Chapter 22

The night after Florence dies, Antonio dreams of the bodies of Narciso, Lupito and Florence, the gang fighting, the priest desecrating the altar, Cico killing the golden carp, and Tenorio killing Ultima. Ultima wakes Antonio, comforts him and gives medicine to help him sleep without dreams. Antonio does not attend Florence's funeral, feeling that "there was nothing the church or I could give him now", and Ultima convinces Antonio's parents to send him to El Puerto to live and work with his uncles there for the summer. Ultima warns Antonio, "Be prepared to see things changed when you return".

While his father drives him to El Puerto, Antonio talks with his father, who is happy that Antonio will spend the summer away from his parents with his uncles, even though they are Lunas. Antonio wonders if he doesn't have to be just Marez or Luna but could be both, and he asks his father if a new religion can be made, and why there is evil in the world. His father responds that most things called evil are things that are not understood, and that "understanding simply means having a synpathy for people", like Ultima who can "touch their souls and cure them".

Antonio enjoys the summer with his uncles. When it is almost time for Antonio to return, his uncle Pedro tells him that they are pleased with him and his work as well. Uncle Juan approaches hurriedly and Antonio overhears that Tenorio's second daughter has just died and he is drinking and threatening vengeance on Ultima. Pedro tells Antonio to go from the fields to his grandfather's house early and pack to leave that evening. As Antonio travels across a narrow bridge, Tenorio tries to run him down with his black horse and kill him, but Antonio narrowly escapes by jumping off and rolling down an embankment. Antonio hears Tenorio vow to kill Ultima's owl and realizes that the owl is "her protective spirit...her soul".

Frightened, Antonio decides to run the ten miles from El Puerto to Guadalupe, so he can reach Ultima in time to warn her. As he runs, he thinks of the time Narciso ran to warn Ultima, of the times her owl had protected them, and of his dreams, wondering "what dream would form to guide my life as a man?" He reaches his parent's house just as Uncle Pedro arrives in his truck. As his mother, father and Ultima emerge, Antonio sees Tenorio in the shadows pointing his rifle at him! After he cries out, Ultima's owl flies to attack Tenorio, who misses Antonio but cries out in victory after he kills the owl. Pedro shoots and kills Tenorio before he can fire at Antonio. The family enters the house only to find Ultima dying. Antonio asks her, "Bless me, Ultima" and she asks him to bury the owl and burn her herbs and medicines. He does, and though there is a memorial service two days later, Antonio's closing words are that "Ultima was really buried here. Tonight."

Discussion Questions
1. Were you surprised by Ultima's death? Why or why not?
2. What vocation and religious faith do you think Antonio will choose as he grows up?

Chapter 21

As Antonio and his friend Cico wait by the creek for the golden carp to appear, Antonio’s thoughts turn to God. “I wondered if God was alive anymore, or if He had ever been. He had not been able to cure my uncle Lucas or free the Tellez family from their curse, and He had not saved Lupito or Narciso. And yet, He had the right to send you to hell or heaven when you died.”

Antonio asks Cico why they don’t tell everyone about the golden carp. Cico replies that “the god of the church is a jealous god; he cannot live in peace with other gods. He would instruct his priests to kill the golden carp-------“

The golden carp then appears and Antonio is filled with peace; the golden carp swimming by, the beautiful natural surroundings.

They decide to find Florence and share the golden carp with him. “Florence needed at least one god, and I was sure he would believe in the golden carp. I could almost hear him say as he peered into the waters, ‘at last a god who does not punish, a god who can bring beauty into my life.’”

Antonio and Cico go to look for Florence and they come upon a group of Antonio’s friends who have been swimming in a restricted area near the lake. They tell Antonio that Florence dove into the water and has not yet resurfaced. Antonio instructs his friend Able to fetch the lifeguard from the lake. As Abel leaves, Florence’s body floats to the surface. There is a red spot on his head and he is entangled in barb wire. Florence is dead. Antonio feels sick. With tears streaming down his face, he runs away from the gathering crowd.

“The lonely river was a sad place to be when one is a small boy who has just seen a friend die. And it grew sadder when the church bells began to toll, and the afternoon shadows lengthened.”

Chapter 20

Antonio continues to go to confession and take communion every week, but finds it disappointing because the answers and understanding he sought are not to be found there after all. His group of friends become contentious with the boys from Los Jaros, and his former teacher explains to him that it is all just a part of growing up. When his teacher asks if he wants to be a farmer, after he tells her he will be going to his uncles' farm for part of the summer, he repeats what Ultima told him: "a man's destiny must unfold itself like a flower". She remarks that Ultima is wise, and Antonio notes that his teacher somehow seems older and he muses that perhaps they are all older now. As he continues home, Antonio finds that the Vitamin Kid is not there to race him across the bridge -- instead, the Kid is walking with a girl. Though this is the first time Antonio has beat the Kid, he isn't happy at his victory and only feels sad that something good has ended.

Antonio sees tracks under the trees around his house, and worries that they belong to Tenorio. He is concerned, too, about rumors he hears regarding "evil things" happening at the Agua Negra ranch, which people think are the result of a curse. A man from one of the families, by the name of Téllez, comes to Antonio's home searching for Ultima's help to lift the curse. He provides evidence of the curse's existence with stories of things flying around inside his house, being burned with hot coffee, and stones raining down on his roof. He tells Antonio's family that even the blessing of a priest has not stopped the effects of the curse, and Antonio's father decides to go with Téllez back to his house to see the signs himself. When he returns, he is convinced that the house is indeed cursed. Ultima tells him that it was not a curse laid on a person, but rather one laid on a ghost, which is now haunting the house. Ultima explains that many years ago, the land that is now Agua Negra was the land of the Comanche Indians. Three Comanches raided Téllez's grandfather's flocks, and he killed them and didn't properly bury them. As a result, their souls now haunted the land. The witches who laid the curse on the area placed it on the ghosts instead of on people, so as not to get caught. Though Ultima reminds Antonio's father of the rules that guide interference with a man's destiny, she agrees to help lift the curse because Téllez is an old friend of the family.

Ultima heads to Agua Negra, and Antonio and his father go with her. As his father and Ultima marvel at the beauty of the land of llano around them, Antonio thinks to himself that from his mother he has learned that man is from the earth with gives him safety and security, but that from Ultima and his father he has learned to love the magical beauty of the earth, and that the greater immortality of man is his freedom nourished by the land and open sky.

