LITR 5731: Seminar in
American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake,
fall 2001
Student Research Project
Jill Petersen
Research Journal
LITR 5731
Dr. White
It’s All a Big MYTH!
Introduction:
I spent my formative years in Quito, Ecuador, in a culture completely different from the one that I was thrown into upon my family’s return to the United States. I returned to the U.S. just before my thirteenth birthday and was then sent to a private Lutheran school for eighth grade. This sounds like it would not be much of a problem, but we were extremely poor, Mom worked part time as a dental hygienist for two different dentists and Dad was just beginning a commissioned sales job. We had no money for nice cars or new clothes. I rode the public transportation system to school rather than the yellow school buses that most children rode, and my clothes were out of style and one of the kids in my class recognized one of my outfits as one her mother donated to the church for the "less fortunate". I was ridiculed for being different in much the same way that Antonio was, and half of the time the terms they used made little sense to me in the context.
Having read Bless Me, Ultima, I felt very close to Antonio and the struggle he felt between the two cultures: traditional Mexican/ Indian with all the superstitions and folk medicines and myths and the American/Conquistador dominant cultures. Where did he fit? Which religion should he believe? Where did he want to belong? These were all questions I had to face myself (with the exception of the religious struggle). Tony appealed to me and made me think about the dichotomies faced by all immigrants: the need to choose between the old and the new and assign values and hierarchies to the values and languages that they bring with them and the ones they must learn to succeed in the new culture.
I. Review of: Garcia,
Rosie and Brenda Holmes. Rudolfo A. Anaya. Jan 2000. http://web.nmsu.edu/~tomlynch/swlit.anaya.html
Garcia and Holmes begin their web article by describing Anaya’s personal background, which is amazingly similar to Antonio’s in Bless Me Ultima. Anaya’s mother grew up in a farming family and his father came from a line of vaqueros. His grandmother was called "La Grande" and was considered by some to be a curandera. The similarities between the two families lead most critics to believe that the story is semi-autobiographical.
The next section of the web site describes Curanderismo, and the magic, hoaxes and evil eyes that many Hispanic Americans still believe and fear today. This is paralleled in the novel by the inclusion of the Trementina sisters and the curses that they put on Uncle Lucas and later on the ghosts that haunt the farm family in the Las Pasturas who then come to Ultima for help in the problem of the rocks falling from the sky.
The strong beliefs in the supernatural is attributed to the pagan religious practices and the integration of beliefs that were instilled by the Conquistadors in their quest to convert the natives to Catholicism... Their beliefs and religious practices have survived through the generations. However, the belief in folk illnesses and Curanderismo does not usually deter anyone, whether Hispanic or Native American, to seek conventional health care. (2)
Mexican Americans believe in both Curanderismo and conventional health care and religion depending on the circumstances and the efficacy of the different health care needs.
The final section of the web site quotes reviews from four different students who read the novel and their response to the emotional impact the novel had on them and on their views of their families and cultures.
II. Review of: Portales, Patricia, M.A. "Rudolfo Anaya." The Chicano Literature Index. http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/mexamlit.htm
This web site includes a list of works by Anaya and many other Chicano authors along with links to several other sites that contain much more detailed information. This site does not include essays or critical information but serves as a good jumping off point for research into other sites as well as other authors.
III. Review of: "Anaya, Rudolfo." Writing the Southwest. http://www.unm.edu/~wrtgsw/anaya.html
This web site includes a voice recording of Anaya reading from Writing the Southwest. It states that Anaya is fascinated with the "cultural crossings unique to the Southwest" and goes on to mention some of his works and a brief professional history. It ends with a quote from Anaya, "I've always used the technique of the cuento. I am an oral storyteller, but now I do it on the printed page. I think if we were very wise we would use that same tradition in video cassettes, in movies, and on radio."
