Film Review of Bless Me Ultima: The Ultimate Movie Version of the Novel by Rudolfo Anaya

Bless Me, Ultima begins with the curandera (healer) Ultima (Miriam Colon) lodging with Gabriel Márez (Benito Martinez) and Maria Luna (Dolores Heredia), whose children Andrew (Raúl Castillo), Eugene (Miguel Gomez), and Leon (Alejandro Cabrera) are grown and Antonio (Luke Ganalon), Deborah (Darrian Chavez), and Theresa (Julia Flores) are school-aged. Ultima comforts Antonio over:

• Chavez (Hemky Madera) killing World War II-traumatized Lupito (Bernardo Saracino) for killing his brother the sheriff;
• The two dying unconfessed.

She has Antonio help cure -- for $40.00 -- Maria’s brother Lucas (Reko Moreno) of curses from witnessing saloonkeeper Tenorio Trementina’s (Castulo Guerra) three daughters with a pot of beheaded rooster blood. The curse is burned under cottonwood trees after being vomited by Lucas.

Antonio encounters cruelty in:

• Education;
• Religion.

He and three other Hispanic cuisine-eaters flee ridicule by sandwich-chomping classmates. He gets admitted late into catechism while Father Byrnes (David Rees Snell) simultaneously subjects Florence (Diego Miró) to crucifixion-posing for:

• Motherlessness since age 3;
• Parenting by a grief-stricken drunk;
• Siblinghood with one of Rosie’s (Lisa Hill) prostitutes;
• Tardiness through Inquisition-minded peers.

Miss Maestas (Lora Martinez-Cunningham) leapfrogging him into third grade gives Antonio great joy, which gets countered by Tenorio intoxicating crowds into avenging daughter #1’s unexpected death. Ultima’s owl gouges Tenorio’s right eye. Ultima has her healer status validated by passing through doorways despite Tenorio’s crucifix-crossed, priest-blessed, threshold-lodged, witch-busting needles. Tenorio’s daughter rests in a cottonwood-woven, rooster-bloodied, sulfur-smelling witch’s coffin.

First Communion’s oneness with God does not comfort Antonio about:

• Andrew choosing prostitutes over preventing Tenorio’s killing Narciso (Joaquín Cosío) unconfessed;
• Florence drowning unconfessed while treading forbidden waters under Horse’s (Kevin Ruiz) dare.

Tenorio frightens Antonio by:

• Blaming Ultima for daughter #2’s death;
• Calling him cabroncito, hijo de la bruja;
• Running him off the bridge near Juan (Luis Bordonada), Lucas, Mateo (Joseph Garcia), and Pedro (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) Luna’s chili, corn, fruit farms.

But everything somewhat resolves with:

• Tenorio perishing shooting Ultima’s owl and trying to kill Antonio;
• Pedro regretting killing Tenorio unconfessed;
• Ultima releasing Antonio to all beauty, goodness, strength;
• Antonio releasing Ultima’s medicines to riverside burning and owl to hillside burial under her forked juniper tree.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Anaya, Rudolfo. 1972. Bless Me, Ultima. Berkeley, CA: TQS Publications.

Anaya, Rudolfo; and Franklin, Carl. 17 September 2013. Bless Me, Ultima. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.