When they get to the Téllez home, Téllez enthusiastically greets Ultima. Téllez's wife cries and looks sick, and tells Ultima, Antonio and his father that she cannot offer them anything to eat or drink. At this moment, a cloud comes over the house, and stones begin to rain down on the roof. Ultima performs a ritual where she burns three bundles in a pyre that the men construct for her. No one but Ultima knows what is in the bundles, but the ritual lifts the curse. Téllez asks how he can repay Ultima, and she says that he need only bring her a lamb the next time he is in town, and to stay away from the evil Tenorio. This warning reminds Téllez that he encountered Tenorio in a bar the previous month, and that Tenorio had insulted him and he had responded, and directly following this was when the bad things started to happen at Téllez's home.

That night, Antonio dreams of his three brothers. In his dream, his brothers wander in the mist in a foreign city, and they call to him, asking that he save them from their unrest. Antonio calls back to them that he has no real power to help them. He takes the livers from his three brothers, and baits his fishing hook to catch a catfish from the river by which he stands. His brothers call to him again, "But you have the power of the church, you are the boy-priest! Or choose from the power of the golden carp or the magic of your Ultima. Give us rest!" Moved by their pain, Antonio takes their livers from his fishing line and casts them into the river of the golden carp; then they, and Antonio, are at peace.

Discussion Questions
1. What do you think Antonio's dream at the end of the chapter means?

2. What do you think is in the bundles of that Ultima burns during the ritual at Téllez's house? Is it the bodies of the cursed Comanches, or something symbolizing their remains, or something else entirely?

Chapter 19

It is Easter Sunday - Antonio and the other children are outside of church, waiting to go inside and receive their first Communion. The boys and girls are in separate lines, with parents nearby, including Antonio's mother and father and Ultima. The girls are lined up neatly, but the boys talk and fidget, and Bones gets whacked on the head several times by one of the high school girls in charge of keeping order. Florence stands nearby, watching but not participating. The children enter and sit in the front row.

During the first part of the mass, Antonio thinks about his first confession the previous day, and how he had mixed feelings about revealing his thoughts and telling "everything, everything I thought was a sin". As the priest performs the Communion "ceremony of changing the bread into flesh and the wine into blood...of the risen Christ", Antonio imagines that God will soon be with him and inside of him and will answer all of his questions. Abel and Horse whisper about blood and Antonio thinks of the blood of Lupito and Narciso in the river and the hills of the llano.

Finally the children get up and kneel at the altar to receive the Communion. After Antonio is given the wafer and wine, he bows his head and waits for God to speak to him, but this confuses the other children who are continuing to move quickly in the line. "There wasn't time just to sit and discover Him, like I could do when I sat on the creek bank and watched the golden carp swim in the sun-filtered waters."

Antonio moves on and tries to sense God's presence and ask some of the many questions he has: "Why did Lupito die? Why did you allow Narciso to be murdered when he was doing good? Why do you punish Florence? Why doesn't he believe? Will the golden carp rule--?" But Antonio does not hear a Voice within, only silence, and he wonders if he did not prepare for First Communion correctly. He looks toward the statue of the Virgin and sees her smiling, "her outstretched arms offering forgiveness to all." A short time later, the mass is over.

Discussion Questions
1. How is Antonio's experience of First Communion different than that of the other children?

Chapter 18

This chapter starts on Ash Wednesday. To Antonio, this is a day of dread, a day to realize that the body is nothing and will disintegrate and disappear. But then the thought of the enduring soul raises him up from this morbid truth.

During the forty days of lent, Antonio thinks of little else except the goal of first communion and saving his soul from an eternity in hell. He has dreams that people he knows are burning in the inferno. Florence, his friend, was one of the people that often appeared in these dreams. Antonio wants to save his friend from this fate and begs him to answer the priest's questions in catechism class. But Florence is not a believer and his reply is "You mean, when the priest asks where is God, I am to say God is everywhere: He is the worms that await the summer heat to eat Narciso. He shares the bed with Tenorio and his evil daughters_____" Samuel tells Antonio that in the summer they will tell Florence the legend of the golden carp so that Florence might have something good to believe in.

Antonio and his classmates finish their catechism classes and at last on the Saturday before Easter, prepare to go to their first confession. As the children are waiting to enter the church on this day, they decide to "practice" confession. Against his will they force Antonio to play the part of the priest. The first two to "confess" are Horse and Bones. Then the children insist that Florence make a confession. But Florence says that he doesn't have any sins and that God has sinned against him. The children are shocked by this and Florence goes on to say. "You refuse to see the truth, or to accept me because I do not believe in your lies! I say God has sinned against me because he took my father and mother from me when I needed them, and he made my sisters whores-----He has punished all of us without just cause." The children are angry and scared by Florence's words, they want Antonio to punish him. Antonio himself is scared since the other children are calling out "beat him, stone him, kill him." Antonio finds the courage to defy the other children and say there will be no punishment. The mob of small children then turn their anger towards Antonio. They tear off his clothes and hold him on the ground. Horse then proceeds to sit on Antonio and punch him repeatedly. "The blows of the knuckles coming down again and again on my breastbone were unbearable, but Horse knew no pity, and there was no pity on the faces of the others." Finally the beating stops because the priest is calling the children into the church. Florence helps Antonio get dressed. He says to Antonio, "You could never be their priest."

Antonio then goes into the church and into the confessional.


Discussion question:

1. Do you think that any of the children confess to what had just happened on the church grounds?

Chapter 17

Antonio begins his catechism lessons, about which he is so excited that Chapter 17 starts out with the words "Aleluya! Aleluya! Aleluya!" Adults around Antonio talk about the atomic bomb made to end the war, and blame on it the harsh winter and spring sandstorms, saying that the bomb is against God because it means that man is trying to know more than God himself. When Antonio asks his father about this theory, his father tells him it is nonsense. He blames the bad weather on men who have abused the land, and says that nature is trying to restore the balance and that "the wise man listens to the voice of the earth". Antonio continues his catechism lessons, hoping that some of his moral questions about what has recently happened will soon be answered.

