Bless Me, Ultima

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-4

Reading Check

1. From what way of life does Antonio’s father come?

2. To what does Ultima attribute Lupito’s actions?

3. What does Antonio’s mother equate to growing up?

4. What does Ultima say a man must learn from the Earth?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What conflict surrounds Antonio from birth?

2. In what ways are school, Lupito’s death, and learning catechism related in Antonio’s mind?

3. Where does Ultima trace her herbal knowledge to?

Paired Resource

“Curanderismo in the Modern Age”

• This University of New Mexico radio program explores the history and modern practice of Curanderismo, a traditional medicine system used throughout the Southwestern United States and Latin America.
• The program relates to the themes of Multiplicity Within Chicanx Identity and Masculine and Feminine Influences on Manhood.
• Based on what you have read in both the novel and the article, what roles might the curandera—Ultima—play in Antonio’s coming of age, and what conflicts might arise for the family as they take her in?

CHAPTERS 5-8

Reading Check

1. What phenomenon occurs when Ultima blesses the family on Antonio’s first day of school?

2. How does Antonio view letters and writing?

3. What do Antonio’s brothers rebel against?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does El Puerto differ from Guadalupe?

2. In what ways is Antonio alienated from his culture at school?

3. In what ways does the brothers’ homecoming defy expectations?

Paired Resource

“El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán”

• The preamble to the manifesto of the first Chicano Youth Liberation Conference is an effort to define, unify, and politically empower Chicanos through strong ties to the land.
• This content relates to the theme of Multiplicity Within Chicanx Identity.
• Based on the preamble in “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán” and Anaya’s own descriptions of Antonio’s world, what roles does the land play in the development of Chicanx identity? Is this identity unified, and why or why not?

CHAPTERS 9-12

Reading Check

1. How do Antonio’s brothers appear in his dreams?

2. With which element does Anaya associate Ultima in his imagery?

3. Of what does Tenorio accuse Ultima after his daughter’s death?

4. What does Antonio find on the ground after the mob has left?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What might be the symbolic significance of the bridge Antonio crosses to town every day?

2. What keeps the priest from initially allowing the Lunas to send for Ultima?

3. Why does Ultima visit Tenorio before working her magic on Uncle Lucas?

4. What is the significance of the golden carp?

Paired Resource

“In the 1760s, Witchcraft Gripped Abiquiú”

• Writing for the Santa Fe New Mexican, state historian Rob Martinez explores the tensions among the Catholic Church, Indigenous traditions, and folklore in a documented case of witchcraft in New Mexican history.
• This content relates to the theme of Innocence Versus the Power of Understanding.
• What historical and cultural imagery of brujería or hechicería (witchcraft) does Anaya use to differentiate the Trementinas’ systems of magic from Ultima’s magic, and what roles do both play in Antionio’s growing understanding of the world?

“La Llorona, Legend and Protector, in the Streets of San Francisco” and “La Leyenda de la Llorona”

• These articles from KQED and El Defensor-Chieftain explore the many iterations—positive, neutral, and negative—of the folk figure, La Llorona.
• This content relates to the theme of Masculine and Feminine Influences on Manhood.
• What ideas and images has Anaya borrowed from the legend of La Llorona to create the rich mythology surrounding all the waters of Guadalupe, and how does his recreation of the legend blend feminine and Indigenous influences with masculine and Catholic/European influences to create a balanced cultural mythos?

CHAPTERS 13-16

Reading Check

1. What role does Narciso’s murder force upon Antonio?

2. What power does the God in Antonio’s nightmare claim would only taint La Virgen?

3. What happens that causes Eugene and León to arrive home after Christmas with the police?

4. What inner conflict does Antonio face after Narciso’s murder?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is the priest’s refusal to allow Tenorio’s daughter’s burial in the churchyard significant?

2. What happens to the play in the absence of the girls, and what might this reveal about masculine and feminine influences on Antonio as he becomes a man?

3. Why does Ultima believe there will be no forgiveness for Tenorio?

CHAPTERS 17-19

Reading Check

1. On what do the people of Guadalupe blame the winter storms and spring winds?

2. Whose story is the mob incident in which the gang of boys forces Antonio to be a priest and then beats him for forgiving Florence patterned after?

3. What thematically ties Lupito, Narciso, and Antonio’s first communion together in Antonio’s mind?

4. What is God’s voice in Antonio’s ears?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Antonio’s father believe the villagers are foolish for their beliefs about the winter storms and spring winds?

2. Is Antonio a bad priest, as his classmates claim?

3. How does Antonio’s disappointment at his first communion reflect a common issue with coming of age?

Paired Resource

“Perceptions of Passion”

• This article from the Museum of New Mexico’s El Palacio explores the influence of the Passion Play tradition and the New Mexican Penitente traditions on the art and culture of the American Southwest.
• This content relates to the theme of Innocence Versus the Power of Understanding.
• In what ways does Anaya borrow form and imagery from the Passion play in Chapter 18, and how might this imagery and roleplay relate to both Antonio’s coming of age and universal experiences of coming of age?

CHAPTERS 20-22

Reading Check

1. Whose tracks do the spring winds reveal near the juniper tree?

2. What does Ultima claim can always be stopped?

3. What does Cico tell Antonio he must choose between?

4. Who does Ultima believe will help heal Antonio from his experiences of death?

5. What makes Ultima so powerful?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How did the Agua Negra ranch come to be cursed?

2. How does his love of his homeland help Antonio reconcile some of his doubts about which path to choose?

3. What advice does Ultima give Antonio before he goes to visit his uncles for the summer?

4. How does Antonio’s father help change his mind about the nature of evil and his fear of growing up?

Paired Resource

“The New World Man” by Rudolfo Anaya

• In this essay, Rudolfo Anaya reflects on the multiplicities of identity within the Spanish colonies of the Americas and urges colonial descendants to acknowledge their Indigenous mothers with as much pride and respect as they reserve for their Peninsular forefathers.
• This content relates to the themes of Multiplicity Within Chicanx Identity and Masculine and Feminine Influences on Manhood.
• What thematic similarities do you notice between Anaya’s essay and the novel, and in what ways might Antonio’s coming-of-age story provide a blueprint for becoming the “new world man” of the essay?

Recommended Next Reads

The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea

• A fictionalized retelling of the story of the author’s great aunt, Teresa, who became known as La Santa de Cábora, The Hummingbird’s Daughter follows the coming to womanhood of a beloved curandera and revolutionary in the Mexican borderlands.
• Shared themes include Masculine and Feminine Influences on one’s coming of age and Multiplicity Within Chicanx Identity.
• Shared topics include Chicanx identity, historical fiction, curanderismo, dreams and magical realism, religion and spirituality, and the challenges of coming into adulthood.
• The Hummingbird’s Daughter on SuperSummary

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

• Told through a series of interrelated vignettes, The House on Mango Street explores loneliness, poverty, racism, and pressures to assimilate that complicate the already difficult move into womanhood for Esperanza Cordero as she searches for her identity and place in 1960s Chicago.
• Shared themes include Masculine and Feminine Influences on one’s coming of age and Multiplicity Within Chicanx Identity.
• Shared topics include Chicanx identity, gender roles, historical fiction, family and community, religion and spirituality, and the challenges of coming into adulthood.
• The House on Mango Street on SuperSummary