Bless Ultima

Bless me, Ultima

The major conflict emerges throughout the whole book, starting from the very beginning. Antonio is being brought up in a world of constant struggle between his fighting families who both seem to have their own plans set out for him. Antonio's mother and her family live the rooted agrarian life of the land and she wants him to be a priest while his father and his family expect him to become a vaquero, or a cowboy. In all the commotion of the fighting, an old lady healer, or curandera, named Ultima comes to live with the family. Antonio is also having a struggle within in himself on his view of morality. Being raised as a Catholic, he is constantly questioning his religion and why it is the way it is. He is particularly puzzled when a war veteran named Lupto is shot because he is going crazy from war flashbacks. He asks Ultima if the people will go to hell for shooting him or if he will go to hell and she says that it is not up to them to decide God's judgments. Throughout all this religious questioning and family quarreling, Antonio manages to find peace on his walks with Ultima collecting herbs and walking by the river. Will Antonio be able to resolve the conflicts of his family, or will he choose his own route in life, different from that of what his family desires?

I admire Antonio who is managing to hold together in the time where everything is falling apart. Unlike Antonio's parent who, unable to cope with the stress in a very stressful time in life, are putting even more pressure on him by making him choose how he wants to live his life when he is unsure of what he wants to do. It is hard when people are at war and families are fighting and many people crack under pressure like that and do something that they regret. Antonio is a character that many can relate to or want to be; when everything is falling apart around them, they try their best to hold together, especially when so many things are being questioned at the time.

The climax, the most intense event near the end that answers the question occurs when one of Antonio's Uncles, Lucas, becomes sick and nobody is able to cure her except Ultima (Antonio is brought along and experiences her healing powers). When she cures Lucas, they discover that the thing that had made him ill was supposedly a by Tenorio's daughters, whom are considered to be evil. After Antonio and Ultima return home, Tenorio has rallied up a mob to lynch the Ð''which' but she fails the witch test that he administers. Soon after the mob leaves the incident, the priest refuses to bury one of Tenorio's daughters because he suspects that she is evil and all though