Later, Florence and Antonio discuss the nature of sin before catechism class, and Florence questions why he can have a lifetime of it but then just confess at the end and still go to heaven. Antonio agrees that this doesn't seem fair. As the other boys in the gang come around, rough-housing and talking about a fight that happened the day before, the discussion turns to whether or not Protestants go to hell, and Florence replies that if you don't believe in God there's no hell to go to anyway. Antonio asks why, then, Florence still goes to catechism, if he doesn't believe in God. Florence tells them he comes just so he can be with his friends. When the boys ask Florence why he is an atheist, he tells them that his mother died when he was three, his father drank himself to death, and his sisters are "whores" at Rosie's. Antonio wonders if his brother Andrew has ever known one of Florence's sisters at Rosie's, and this make Antonio feel closer to Florence. Antonio suggests that maybe God puts obstacles in front of people to test their faith, and Florence argues that if God were as smart as everyones says, then why does he have a need to test people's faith, and why didn't he make people good? Florence questions why humankind should be punished for seeking knowledge in Eden, and Antonio wonders if his desire to seek knowledge makes him as bad as Adam and Eve, and he questions if the Golden Carp is a better god. Antonio wonders if maybe God comes in cycles, like the weather, and if maybe other gods -- like the Virgin Mary, or the Golden Carp --ruled in his absence. As he utters this thought, thinking it is blasphemy, the bell in the church tolls and a huge thunderclap sounds.

Because the two boys are late to catechism, Florence is punished by having to stand in the aisle of the church with his arms out; Antonio receives no punishment. As the boys pray, Antonio hears Bones next to him faking the prayer and mocking the priest's words. The priest explains the difference between a mortal sin and a venial sin, and tells his catechism class that if they die with a venial sin on their soul they will never get into heaven, going to purgatory instead, and that if they die with a mortal sin on their soul, they will burn forever in hell. He then goes on to tell them a story illustrating just how long eternity is. The magnitude of eternity in hell makes a huge impact on most of the class, but Florence still stands in the aisle with his arms raised, and Antonio thinks to himself that Florence must be unafraid of eternity.

Discussion Questions

1. What do you make of the symbolism in this chapter, i.e., the thunderclap at Antonio's moment of blasphemy and Florence standing in the aisle in the church with his arms outstretched in a way that suggests crucifiction?

2. Were you surprised when Antonio uttered his blashemy?Does it seem in character, and consistent with the story? Why or why not?

Chapter 16

After recovering from the ordeal of witnessing Narciso's murder, Antonio returns to school following the Christmas break. It seems that his experience has changed him -- he thinks to himself that he feels older, while it seems that all of his school friends have remained the same and continue to act like children. Antonio mostly keeps to himself, preoccupied by the dreams he had while ill, and ponders why God would let Narciso die when he was only trying to help Ultima but allows evil Tenorio to continue living and without punishment. He wonders if perhaps God is too busy to worry or care about the lives of people. Though he often goes to church after school to pray and ask God for answers to his questions, he finds no answers, and begins to pray more often to the Virgin Mary instead. Antonio imagines that when he does so, the Virgin Mary turns to God and repeats Antonio's words, but that God's response is that Antonio is just not yet ready to understand. He hopes that when he takes communion, his answers will come.

Walking home from school one day, Antonio meets Tenorio in the exact spot under the juniper tree where he murdered Narciso. Tenorio looks at Antonio with hate, curses him, and tells him his second daughter is dying and that he will find a way to punish Ultima for it. Antonio yells back that he will not allow that to happen, and calls Tenorio a murderer. It seems that Tenorio is about to physically attack Antonio, but he stops, and only says "the curse is that you know too much", then runs off.

When Antonio gets home, he tells Ultima about the encounter, but she reassures him that Tenorio is a coward and was only able to kill Narciso because he ambushed him; he will not be able to do that to Ultima. Ultima's words relieve Antonio's worry somewhat, though he continues to have nightmares of Tenorio shooting Ultima, leading him to awaken in the night and listen to see if he can hear her moving around in the house. She always seems to be awake, which reassures Antonio. He muses that though he has always been close to her, he became closer than ever to her and more appreciative of her in those weeks she cared for him while he was ill.

Discussion questions
1. What do you think Tenorio meant when he said to Antonio "your curse is that you know too much"? How does this tie in with the overall theme of the novel, thus far?

2. Why do you think Tenorio has returned to the juniper tree where Antonio finds him -- is he seeking absolution, feeling regret for what he's done, waiting to ambush Ultima, or something else?

Chapter 15

Antonio contracts pneumonia from his time in the cold and snow. Tenorio is not arrested for Narciso's murder because there was "only the word of a small, sick boy" to say what had happened on that dreadful night. Narciso's death is ruled an accident because he was the town drunk and no one really cared what had happened to him.

"He was a big and wild man; he drank and cursed like most men do, but he was a good man. He died trying to help an old friend. He had the magic of growth in his hands and he passed it into the earth. Now his house was deserted and his garden withered away, and few people remembered anything good about Narciso."

Ultima nursed Antonio through his bout with pneumonia. He was worried that he may have talked in his fevered dreams about seeing Andrew at the brothel. Ultima assures him that his secret is safe.

During the Christmas holiday from school Antonio spends time with his mother in the kitchen. He recites prayers for her while she cooks. She tells him that in the spring he will start catechism classes that will culminate with his first communion on Easter Sunday. She tells him the he will "hold God in your mouth, in your body, in your soul--you will speak to Him, and He will answer." Antonio asks her, "Then I will have the knowledge of God?"

Antonio thinks that perhaps Andrew feels guilty about not heeding Narciso's warning about Tenorio. But all Andrew actually says to him is that he is sorry that Antonio witnessed the murder.

Shortly after Christmas Antonio's brothers, Eugene and Leon, came home to visit, but not to stay. When they leave, Andrew leaves with them. "And I wondered if the death of Narciso had anything to do with Andrew's decision to go."

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 starts with Antonio's first day of third grade. As Antonio's brother Andrew walks with him to school, he teases Antonio about turning and waving goodbye to his mother and Ultima. Antonio's reasoning for this, he tells Andrew, is that when he leaves home he sometimes feels like when he returns everything will have changed. Even as he says it, Antonio thinks to himself that he is already learning that things do not stay the same. Andrew sympathesizes, and tells Antonio that is just how he felt when he came back from the war -- that "everything seemed smaller".

Antonio races the Vitamin Kid across the bridge as usual, then he and Samuel continue walking on to school while Andrew stops to supposedly catch his breath at the end of the bridge. The two boys walk by Rosie's house, and Antonio tells Samuel he saw the golden carp over the summer. Samuel is pleased to hear this, and tells Antonio that he might "become one of us". Antonio and Samuel share their respective experiences farming and sheepherding over the summer, but when Antonio tells Samuel that his mother wants him to become a priest, Samuel tells him that it is "the greatest calling".

When Antonio meets up with his old gang at school, the boys talk about what happened over the summer between Tenorio and Ultima, and then one boy asks Antonio if it is true that his brother has been "whoring" at Rosie's. Though Antonio doesn't know what this word means, he knows that Rosie's is a bad place. Several of the boys in the gang accuse Ultima of being a witch, and Antonio defends her. A fight ensues between Antonio and Ernie; though no one is hurt, after Antonio fights back the boys no longer tease him about Ultima.

