Rudolfo Anaya: Bless Me, Ultima

"I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and beautiful, Antonio. Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle nd the owls sing in the hills. I shall be with you-" (Anaya, p. 261)

Ultima's job as a curandera is to heal. In the novel, Bless Me, Ultima, Ultima uses this power twice to save the lives of family and friends of Antonio's family. Ultima's magic to save Uncle Lucas is preformed through a ceremony. The ceremony begins with Ultima creating a potion that Uncle Lucas struggles to drink. Antonio feels his struggle, and uses his innocence to help him heal. In order toc ompletely rid the body of the evil spirit, Uncle Lucas must vomit it out. Ultima mixes herbs and allows them to simmer on the stove, creating a healing potion. She also creates three clay dolls, which she covers with melted wax (creating the illusion of flesh), and dresses the dolls with bits of cloth. Ultima then spoke to the dolls, "You have done evil/ But good is stronger than evil,/ And what you sought to do will undo you..."(p. 101). After this chant, Antonio is surprised to see the dolls squirm and appear to take life. Ultima then dipped three pins into the potion, and stuck them a pin into each doll. She then forced Uncle Lucas to drink the remaining potion, which caused him to scream and shake. Uncle Lucas continued to be sick, and scream, until he eventually cries out "¡Dios Mio!"and vomits "a huge ball of hair...hot and steaming and wiggling like live snakes" (p. 103) Ultima completes the ceremony by burning the hair, vomit, and other remains created during the ceremony in the dark field which the three sister's curse was originally cast.



Ultima also uses her power to help the Téllez family rid their home of cursed ghosts. Ultima tells Antonio how the spirits who haunt the house were the three Comanche Indians Téllez's grandfather hung. The three men were not given a proper cultural burial, and thus their spirits were left to roam the land. Their spirits were manipulated by brujas (witches). In order to break the curse, Ultima had to provide the spirits with a proper burial. Ultima had Antonio and his father erect a platform from juniper branches. Ultima also gathered and created a mix of herbs. Ultima placed three mysteriously heavy bags on the platform, and burned them all to white ash. This mimicked the original death ceremony the spirits should have originally received, freeing them, and making them one with the dirt once again.