LITR 4332 American Minority Literature
Minority-Culture Presentation 2008

Tuesday, 18 November: Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima (pp. 50-176; chapters Seis through Catorce)

Minority Culture Reader: Lacey Fleshman

Objective 1: Minority Definitions

American minorities are defined not by numbers but by power relations modeled on ethnic groups’ problematic relation to the American dominant culture.  

1a. Involuntary participation and continuing oppression—the American Nightmare

Unlike the dominant immigrant culture, ethnic minorities did not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture. (African Americans were kidnapped, American Indians were invaded.)

Examples of Obj. 1 found in Bless Me, Ultima:

Pg. 54 “The llano was still virgin, there was grass as high as the stirrups of a grown horse, there was rain – and then the tejano came and built his fences, the railroad came, the roads, it was like a bad wave of the ocean covering all that was good –“

Pg. 125 “They were the first cowboys in a wild and desolate land which they took from the Indians. Then the railroad came. The barbed wire came. The songs, the corridos became sad, and the meeting of the people from Texas with my forefathers was full of blood, murder, and tragedy. The people were uprooted.”  

Questions:

1.       Some will argue technology such as the railroad and the highway are good while others see them as evil, “like a bad wave of the ocean?” How do we explain the disparity in these opinions? Or can we?

How do you feel about this issue as it is presented in Bless Me, Ultima and how it reveals itself today? Is it the same?

Objective 2: race > gender, class, etc.

2b. To detect "class" as a repressed subject of American discourse.

·         “You can tell you’re an American if you can’t talk about class.”

·         American culture officially regards itself as "classless"; race and gender often replace class divisions of power, labor, ownership, or "place."

p. 51 “Then I heard my father groan: ‘Ay dios, otro dia! Another day and more miles of that cursed highway to patch! And for whom? For me that I might travel west! Ay no, that highway is not for the poor man, it is for the tourist”

Objective 3: minority dilemma--assimilate or resist?

• Does the minority fight or join the dominant culture that exploited it?
• What balance do minorities strike between the economic benefits of assimilation and its personal or cultural sacrifices?
• In general, immigrants assimilate, while minorities remain separate (though connected in many ways).

Pg. 53 “The new shoes felt strange to feet that had run bare for almost seven years.”

Pg. 54 “Ay! What good does an education do them,” my father filled his coffee cup, “they only learn to speak like Indians. Gosh, okay, what kind of words are those?”

Questions:

1.    It seems that Marez’s quote is telling readers assimilation into the dominant culture ruins traditions and culture. Do you agree with this? Why or Why not?

2.    Can minorities assimilate and still retain their heritage/culture? If so, where do we see examples of this in Bless Me, Ultima?

Objective 4: individual & collective identities

To observe images of the individual, the family, and alternative families in the writings and experience of minority groups.

4a. Generally speaking, minority groups place more emphasis on “traditional” or “community” aspects of human society, such as extended families or alternative families, and they mistrust “institutions.” The dominant culture celebrates individuals and nuclear families and identifies more with dominant-cultural institutions or its representatives, like law enforcement officers, teachers, bureaucrats, etc. (Much variation, though.)

Pg. 72 “They knew it was within the power of the father to curse his sons, and ay! A curse laid on a disobedient son or daughter was irrevocable. I knew the stories of many bad sons and daughters who had angered their parents to the point of the disowning curse. Ay those poor children had met the very devil himself or the earth had opened in their path and swallowed them. In any case the cursed children were never heard of again.”

Questions:

1.    Why was being disowned from the family such a curse?

2.      What does this reveal to readers about the Mexican-American minority culture?