One day a few weeks before the winter break from school, a snowstorm sets in. Antonio's sisters are allowed to stay home from school, but Antonio's mother tells him that if he is to be a priest he must learn about sacrifice, and so he goes to school in the bad weather. As he leaves, Ultima whispers to him "take care of the evil in the wind", and Antonio touches the scapular Ultima gave him in acknowledgment. As they walk to school, Samuel tells Antonio about a fight between Tenorio and Narciso the previous night at a bar in town, and speculates that the fight between them will not end until blood is spilled.

When he gets to school, Antonio finds that the only students there are other boys, which means that it will be only them -- without the help of the girl students -- to put on the annual Christmas play. The ensuing rehearsal devolves into chaos: Bones hides in the rafters above the stage, Horse throws a piece of wood that knocks out the Kid, someone knocks over the doll of the Christ child and the doll's head falls off. The play itself, performed for the other mostly male students at school that day, is no more dignified than the rehearsal: Abel wets his pants on stage during the performance; the audience yells at the actors, trying to identify who is in which costume; Florence accidentally breaks the light bulb that represents the light of the east and plunges the stage into darkness.

After the ludicrous theatrical production, Antonio walks home in the snow storm alone. On his way through the middle of town, he witnesses another bar fight between Tenorio and Narciso. Tenorio screams that another of his daughters is sick, and blames it on Ultima's "witchcraft". Narciso defends Ultima, and threatens to kill Tenorio if he causes any harm to her. In return, Tenorio says that he intends to kill Ultima and will kill Narciso, too, if he gets in the way. Narciso takes off to warn the Marez family and Ultima, but is afraid he will not make it to the house in the storm, so he looks for Antonio's brother Andrew instead. Antonio follows Narciso, and is led to Rosie's, where he finds Andrew. Antonio is shocked and disappointed to find his brother at the brothel, and muses on the loss of his innocence, remembering Lupito's murder and watching Ultima cure Antonio's uncle.

When Narciso finds Andrew, Andrew laughs off the warning about Tenorio's threat, and a frustrated Narciso decides to go to the Marez home to warn them, despite the storm. Following Narciso and unable to see clearly through the snow in the air, Antonio hears the sound of a gunshot. He comes upon Narciso, bleeding from a gunshot wound under the juniper tree and screaming that Tenorio has shot him like a coward. Tenorio attempts to shoot Narciso again to kill him, and when Antonio steps between the two men, Tenorio aims the gun at him instead. When the gun does not fire because it is out of ammunition, Tenorio runs away, and Antonio is again left to watch the final moments of a dying man's life. Narciso asks Antonio to take his confession, and he does.

In shock from witnessing another murder, and cold from the storm, Antonio drifts in and out of consciousness. In his fevered dreams, Antonio imagines he pleads for forgiveness for Narciso, but God says he will only do so if Antonio also asks for forgiveness for Tenorio. The Virgin Mary adds her voice to the argument, and says that she will forgive Tenorio, but Antonio does not want this because Tenorio has done evil things. Antonio's dream morphs into a vision of an angry mob driving his brothers with whips, and calling for Ultima's blood. His brothers plead with Antonio to bless them, and the dream shifts again. This time, Antonio sees the Trementina sisters dancing and performing a spell that causes Antonio to wither and die in sin because he hasn't yet taken the Eucharist. He imagines he sees the mob continue on: they burn his family's castle on the hill, put his school friends in chains, kill Ultima's owl, behead Ultima and drink her blood, burn Ultima's body, and catch the golden carp and eat it. Following these acts, the earth opens up and the church and school crumble into it, then the entire town follows. Antonio's dream ends with the golden carp reappearing and swallowing everything in his huge mouth, then glowing so brightly he becomes a new sun to shine down on a new earth.

Discussion questions
1. Considering the role Antonio plays in the final moments of several men's lives, how do adults in his world view Antonio?
2.What do the images and events in Antonio's fever dream at the end of the chapter symbolize?

Chapter 13

In this chapter the Márez family travels to El Puerto for their annual trip to help Antonio's uncles with the harvest. Antonio's father travels with the family for the first time, and all are eager to get away and forget the events of the previous night. Antonio thinks about the God of the Catholic church and the golden carp, and how he has been told that both will punish sinners, and he wonders if there could be a god who would forgive all of the time, like the Virgin Mary? "Perhaps the best god would be like a woman, because only women really knew how to forgive."

Antonio asks his Uncle Pedro why he didn't come to warn them last night. His uncle answers that Antonio's grandfather would not allow any of them to do so, in order to live in harmony with both the good and bad and not pass judgment. When Antonio points out that they allowed Tenorio to pass judgment on Ultima, who cured Lucas, Pedro is at first angry, but he finally acknowledges that they were afraid and praises Antonio for standing by his friend.

After a family dinner in El Puerto, one of Antonio's uncles tells a story that Tenorio and his two daughters will perform a witch's Black Mass for the third daughter who has just died. That night Antonio dreams of the events described except that he sees Ultima in the coffin! The next day, Tenorio and his daughters attempt to bring the third daughter to be buried at the church, but they are refused entrance (last rites and burial in holy ground) by the priest. Tenorio withdraws, defeated, but looks vengefully at Ultima as he passes by.

As the harvest ends and the Márez family leaves, the uncles invite Antonio to stay for the entire summer during the next harvest season, to give him the opportunity to know their way of life better before deciding which path he will choose.

Discussion questions
1. How are God, the golden carp and the Virgin Mary - as Antonio understands them - similar to some of the important adults in his life?
2. In Antonio's dream, why does he see Ultima in the coffin?

Chapter 12

"Ultima's cure and the golden carp occupied my thoughts the rest of the summer," are Antonio's first words in chapter 12.

Antonio spends most of the time with Ultima. In the day they gather plants in the hills. In the evenings they spend time in her room. One evening Antonio asks Ultima about three dolls that are on her shelf. "The dolls were made of clay and shellacked with candle wax. They were clothed, and life like in appearance." These dolls seem familiar to him and one looks as if it had been left in the sun. "I looked closely at one doll that sagged and bent over. The clay face seemed to be twisted with pain." Antonio is told not to touch the dolls. Ultima distracts Antonio from them by warning Antonio to stay away from Tenorio Trementina, the evil man from El Puerto who had threatened Ultima and whose three daughters had supposedly put the curse on Antonio's uncle Lucas.

