Gender Roles Within Bless Me, Ultima
Gender Roles within Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is considered to be one of the centerpieces to Chicano culture. The novel follows a family of six children during the Second World War. Three of the children have left for the war and the family takes in an old curandera, or medicine woman. Progressing through the novel, Anaya opens a window to the Chicano gender roles to the reader. Broadly speaking, in a typical male dominated culture, the men are responsible for all affairs and actions outside the household while the women are responsible for raising children and homely duties. This is first shown through the relationship and descriptions of the parents of Antonio. Although the idea of gender roles is prevalent throughout the novel, Ultima openly defies this stereotypical niche. She confronts the issue of subservient women and home restrictions. Ultima personifies and embodies the supernatural elements of the Chicano paganism. With that, she is valued highly within the community. Not only does Anaya use Ultima to question gender roles, the use of religion, whether it is Roman Catholicism or traditional paganism, also conveys Anaya’s approach to the inequality of the gender roles. Using different aspects in his novel, Rudolfo Anaya opens and questions the gender roles apparent within the Chicano culture. Subtly, Anaya compares the image of gender roles when discussing religion. In chapter Cuatro, Antonio states his interests in the Virgen de Guadalupe. He says that he loves this saint more than any other. His reasoning states, “God was not always forgiving. He made laws to follow and if you broke them you were punished. The Virgin always forgave” (Anaya 47). This can also correlate with Antonio’s parents. Antonio continues on and says, “God had power. He spoke and the tunder echoed through the skies” (Anaya 47). Contrasting that description, Antonio describes the saint in the subsequent sentence as, “The Virgin was full of a quiet,
Cited: Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless Me, Ultima. New York: Warner, 1999. Print.