'' as did Antonio's father, Gabriel. Anaya's family also included two older brothers who left to fight WW II and four sisters. Thus, Anaya grew up in a family constellation similar to that of his young protagonist. Anaya's life and that of Antonio parallel in other ways that ground the conflict with which his young protagonist struggles in advancing to adolescence. As a small child Anaya moved with his family from Las Pasturas, his relatively isolated birthplace on the ''llano'' to Santa Rosa a "city" by New Mexico standards of the time. This move plays a large part in the first chapter of Anaya's first novel as it sets the stage for Antonio's father's great disappointment in losing the lifestyle of the ''llano'' that he loved so well, and perhaps the kindling of his dream to embark on a new adventure to move with his sons to California—a dream that never would be.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bless Me, Ultima」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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