One evening the family is gathered in the kitchen and Antonio's mother is reminiscing about her friend Narciso. Although Maria had lived many years on the llano, she had only made two friends, Ultima and Narciso. Narciso, who was a drunk and many people thought was useless, had helped during the birth of her daughters and for that Maria will be always be grateful to him. Narciso was also the man on the bridge who wanted to try to save Lupito's life in chapter 2. While they are talking, Narciso himself bursts into the house. He is at first incoherent, such is his excitement. They finally come to understand that Tenorio and a bunch of his drunken friends are on their way to the Marez resident intent on blood. One of Tenorio's daughters has died and Tenorio is blaming Ultima. He has accused Ultima of being a witch.

When the angry mob arrives, Gabriel Marez stands his ground and will not allow them to take Ultima. Tenorio exclaims, " la mujer que no ha pecado es bruja, le juro a Dios!" Which means: The woman who has not sinned is a witch, I swear to God!" The men with Tenorio say that it is the "law by custom" to turn over a person accused of witchcraft. Narcisco points out that there are simple tests that could be used to determine whether or not Ultima is a witch. One proof of witchcraft is that witch cannot pass through a doorway with a holy cross on it. Using needles that had been blessed by a priest with holy water, they make a cross on the top of the door to the house. Ultima starts to walk through the doorway when her owl suddenly attacks Tenorio. The owl claws out one of his eyes. After the commotion of this event dies down, Ultima is standing outside of the house. This convinces the group of vigilantes that Ultima cannot be a witch and therefore can never again be accused of witchcraft. Tenorio then says, "Your evil bird has blinded me! For that I curse you! I will see you dead! And you Narciso, I swear to kill you!"

The men take the bleeding Tenorio and leave the Marez land. Once the men leave the family goes back into the house. Antonio pauses "at the door. A faint glitter caught my eye. I bent down and picked up the two needles that had been stuck to the top of the door frame. Whether someone had broken the cross they made, or whether they had fallen, I would never know."

Discussion questions:

1) The dolls in Ultima's room represent the three daughter's of Tenorio that Ultima made while performing the cure on Uncle Lucas. Are these an evil magic?

2) No one actually sees Ultima walk through the doorway. Do you think that the needles were still in the door when she walked through?

Chapter 11

As Antonio is fishing and thinking - wondering how Ultima could cure his uncle when the priest had failed - his friend Cico invites him to see the golden carp that Samuel had told him about and he had been hoping to see all summer. Cico asks if he believes the golden carp is a god and Antonio replies, "I am a Catholic...I can believe only in the God of the church....But I want to believe...it's just that I have to believe in Him?" Cico asks him to swear never to hunt or kill a carp and then they leave for the river.

They pass by Narciso's house and Antonio is amazed at the garden that seems magical with its abundance of fruits and vegetables. At Cico's urging, Antonio eats a carrot from the garden - the most delicious he had ever tasted - though he feels some guilt at taking it without permission. Later they encounter some of the kids rom school playing basketball, who accuse Ultima of being a bruja (witch). Disturbed by their comments, Antonio startles them by throwing up the carrot, and then he and Cico run off.

Finally Cico leads Antonio to a hidden pond and they see the huge golden carp. Antonio is "entranced...I felt my body trembling as I saw the bright golden form disappear. I knew I had witnessed a miraculous thing, the appearance of a pagan god, a thing as miraculous as the curing of my uncle Lucas." Cico tells him stories about a mermaid in the Hidden Lakes and a prophecy sent by the golden carp that the town would someday collapse under the weight of the people's sins and be swallowed by water! Antonio goes home and asks Ultima about the story, and she tells him, "I cannot tell you what to believe. Your father and your mother can tell you, because you are their blood, but I cannot. As you grow into manhood you must find your own truths--"

That night Antonio dreams of a great conflict between forces of nature: the lake, the golden carp and Antonio's father on one side; the moon and Antonio's father on the other. Antonio begs to know which he belongs to. Ultima appears, calming the storm and explaining that the two waters are one and them same, part of a larger cycle that binds both of them together. "Then there was peace in my dreams and I could rest."

Discussion Questions:
1. How does Antonio's perception of Ultima differ from the opinions of those in his town?
2. How does the legend of the Golden Carp resemble the New Testament story of Jesus Christ, or the Mexican story of the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Chapter 10

In this chapter, summer has arrived and Antonio is enjoying his time working in the garden with Ultima and wandering the river and llano. However, Antonio's mother is unhappy - her brother, Antonio's Uncle Lucas, has been sick all winter and is close to death because a bruja (witch) has put a curse on him. Antonio's other uncles have gone to the local doctor, the "great doctor in Las Vegas" and the priest, but none has been able to help. One morning, Antonio's Uncle Pedro visits the family to ask for Ultima's help, since she is a curandera (healer). She agrees, but with the warning that "You must understand that when anybody, bruja or curandera, priest or sinner, tampers with the fate of a man that sometimes a chain of events is set into motion over which no one will have ultimate control. You must be willing to accept any responsibility." Uncle Pedro and Antonio's mother agree, and Pedro tell the story of how Lucas fell sick shortly after he interrupted a "secret ceremony" by the three Trementina sisters, daughters of Tenorio, the owner of the town's saloon. Ultima asks that Antonio travel with her as she "has need of him", and the two of them leave with Pedro for El Puerto.

After their arrival, Ultima gives some instructions to Antonio's grandfather and he agrees, since "he knew that when a curandera was working a cure she was in charge." Ultima first goes to the saloon to try to "reason with" Tenorio, but he rejects her offer and tries to trample her and Antonio on his black horse. Ultima and Antonio return to the now-quiet and nearly empty house, where the grandfather leaves them alone in the small room where Lucas is. Ultima prepares a series of remedies for Lucas. Neither she nor Antonio are afraid, and Ultima says this is because "good is always stronger than evil....The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant". A group of coyotes appears outside but they are driven off by Ultima's owl. Antonio begins to feel sick, as if he is bonded with his uncle and experiencing the same things that he does. Finally both Lucas and Antonio begin to recover. Ultima creates three clay dolls that seem to come to life after Lucas breathes on them, and he vomits and expels a ball of hair. Lucas has been cured, and Ultima goes to the grove of trees where he encountered the three sisters performing their ceremony and burns the hair ball and dirty linen. Finished with their work, she and Antonio return home to Guadalupe.

Discussion Questions
1. How do you respond to the elements of mystery and magic in Bless Me, Ultima - in this chapter in particular and in the book as a whole?
2. Do the events in this chapter suggest any possible dangers for any of the characters?