IV. History of Rudolfo Anaya and parallels with Bless Me Ultima. from Baeza, Abelardo. "Rudolfo Anaya." Gale Literary Databases. http://p26688.uhcl.edu:2061/servlet/GLD/hits?c=3&secondary=false&origSearch=true&u=CA&u=CLC&u=DLB&t=KW&s=1&r=d&o=DocType&n=10&l=d&locID=txshracd2589&NA=anaya
Rudolfo Anaya was born on October 30, 1937 in Pastura, New Mexico. His mother, Rafaelita Marez, the daughter of a farmer from the Puerto de Luna Valley, was married first to a vaquero from the llano who took her away from the farm lands. She had a son and a daughter with him before he died. She then married Martin Anaya, who had also been married previously. From their union came seven children: Larry, Martin, Edwina, Angelina, Rudolfo, Dolores, and Loretta.
The midwife who delivered Anaya was called La Grande and was believed to be a curandera and she was the model for Ultima. Soon after Anaya’s birth the family moved from Pasturas to Santa Rosa where the child was reared in a strict Catholic home. While his family attended Santa Rosa de Lima Catholic Church he was still able to hear the elders tell the story of la Llorona and other myths and legends. Anaya’s two older brothers served in the army during WWII, while Rudolfo was in grade school. When Anaya was young, he accidentally shot his friend Santiago Chavez in the eye with a BB gun, an act which is mirrored in the novel by the scene where Ultima’s owl gouges out the eye of Tenorio.
Anaya’s childhood and memories serve as a springboard
from which to write the story of a young boy torn between the folk traditions
and mythology and the Catholic church and strict religion. The names of the
towns and his parents and even Jason’s last name come from Anaya’s
background.
In 1952, the Anayas moved from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque. In the Barelas barrio, Anaya was exposed to "street gangs, pachucos (street riders), heavy traffic, and the music, traditions, and celebration of the barrio culture." Anaya worked mowing lawns at a country club and attended Washington Junior High and Albuquerque High School. While in high school, Anaya one summer dove into a river and broke his spine when he hit the bottom. This put him in the hospital for quite a while and served as the inspiration for the third novel in the trilogy beginning with Bless Me, Ultima, Tortuga. In 1956 Anaya graduated from High School and went on to business school where he intended to become a CPA but he found it disagreeable so he dropped out and went to the University of New Mexico where he discovered his true passion for literature as he wrote in his autobiography, "Reading created a new, turbulent world with ideas that challenged the foundations of my faith." He earned his B.A in 1963 and an M.A. in 1968 in English. Form 1963 to 1970 he taught high school English in the Albuquerque public school system while at the same time working to complete his first novel, Bless Me, Ultima. In 1970 he accepted the position of director of counseling services at the University of Albuquerque.
V. Mythology in Bless Me, Ultima. A review of: Testa, Daniel. "Extensive/Intensive Dimentionality in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. Contemporary Literary Criticism - Select. 2001. http://p26688.uhcl.edu:2061/servlet/GLD/hits?c=9&secondary=false&origSearch=true&u=CA&u=CLC&u=DLB&t=KW&s=1&r=d&o=DocType&n=10&l=d&locID=txshracd2589&NA=anaya
In this article, Testa looks at Anaya’s use of dreams as both forecasters and fantasies. "From one point of view, the dreams may be seen as dramatic representations of the conflict between levels of self, each vying for dominance." Each of the ten dreams mirror in some way the events and conflicts in Tony’s life and serve to offset the realistic portrayal of the world around the boy. They add to the feelings of helplessness that children often feel when confronting an adult world and adult experiences. "An event will enter the dream and will lose the context it had in life and become fused, distorted and transformed…The elements of reality and the elements of his fantasy world, legends, stories, etc., appear obsessively and dynamically charged and join to make new combinations that surprise, frighten, and shock,…"
He discusses the rich use of myths, legends, folklore and cosmologies to add texture to what would otherwise be considered a action or western novel. Testa goes on to recap the novel and mention some of the particular way in which the legends, fables, myths and beliefs intertwine with reality to form a blended novel which reflects Tony’s not so clear cut life. Where a protective owl is not unusual and a god can transform into a giant golden carp in order protect his people. He writes about the function of the curandera and specifically of Ultima and her effect on Tony.
In short, "We recall that the novel is basically an account of Antonio’s psychological, vocational, religious or philosophical, and cultural struggle."
