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//-->Begin ReadingTable of ContentsReading Group GuideCopyright PageIn accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without thepermission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use materialfrom the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher atpermissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.Con HonorPara Mis PadresIntroductionBless Me, Ultima was my first novel. In the 1960s I was a young man teaching in the public schools inAlburquerque, New Mexico, and writing at night. In the mid-sixties I married Patricia and she becamemy encouragement. I wrote over seven drafts of the novel, and she read each one and shared hersuggestions.I was born in 1937 in the small village of Pastura, New Mexico, in the llano (open plain) of theeastern part of the state. Soon after my birth my family moved to Santa Rosa on the Pecos Riverwhere I grew up. Bless Me, Ultima has autobiographical elements in it, after all, a writer utilizes hislife experiences. But the novel is a work of fiction which follows two years of the rites of passage ofthe main character, Antonio. I wrote the novel in the first person because I identify very closely withAntonio.I didn’t take creative writing classes while attending the university, so my effort was self-taught.Pounding the keys of an old Smith Corona typewriter late at night, I wrote draft after draft of thenovel. The truly magical moment in the creative process was when Ultima appeared to me andinstructed me to make her a character in the novel. Suddenly a boy’s adventure novel became anintense exploration of the unconscious. For me Ultima, la curandera, is a healer in the tradition of ournative New Mexican healers. She is a repository of Spanish, Mexican, and Native American teachings.Her role is “to open Antonio’s eyes” so he can see the beauty of the landscape and understand thespiritual roots of his culture. With her guidance he begins to understand that the river, the open plain,and all of nature is imbued with spirit. Everything is alive; God is everywhere. Suddenly the ordinaryconflicts of childhood take on a deeper meaning. Antonio must now begin his journey into dreamsand experiences that are extraordinary. This leads him to question why there is good and evil in theworld.When Antonio accompanies Ultima to El Puerto to cure the uncle who has been cursed by witches,he experiences what few children experience. He participates in a cleansing ceremony in whichUltima expels the ball of hair which made the uncle sick. Antonio has entered the realm of the shaman.New Mexico folklore, our cuentos, contains many stories about people who can take the form ofowls or coyotes, people who can fly. These witches (I prefer the term shaman) are people of powerwhose work may be viewed as good or evil, depending on the needs of those who ask for theirassistance. Ultima is a shaman who uses her positive power to do good.With the arrival of Ultima, Antonio begins a journey into “the world of spirits,” the realm inwhich the shaman operates. Antonio enters a new reality. His dreams begin to reflect this magical,sometimes frightening, world. Is Antonio an apprentice to Ultima? If so, how can he reconcile theteachings of the church with the indigenous beliefs of Ultima? These and the other decisions Antoniomust make create the tension in the novel.“Where did you get Ultima’s name?” many ask me. “That was her name when she came to me,” Ianswer. From that first fortuitous meeting I have trained myself to act as a dream catcher. I don’t seekcharacters, they seem to come to me asking me to tell their stories. Ultima came to reveal the worldof the unconscious to me and to Antonio. In the realm of the unconscious the symbols of my cultureare connected to world symbols. The Golden Carp of the novel is my myth, for as storyteller I amalso mythmaker. The story of the Golden Carp resonates to the fish symbol of Christianity, Aztecmythology, and Pueblo Indian emergence tales. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]