Chapter 9

Antonio has another dream of his brothers. In this dream, his brothers take him to Rosie's house, which is the town's brothel. They try to get him to enter. "No! I shouted in my dream, I cannot enter, I cannot think those thoughts. I am to be a priest." His brothers Eugene and Leon go into the brothel, though Antonio begs them not to. Antonio then begs his brother Andrew to stay with him. Andrew laughs and says, "I will make a deal with you my little brother, I will wait and not enter until you lose your innocence." Tony wonders where his innocence that he must never lose is and in answer Ultima points to Las Pasturas.

When Antonio awakens from this dream, he hears his brothers arguing with his parents. Eugene and Leon are going to leave Guadalupe and find jobs elsewhere. They tell their parents that they are now grown and must led their own lives.

Andrew stays in Guadalupe and works at the local grocery store. He explains to Antonio that he has his own dreams and cannot live his life for his parents. This makes Antonio think of his own situation. He wants to be a good son and follow his parents' wishes but which one? His mother wants him to be a priest while his father wants him to travel with him to the vineyards of California. He obviously cannot do both so he is torn between them. He thinks, "Oh, it was hard to grow up. I hoped that in a few years the taking of the first holy communion would bring me understanding."

On the last day of school, Antonio is proud that he has learned to read and write, he has learned the secret of the magic of letters. Since he is older than the other children in the first grade he is promoted to the third grade so that he will be with children his own age the following year.

Instead of going straight home after school, on that last day of first grade, he went fishing with his friend Samuel. "Samuel was only in the third grade, but he always seemed wise and old when he talked, kind of like my grandfather." There, on the banks of the river, as the two boys fished, Samuel told Antonio the legend of the golden carp.

The Story of the Golden Carp (as told to Antonio by Samuel)
Once there were the people who were sent to this valley by their gods. The land was fertile and the animals abundant. The gods gave all this to the people with only one condition: they were not to eat the carp of the river. The people obeyed and lived prosperous lives until there was a forty year drought. To survive the people caught and ate the carp. Their gods were angry, so, in punishment, the people were transformed into carp to live their lives in the river. One god wanted to stay with the people and care for them. He asked the other gods to transform him into a carp as well. "But because he was a god they made him very big and colored him the color of gold. And they made him the lord of all the waters of the valley."

Since Antonio looks up to Samuel he cannot disbelieve this story though it makes Antonio question his own Catholic faith.

When Antonio finally goes home, his mother is angry with him for coming home late. Her anger disappears when she learns that Antonio was promoted two grades in school. True to her faith, she has the family pray in thanks to the Virgin of Guadalupe. "My father arrived home late from work and was hungry. We were still praying and supper was late. He was angry."

Chapter 8

The joy of Antonio's brothers returning home after the end of the war in Chapter 7 begins to dissipate in Chapter 8, as the brothers fail to reassimilate into family life.

Antonio observes that he understands why the blood of spring is called "bad blood" -- he compares his brothers' growing restlessness with the rising of sap in trees dormant all winter, that begin to grow buds in the warmth of spring. His brothers sleep all day, and go out into town to gamble and drink all night. Their mother worries about them almost as much as she did when they were away at war, but says nothing because she is glad to at least have them home. Antonio wonders how much of their behavior, and the mechanical way they seem to be moving through the world since their return, is a way to forget about what they went through fighting in the war. One of the brothers, Leon, howls in the night in his sleep sometimes, and Antonio thinks of Lupito and the sickness war created in him. All the while, Antonio's father grows more insistent that his older sons plan a life with him in California, but the brothers do not listen. His dream begins to fade as the brothers gamble away all of their money in town.

As the weather warms, the brothers become more and more restless, and one day Antonio overhears them talk about leaving the town for good. They complain that they feel tied down in their parents' "hick town", and dream of saving up money and moving away to someplace more exciting. "All their lives, they had lived with the dreams of their father and mother haunting them, like they did me", thinks Antonio; as if in response, one brother tells the others "we can't build our lives on their dreams...we're not boys any longer...we can't be tied down to old dreams." Antonio worries about losing his brothers again, as they make plans to leave. As they grow more excited at the idea, they begin to tease Antonio, saying "Tony, you're going to be [mother's] priest!...Bless us, Tony!" Antonio, angered, says he will, and makes the sign of the cross over them. His older brothers laugh and toss Antonio onto the roof of the chicken coup, not taking his blessing seriously, and as they run off, he yells again "I will bless you!" His older brothers take off to town, saying they need to say goodbye to the girls at Rosie's, and Antonio is reminded of an incident where his father took their cow to mate with a neighbor's bull. While the bull mounted the cow, Antonio's father and the neighbor laughed, but Antonio was frightened. He remembers, also, when his brothers built the family house, and how they were like giants to him then, and starts to feel empty inside as he realizes he is losing them again.


Discussion Questions
1. How does the conversation Antonio overhears between his brothers echo the dream Antonio had in Chapter 2?
2. How does the imminent departure of Antonio's brothers affect his feelings about his obligation toward his parents?

Chapter 7

In this chapter, Antonio and his family receive the happy news that World War II is over and his three brothers are coming home. Antonio's teachers make the announcement to the students, Antonio yearns to see his brothers, and the family receives a letter from Andrew that he, León and Eugene will meet in San Diego and then travel home together.

The family begins a long prayer vigil that lasts until the children fall asleep and are carried to their beds. Antonio dreams of his three brothers returning and then awakens to find them approaching the house! The family has a tearful but joyous reunion, and the household is once again "complete".

Antonio's mother keeps busy caring for her three children who have returned, his father is "happy and full of life" thinking about moving to California in the summer with his three sons, and Antonio continues to work hard at school learning the mystery of the "magic letters".

Discussion Questions
1. Do you think the brothers will agree to travel to California with their father?
2. How important is the war to the story?

Chapter 6

This chapter opens with Antonio waking on his first day of school. This will be the first time that Antonio will be away from his mother and he is both excited and sad.

Maria, Antonio's mother, ask Ultima to bless the children before they go off to school. When Ultima places her hand on Antonio's head, he feels as if he is caught up in a whirlwind. Once, Antonio had indeed been caught in a dust devil, which Antonio believed holds an evil spirit of a devil. He wonders, "how could the blessing of Ultima be like a whirlwind? Was the power of good and evil the same?"

Maria then begs Ultima to tell her what Antonio will become. Ultima sadly answers that "he will be a man of learning."

As Antonio is leaving the house he looks "at the three of them standing there, and I felt that I was seeing them for the last time: Ultima in her wisdom, my mother in her dream, and my father in his rebellion."