VI. The Legend of La Llorona. "Legends." The Spirit of La Llorona. 2000. http://www.lallorona.com/html/legend/index.html?518.5+int
The legend of La Llorona has been formed of
many different stories all of which end with a woman crying for the death or
murder of her child by either her own hand or the hand of someone close to her.
This story is then used to strike fear into the hearts of whichever group caused
the death of the woman and her baby. For example, if she committed suicide due
to a broken heart over the man who left her, then the legend says that she
prowls the streets looking for unfaithful husbands and lovers to exact her
revenge. This idea of the avenging spirit is not unique to the Hispanic culture
but is included in many different cultures and religions: however, it has become
much more mainstreamed and the expectation is that Mexican Americans are much
more superstitious than other cultures. Whether that is true or not is a topic
to addressed in another full-length research paper.
Rudolfo Anaya wrote a novella based on this legend and mentions it
several times in the novel Bless Me, Ultima. La Llorona is as common in raising
Mexican American children as is Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Boogey Man
in standard white American culture. Thus it would be a part of Tony’s growing
up and affect his view of witches and the river at night.
The following versions of the Legend of La Llorona are copied directly
from the web site listed above with no changes made to the text.
"The Spirit of La Llorona: Witch/Bruja"
Sofía lived in a town where if you weren't married by the
age of fifteen you were considered an old maid. Sofía was nineteen, single and
extremely beautiful. But she was also considered selfish and egotistical, with
some people even claiming she was a witch.
Sofía's reclusive life changed after meeting Luis. His
physique and charm dazzled all the women--including Sofía. They soon became
lovers, and within a year she gave birth to his son. Only a few days after the
child's birth, Luis disappeared. Despite Sofía's agony, everyone blamed her.
One afternoon she overheard two men joke about having seen
Luis in a nearby town with another woman. Sofía's sadness turned into
uncontrollable rage. She ran to the lake and submerged her baby in water until
there was only silence. When she realized what she had done, she let out a
horrifying cry. Sofía stayed at the lake crying for days until she finally
passed away. Since then, several children playing near the lake have
mysteriously disappeared without a trace.
"The Spirit of La Llorona: Siren/Sirena"
Laura was an attractive girl from an extremely humble
background.
Almost as soon as she could walk, she began working to
help support the family. When she was sixteen she landed a dream job as a sales
clerk. Within a few days on the job, she met Miguel, a well-to-do man who
relentlessly pursued her until she finally agreed to go out with him. One
evening after only a few weeks of knowing each other he asked her to marry him.
Laura accepted, and that night she made love for the first time.
After their passionate night, everything changed. Miguel
refused to see her. Laura soon discovered she was pregnant and struggled to hide
it as long as she could.
When her parents finally found out, they threw her out of
the house. Her baby was born sick and undernourished. With no other place to go,
Laura turned to Miguel and begged for his help. He told her to stay out of his
life.
Laura wandered to a nearby lake and slowly walked into the
water until both she and her baby were consumed.
A few weeks later, Miguel mysteriously disappeared. Since
then, men who have been out drinking or cheating on their wives have also
disappeared, all having last been seen following a mysterious woman through the
winding streets of the dark city.
"The Spirit of La Llorona: Harlot/Ramera"
Linda grew up in a tough part of town. She had learned
from a tender age to use what she had to get what she wanted. A single mother,
she worked as a waitress and was growing tired of her dead-end life. On one of
her evening shifts, she met Alejandro, a sexy man with a decent job who was an
easy target. Linda knew how to please men and easily seduced him.
She soon brought up the idea of getting married. Alejandro
told her he couldn't marry her because there were prying eyes. Since Alejandro
had always avoided being around Linda's baby she immediately thought her child
was standing between her and a new life.
One week later her baby's body was found in the river.
Shortly after the funeral, Linda again asked Alejandro about getting married --
now that she had "taken care of things." Alejandro was horrified and
told her that it wasn't her baby that had kept him from marrying her, it was his
mother. Linda started screaming like a crazed animal, grabbed a knife, stabbed
Alejandro and then killed herself. To this day, children playing near the river
hear her cries and run from her screams.
