Bless Me, Ultima
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is a reprint edition published by Penguin on March 15, 2022, featuring 288 pages in English. This novel follows the journey of six-year-old Antonio Marez, who is guided by Ultima, a curandera, as he navigates the complexities of his identity and heritage in New Mexico. The narrative explores themes of life, death, and the duality of cultural influences, as Antonio grapples with the expectations of his family and the spiritual wisdom imparted by Ultima.
Readers will find a rich exploration of coming-of-age experiences within a Hispanic and Latino context. The story delves into Antonio’s internal conflicts, balancing his mother’s farming traditions with his father’s nomadic background, as well as the clash between Spanish Catholicism and indigenous beliefs. This edition is part of the Penguin Vitae series, which celebrates significant works of literature, providing a beautifully designed hardcover that invites both new and returning readers to engage with this classic narrative.
Official synopsis Publisher
A collectible hardcover 50th-anniversary edition of the bestselling Chicano novel of all time, featuring a new foreword by Erika L. Sánchez, the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
One of America’s 100 Most-Loved Books | PBS’s The Great American Read
A Penguin Vitae Edition
Although only six years old, Antonio Marez is perceptive beyond his years. He was brought into the world with the help of Ultima, a curandera, or folk healer, in touch with nature and the spirit world. Revered by some as a wisewoman but rebuked by others as a witch, Ultima has now come back to stay with Tony’s family in New Mexico. As Tony seeks out his destiny—torn between his mother’s farming forebears and his father’s wandering vaquero roots, between Spanish Catholicism and the gods of his indigenous ancestors—Ultima’s loving tutelage will help him navigate questions of life and death, good and evil, and reveal to him the vastness of the heritage that shapes him, in this pioneering work of literature.
Penguin Vitae—loosely translated as “Penguin of one’s life”—is a deluxe hardcover series from Penguin Classics celebrating a dynamic and diverse landscape of classic fiction and nonfiction from seventy-five years of classics publishing. Penguin Vitae provides readers with beautifully designed classics that have shaped the course of their lives, and welcomes new readers to discover these literary gifts of personal inspiration, intellectual engagement, and creative originality.
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