Ms. Hamilton

English 12

09 May 2025

Bible Thumping Cowboys

Breif context of parts of the thesis is and the conflicts it causes

In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya places Antonio in the middle of his parents’ different views of his future, causing a mental conflict of which family name he lives by, creating a fear of being good or evil within the sight of his parents.

-“This one will be a Luna…to show their hope they rubbed the dark earth of the river valley on the baby’s forehead,” (Anaya 5).

-“He will make a fine vaquero!...they rubbed the stain of earth from the baby’s forehead because man was not to be tied to the earth but free upon it,” (Anaya 5-6).

-“It is the sweet water of the moon…it is the water the church chooses to make holy and place in its fronts. It is the water of your baptism,” (Anaya 120).

-showing he is pure in the eyes of god and to answer the question of where we go after death

-“Lies, lies, lies, my father laughed, through your body runs the salt water of the oceans. It is the water which makes you a Márez and not a Luna,” (Anaya 120)

showing how his father sees hard work in the lifestyle and the "origin" of where they came from. The start of their lineage was from Spanish conquistadors and they traveled from the sea

“From the curandera Ultima, Antonio comes to learn about popular superstitions, magic, the occult, good and evil in a modified Christian or un-Christian context.”(Testa 71)

-"Anaya's construction of costumbrismo (local color)"(cruz-solano 2)

-“and the boy himself in the more mixed pleasure of schooling in English and Catholic catechism class”(Wilson 193)

“specific claim to the heritage would enable him to do what he was bound to do”(Wilson 197)

bringing to light other ways and religions, such as the golden carp, that would be more of a local belief or a pagan style