"The Spirit of La Llorona: Virgin/ Virgen"
María lived with her parents in a small, conservative
community. She was innocent, sincere and, above all, her father's pride and joy.
When she was only fifteen, something unusual happened. María gave birth to a
baby boy. No one had even suspected she was pregnant. Her parents - especially
her father - felt disgraced and betrayed. A shotgun wedding was the only
solution. But when asked who the father was, María claimed she had never been
with a man. Finding this hard to believe, María's parents struggled to keep the
baby a secret.
One night when María was sleeping, her father quietly
entered her room and took the child.
He carried the helpless bundle to a nearby river and threw
him into the water. María woke up screaming, sensing that something terrible
had happened. She ran out and saw her father heading back to the house. By the
time she reached the river, it was too late--not only for the baby, but also for
her. Blood was pouring out of her body.
María left only a trail of blood beside the river.
Shortly after her disappearance, people in the community started seeing
apparitions of a young girl holding a baby, weeping beside the river. These
sightings continue to this day.
VII. Conclusion.
Mythology has always fascinated me: Greek, Roman, Native American, Aztec. But I never really gave much thought to more modern myths and legends. Each culture has its own stories and the same is true for each individual family. Legends about great-grandparents who immigrated with just the clothes on their backs and no money in their pockets form the basis of family mythology. Knowing where your family comes from gives a person insight into their own motivations and views of themselves. I’m not sure about my own history but researching Mexican American mythology has given me a renewed interest in my own family’s history, both the stories told by the older generations and the documented geneologies of my ancestors.
Where did I come from? How did I get to the place where I
am today. How did I become the person I am now? It seems that Anaya used this
novel not only as a coming-of-age story but as an exploration of who he is and
how he might have been different if certain people had been in his life or not
been in his life. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but with all the
parallels to his own life, it seems that Anaya is exploring the effects of
legends, dreams, magic and religion on his own life. How much of the story is
taken from his own life and how much is made up, I’m not totally sure, but
either way, the novel leads me to look at the people in my life and wonder how
much each of them shaped my personality and goals. Did my parents’ dreams for
me cause me to take the job that I have now? Was there a Curandera figure in my
life? A wise healer whose advise and opinions were sought before any major move?
How much of what I believe is real and true and how much is fiction, made up to
scare, influence and mold impressionable minds into conformity?
There was so much information out there that I could hardly decide what to enclude and what to leave out. Many of the articles that I found were relevant to Mexican American mythology but not directly related to the novel itself, but they make very interesting reading. If you were to read any of the Additional works try to pick up Margarite Olmos’s book, Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion. She looks closely at each of Anaya’s major works and analyzes everything from the characters to the language to the myths and legends he used in each novel.
WORKS CITED
"Anaya, Rudolfo." Writing the Southwest. <http://www.unm.edu/~wrtgsw/ anaya.html>
Baeza, Abelardo. "Rudolfo Anaya." Gale Literary Databases. http://p26688.cl.uh. edu:2061/servlet/GLD/hits?c=3&secondary=false&origSearch=true&u=CA&u=CLC&u=DLB&t=KW&s=1&r=d&o=DocType&n=10&l=d&locID=txshracd2589&NA=anaya
"Legends." The Spirit of La Llorona. 2000. http://www.lallorona.com/html/legend/index.html?518.5+int
Garcia, Rosie and Brenda Holmes. Rudolfo A. Anaya. Jan 2000. <http://web.nmsu.edu/~tomlynch/swlit.anaya.html>
Portales, Patricia, M.A. "Rudolfo Anaya." The Chicano Literature Index. <http://www.accd.edu/sac/english/bailey/mexamlit.htm>
Testa, Daniel. "Extensive/Intensive Dimentionality in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. Contemporary Literary Criticism - Select. 2001. <http://p26688.uhcl.edu:2061 /servlet/GLD/hits?c=9&secondary=false&origSearch=true&u=CA&u=CLC&u=DLB&t=KW&s=1&r=d&o=DocType&n=10&l=d&locID=txshracd2589&NA=anaya>
ADDITIONAL RELATED WORKS
Applewhite, Steven. "Curanderismo: Demystifying the Health Beliefs and Practices of Elderly Mexican Americans." Health and Social Work. November 1995: 247-253.