When Antonio gets to school he is lost and afraid; his sisters were suppose to take him to his teacher, Miss Maestas, but they are no where to be seen. An older boy, noticing Antonio's distress, leads him to the first grade classroom.

Antonio's friend has told him that letters have magic and when he meets Miss Maestas he want to immediately ask about this magic. but instead he quietly watches her as she writes his name on a piece of paper. Antonio spends the morning practicing and by noon is able to write his name.

The joy Antonio feels at this achievement is short lived however because when Miss Maestas introduces him to the class, the other children point and laugh at him. At lunch time the children again laugh at him when he takes out his lunch of beans, chilies and tortillas. Embarrassed, Antonio leaves the classroom and hides at the back of the school. He tries to eat, "but a huge lump seemed to form in my throat and tears came to my eyes. I yearned for my mother, and at the same time I understood that she had sent me to this place where I was an outcast. I had tried to learn and they laughed at me; I had opened my lunch and again they had laughed and pointed at me."

"The pain and sadness seemed to spread to my soul and I felt for the first time what the grown-ups call, la tritesa de la vida" [the sadness of life.]

Antonio then notices that two other boys, George and Willy, have also left the classroom. "We banded together and in our union found strength. We found a few others who were like us, different in language and custom, and a part of out loneliness was gone. When winter set in we moved into the auditoriou and there, although many a meal was eaten in complete silence, we felt we belonged. We struggled against the feeling of loneliness that gnawed at our soul and we overcame it."


Discussion questions:
1) Why is Ultima sad that Antonio will be a "man of learning?"
2) What do you think Antonio means when he says of his parents and Ultima, "I felt like I was seeing them for the last time?"

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is a short one, but several important themes and characters that will become increasingly important in the story make their first appearance here.

Antonio is awakened by the arrival of his mother Maria's brother Pedro, who is Antonio's favorite uncle and has come to take Maria and the chldren to the Luna farm for the annual apple harvest. Pedro serves as Antonio's most comfortable connection to his mother's side of the family; Pedro, a widower with no children of his own, is much more open and talkative than his brothers, and is the only one of Maria's siblings to whom Antonio's father Gabriel can talk. Antonio's mother excitedly directs her children in their preparation for the trip; though the farm is only 10 miles away, it is the family's only vacation, and the only time during the year when Maria feels like a Luna again. This year's trip is particularly special to Antonio because it is the first time that Ultima will be joining them.

As the family travels to the Luna farm, Antonio and Ultima ride in the back of the truck and watch the landscape. Passing over the bridge that leads out of his town, Antonio sees many familiar landmarks recede into the expanse behind them: Rosie's house, the church, the El Rito bridge. In a foreshadowing of things to come, right after the family comes in view of El Puerto, the home of Antonio's maternal relatives, they pass by Tenorio's Bar.

Before going anywhere else, the family greets Prudencio, Maria's father, as dictated by custom. Maria rushes into her father's arms in her joy at seeing him, but the greeting between Prudencio and Ultima is much more subdued, like that between old friends; Prudencio tells Ultima it is "good to have you with us again".

Maria's father asks after her husband and older sons, and this leads to a conversation about how much death the war has brought, and how much evil there is in the world. The Luna family takes respite from this evil in their own world of farming where people are "happy, working, helping each other". Prudencio says of his grandson Antonio, "there is hope in that one", and Maria tells him oof her wish that he will join the priesthood. To that end, Prudencio tells Maria that she must send Antonio to the Luna farm after his first communion, before he is "lost" like his brothers. As Antonio listens, unknown, to this conversation, he thinks he sees witches, in the form of balls of light, dancing in the trees across the river.

Discussion Questions
1. What symbolism do you see in Antonio's journey from his town to his mother's family's farm?
2. Do you think, at this point in the story, that it is Antonio's responsibility to fulfill his mother's dream? Is he betraying that side of his family if he doesn't?

Chapter 4

This chapter marks a transition for Antonio and his family, as summer is about to end and the family will travel to visit his uncles on his mother's side of the family, who are farmers in the village of El Puerto, about ten miles away.

Antonio has been spending time with Ultima walking in the hills of the llano, helping her collect the wild herbs and roots she uses in her medicines. Ultima teaches Antonio about plants - where they grow and what they look like - and about the natural world. "For Ultima, even the plants had a spirit, and before I dug she made me speak to the plant and tell it why we pulled it from its home in the earth. 'You that grow well here in the arroyo by the dampness of the river, we lift you to make good medicine,' Ultima intoned softly and I found myself repeating after her." Ultima is happy in the hills, and when Antonio watches her and imitates her walk, "I found that I was no longer lost in the enormous landscape of hills and sky. I was a very important part of the teeming life of the llano and the river." Antonio again senses the presence of the river.

As Antonio asks Ultima about his uncles whom they will soon visit, he thinks about the two very different sides of his family - the "strange and quiet" Lunas on his mother's side and the "loud and wild" Márez family on his father's side. Ultima compares them to the forces of nature for which they are named - the Lunas like the moon and the Márez like the ocean. Antonio loves both and wonders which he will choose. Ultima suggests that he not trouble himself with these thoughts, reminding him that he has plenty of time to find himself.

Later that day, after dinner, the family prays the Rosario and Antonio describes the statue of Virgen de Guadalupe at his mother's altar. Antonio loves the Virgin best of all the Catholic saints. Having been taught about sin and the punishment of hell, he feels that "God was not always forgiving. He made laws to follow and if you broke them you were punished. The Virgin always forgave....But He was a giant man, and she was a woman. She could go to Him and ask Him to forgive you. her voice was sweet and gentle and with the help of her Son they could persuade the powerful Father to change His mind."

That night, Antonio dreams of his brothers, about whom he had been thinking that day, and about his mother's prayer to the Virgin that he will become a priest. In his dream, the Virgin is "in mourning" for him, the fourth son.

Discussion Questions
1. How do the events of this chapter illustrate the conflicts and choices Antonio faces?
2. What is the meaning of Antonio's most recent dream?

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 opens with the Márez family waking up and preparing to go to Mass. Antonio, still in his bed, listens to the familiar and comforting sounds of Sunday morning. This comfort is somewhat overshadowed by his knowledge of the events of the previous evening. He is worried about his father’s soul as well as Lupito’s and the other men who were on the bridge.

As the family is preparing to go to church Antonio wonders how his mother and father, who are so very different ever got together and married. His mother is a very devout Catholic while his father makes fun of priests and calls them women.” His mother will not break her fast until after she receives the Holy Communion while his father and Ultima, however drink coffee. Antonio muses that they are the only people he knows who will eat before receiving the Eucharist.