Baeza, Abelardo, Keep Blessing Us, Ultima: A Teaching Guide for Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Easkin Press (Austin, TX), 1997.
Bruce-Novoa, Juan D., Chicano Authors: Inquiry by Interview, University of Texas Press, 1980, pp. 183-202.
Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series, Volume 4, Gale, 1986.
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 23, Gale, 1983.
Dennis, Philip A., and Wendell Aycock, Literature and Anthropology, Texas Tech University Pres, 1989, pp. 193-208.
Dick, Bruce, and Silvio Sirias, Conversations with Rudolfo Anaya, University Press of Mississippi (Jackson, MS), 1998.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 82: Chicano Writers, First Series, Gale, 1989, pp. 24-35.
Fabre, Genviere, European Perspectives on Hispanic Literature of the United States, Arte Publico Press, 1988, pp. 55-65.
Gish, Robert Franklin. "Curanderismo and Witchery in the Fiction of Rudolof A. Anaya: The Novel as Magic." New Mexico Humanities Review 2 (1979). 5-13.
Gonzales-Berry, Erlinda, Paso por Aqui: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, 1542-1988, University of New Mexico Press, 1989, pp. 243-54.
Gonzalez-T, Cesar A., ed. Rudolfo A. Anaya: Focus On Criticism. La Jolla: Lalo Press, 1990.
Hispanic Literature Criticism, Gale, 1994.
McKee, Nancy. "Lexical and Semantic Pitfalls in the Use of Survey Interviews: An Example from the Texas-Mexico Border." Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. August 1992: 353-362.
Olmos, Margarite Fernandez. Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Reference Guide to American Literature, 3rd edition, St. James Press, 1994, p. 57.
Rivera, George. "AIDS and Mexican Folk Medicine."Sociology and Social Research. October 1990: 3-7.
Rivera, George and Jules Wanderer. "Black Magic Beliefs and White Magic Practices: The Common Structure of Intimacy, Tradition, and Power." Social Science Journal. October 1986: 419-430.
Rivera, George, and Jules Wanderer. "Curanderismo and Childhood Illnesses." Social Science Journal. July 1986: 361-372.
Rivera, George. "Hispanic Folk Medicine Utilization in Urban Colorado." Sociology and Social Research. July 1988: 237-241.
Simmons, Mark. Witchcraft in the Southwest, Spanish and Indian Supernaturalism on the Rio Grande. Flagstaff: Northland Press, 1974.
PERIODICALS
Albuquerque Monthly, November, 1981, pp. 26-8.
America, January 27, 1973.
American Book Review, March-April, 1979.
Aztlan, Spring, 1987, pp. 59-68.
Bilingual Review, January-April, 1982, pp. 82-7.
The Bloomsbury Review, September-October, 1993, pp. 3, 18.
Critique, 1980, pp. 55-64.
Fiction International, Number 12, 1980.
Hispanic, September, 1994, p. 90.
Horn Book, November-December, 1995, p. 727.
La Luz, May, 1973.
Latin American Literary Review, Spring-Summer, 1978.
MELUS, Spring, 1984, pp. 27-32, Winter, 1984, pp. 47-57.
Nation, July 18, 1994, p. 98.
New Mexico Humanities Review, Summer, 1979, pp. 5-12.
New York Times Book Review, October 11, 1981, pp. 15, 36-7; July 2, 1995, p. 15; December 17, 1995, p. 28.
PMLA, January, 1987, pp. 10, 15-7.
Publishers Weekly, March 21, 1994, p. 24; April 10, 1994, p. 56; June 5, 1995, p. 41; January 1, 1996, p. 58.
Revista Chicano-Riquena, Spring, 1978, Summer, 1981.
San Francisco Review of Books, June, 1978, pp. 9-12, 34.
University of Albuquerque Alumni Magazine, January, 1973.
University of New Mexico Alumni Magazine, January, 1973.
World Literature Today, Spring, 1979.