The family walks together to the church, where the men and women segregate themselves and do not mingle together. At the church Antonio goes around to the back, where the older boys play around, wrestle, curse and spit. We are introduced to the children with whom he will soon be attending school; Ernie, Horse, Bones, Samuel, The Vitamin Kid, Abel, Florence, and Lloyd. Even though Tony has never before spoken to these boys, he knows a lot about them from observing them at Mass.

The boys finally notice Antonio. Horse beckons Tony to him and Tony knows that Horse wants to wrestle him. Tony does not want to wrestle with Horse, since he is so much bigger than Antonio. But Antonio‘s father said “a man of the llano does not run from a fight.” Antonio ends up flipping Horse and thereby earning the respect of Horse and the other boys. The chapter ends with Antonio become one of the gang.

Discussion questions:
1. Is it significant that Antonio chooses this day to join the other boys?
2. Why do you think the men and women don't mingle before Mass?

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 begins peacefully, with Antonio recounting how Ultima became a part of his family's daily lives after moving into their home. He helps her gather her medicinal herbs and she teaches him their names and to appreciate the beauty of nature. But the story quickly turns to violence in an act that will have a profound affect on the young narrator.

On a Saturday night, after the family has retired early so they can go to mass the next day, their neighbor Chávez runs to their house and awakens them with frantic yelling. Chávez's brother, the town sheriff, has been killed by a man named Lupito. Lupito is known in the town to be psychologically damaged since his return from fighting in World War II. Chávez recruits Antonio's father Gabriel, as well as several other men from town, to hunt down and punish Lupito. Antonio secretly follows the party of angry men to the river, were he hides in the tall grass along the banks. While hidden in the grass, Antonio see Lupito hiding there as well, and sees the look in Lupito's eyes -- that of a "trapped, savage animal". Most of the men in the party are bent on revenge, and wish to shoot Lupito, but Gabriel tries to persuade them not to do it. Narciso, the town drunk but also a friend of the Márez family, joins Gabriel's plea for mercy, and tells the band of men to "act like men", reminding them that Lupito is not an animal, but a man made sick by his time in the war. But Lupito stands, revealing himself, and begins shooting into the air as if he has given up and is purposely trying to draw the fire of the men hunting him. The men shoot Lupito, and Antonio, who has witnessed it all, begins to pray and continues to do so as he runs home.

Antonio fears for the fate of his father's soul for being party to a murder, and for the soul of Lupito, and imagines that the river will now forever be stained with Lupito's blood. Antonio's fear is allayed when he hears Ultima's owl singing to him as he comes home, and he realizes that the owl has been with him the entire night. Ultima greets him in the dark as he slips back into his house, and he knows that she knew he was gone and where he had been but will keep his secret. When Antonio asks her if Lupito will go to hell for what he has done, Ultima tells him that it is not for them to say, and that Lupito was sick. Of the men who shot him, she only says "men will do what they must do".

Ultima tends to the scratches Antonio received running through tree branches on the way home from the river, and gives him medicine to help him sleep. That night, Antonio dreams of his brothers, who are away at war, and in his dream he argues with them about whether he belongs to the Lunas of his mother's side of the family, and will become a farmer and priest, or if he belongs to the Márezs of his father's side, and belongs to the llanos. A cry is heard near the river in his dream, and his brothers think it is La Llorona, the Weeping Woman of the river, or the tormented soul of Lupito, but Antonio tells them that it is the presence of the river itself. Antonio, dressed in a priest's robe, intercedes with the river on behalf of his brothers, and the river lets them pass to the opposite bank where they build a castle. Antonio's dream ends with his mother crying and moaning because each day her young son is growing older.


Discussion Questions:
1. What is the role of dreams in the novel?
2. Do you think that Antonio's dreams are glimpses of the future, or just his subconscious mind trying to work through the conflicts he is experiencing as he begins to mature?
3. What do you think Antonio's dream the night of Lupito's murder means?

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Welcome to the Big Read 2009 blog! Today on the first day of our monthlong celebration of Rudolfo Anaya's book Bless Me, Ultima, Rancho Library staff will begin a series of posts talking about one chapter of the book each weekday. We invite you to read along with us and add your comments!

Chapter 1 begins by introducing the book's setting and main characters. The narrator is six-year-old Antonio Juan Márez y Luna who lives with his mother, father and two younger sisters in Guadalupe, New Mexico. Antonio has three older brothers who are away from home fighting in World War II. Antonio's story begins with the arrival of Ultima, a curandera or traditional healer who is rumored to have the magical abilities to heal the sick and lift curses. Ultima, now an old woman, has come to stay with Márez y Luna family during the last years of her life.

Antonio's father, Gabriel Márez, is a former vaquero or cowboy who still loves the llano, the open land that he and his old compadres used to wander. Antonio's mother, María Luna Márez, is the daughter of farmers and a devout Catholic who hopes that her youngest son will one day become a priest. The family home is located on the border between the town and the llano, and we see how Antonio feels the pull of both sides of his family when he dreams of his own birth, in which Ultima served as the midwife.

At the end of the chapter Ultima arrives and meets each member of the Márez y Luna family and we are introduced to Ultima's owl, her constant companion who is never far away.

Discussion Questions:
1. Why does the Márez y Luna family ask Ultima to live with them?
2. Why does she think Antonio is special?

Welcome to The Big Read 2009!

The Rancho Cucamonga Library is very pleased to bring you the 2009 Big Read! This year we will be reading Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima. Published in 1972, this modern classic brought Chicano literature to a wider audience, and the book is often assigned reading in schools. Bless Me, Ultima is the coming-of-age story of Antonio Márez, a young boy living in the small town of Guadalupe, New Mexico during World War II. When Antonio meets a curandera (traditional folk healer) named Ultima, his life changes, and he is forced to mature as he deals with religious and moral issues that are new to him.

The Big Read in Rancho Cucamonga will take place September 15, 2009 through October 15, 2009, to correspond with National Hispanic Heritage Month. This year's Big Read will include a September 18th Hispanic Heritage Cultural Night Kick Off event, a wild bird presentation, book discussions, keynote guest speaker Edward James Olmos and a screening of the movie Stand and Deliver. A full schedule of events for the Big Read is available at both libraries or in our online calendar of events.

Check back here every weekday starting September 15 for chapter discussions, and feel free to add your comments! The Big Read is a community event, and we're excited to have you be involved.

What is The Big Read?
The Big Read is an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The program was created in response to the NEA report Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, which identified a decline in literary reading among American adults. The program provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. Rancho Cucamonga is one of nearly 200 communities participating in the Big Read in 2009.