Bless Me, Ultima Background

9/9/2012

Your topic will either be Rudolfo Anay's biography, La Llorona, La Virgen de Guadalope, all names for Spanish speakers, or the Chicano Literary Movement. Research thoroughly and post your findings potently. Add a synthesis of what you read (and copy/pasted) in your own words in a new font (color, bold, underlined, etc.) After posting, gather information about all five topic to prepare for an assessment over all five very soon in class.

26 Comments

Dylan Clemons link

11/1/2017 11:23:07 am

Anaya, born in New Mexico, is considered a founder of the Chicano Literary Movement. Still alive today, Anaya wrote his most popular novels while he taught high school and college courses. His most famous work, Bless Me, Ultima (1972), was adapted into a movie in 2013. Anaya's works are known for their expression of Chicano themes of the human condition.

Brooke Simmer

11/1/2017 11:23:24 am

Derogatory terms for Hispanic persons

Wet back- A term for those who have damp clothes from crossing the border illegally, often traveling through rivers.

Beaner- The suggestion that hispanic persons have low incomes so they can only afford beans to eat.

Spic- A mix of ethnic titles to create a racially derogatory term generalizing the entire Hispanic community.
Source: http://www.rsdb.org/
History of Hispanic
The term Hispanic generally refers to cultures that have strong ties to Spain after being captured or controlled by them, often by speaking Spanish, this mostly includes large parts of Central America and Mexico, some parts of South East Asia, and Spain itself.

Mary Telly

11/1/2017 11:25:13 am

La Virgen de Guadalupe
---------------------------------------------------------
- Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Here, she is known as "La Reina de Mexico" and is a cultural icon.
- Origin: The Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous man named Juan Diego. She asked that a shrine in her name be built on the spot where she appeared, Tepeyac Hill, which is now in a suburb of Mexico City. Juan Diego told the bishop about the apparition and request, but he didn’t believe him and demanded a sign before he would approve construction of the church. The Virgin reappeared to Juan Diego and ordered him to collect roses in his cloak. Juan took the roses to the bishop and when he opened his cloak, dozens of roses fell to the floor and revealed the image of the Virgen of Guadalupe imprinted on the inside. The cloak with the image is on display in the Basilica de Guadalupe.
- The appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe to an indigenous man is said to be one of the forces behind creating the Mexico that we know today: a blend of Spanish and native blood.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Personal Reaction
- The sotry of la Virgen de Guadalupe is very much so a mystical and magical story of faith regarding the heritage and religion of the native people. Though it is implausible that the events in the story literally occurred, it is a beautiful metaphor.

Peyton Walker

11/1/2017 11:26:46 am

Radolpho Anya's biography-
Mexican American
Born in 1937
Was a teacher
Most well known book= bless me ultima
Grew up in mexican American families
His young years were spent in Santa Rosa
Parents were farmers and herders
Only boy in family to attend primary school
Was told many stories from Spanish speakers
Masters degree in literature

Peyton Walker

11/1/2017 11:28:42 am

My source was http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-A-Bu-and-Obituaries/Anaya-Rudolfo-Alfonso.html

Corinne Wegner

11/1/2017 11:27:12 am

Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born on October 30, 1937, to Rafaelita and Martin Anaya in Pastura, New Mexico. Rudolfo was born into a generation of Mexican-American families that experienced the culmination of the displacement of an agro-pastoral, self-subsistence economy by a wage-labor market economy. In 1954, a swimming accident left Rudolfo temporarily paralyzed and gave him time and cause to consider many philosophical questions about life and human existence. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study English. There, he discovered the importance of literature as a means for expressing ideas. During his student years, he was influenced not only by his teachers but also by the counterculture of the beatniks, especially by their anti-establishment poetry. In 1968, he received a Master of Arts degree in literature, and he returned later and earned another Master of Arts degree, this one in guidance and counseling.

For Anaya, writing became an expression of freedom. Seeing his people around him "in chains," he revolted against that world. Breaking those chains was important; his characters would not be enslaved. He realized that if he could write about his experiences and his family, using the town where he grew up as a setting, he could focus on these early years and create a sense of being liberated. While doing so, he would also come to know himself better and better understand the forces that shaped him as a person yearning to write and yearning to be free. Using his childhood as the subject matter for a novel, Anaya put together a world filled with ideas and activity. Initially, Anaya circulated the manuscript among the east coast publishers, but none showed an interest in it. Turning to Chicano publishers, he submitted it to Octavio I. Romano-V. and Herminio Ríos, editors of Quinto Sol Publications, who were immediately interested in publishing the novel.

In 1974, two years after Bless Me, Ultima was published, Anaya accepted an invitation to teach creative writing at his alma mater, the University of New Mexico, and was promoted to full professor of English. Over the years he has received many awards, including a Kellogg Fellowship and the prestigious University of New Mexico Regents Meritorious Service Medal in 1990. In retirement, he continues to promote Chicano/a literary scholarship and study and continues his own creative writing.

Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born on October 30, 1937, to Rafaelita and Martin Anaya in Pastura, New Mexico. Rudolfo was born into a generation of Mexican-American families that experienced the culmination of the displacement of an agro-pastoral, self-subsistence economy by a wage-labor market economy. In 1954, a swimming accident left Rudolfo temporarily paralyzed and gave him time and cause to consider many philosophical questions about life and human existence. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study English. There, he discovered the importance of literature as a means for expressing ideas. During his student years, he was influenced not only by his teachers but also by the counterculture of the beatniks, especially by their anti-establishment poetry. In 1968, he received a Master of Arts degree in literature, and he returned later and earned another Master of Arts degree, this one in guidance and counseling.

For Anaya, writing became an expression of freedom. Seeing his people around him "in chains," he revolted against that world. Breaking those chains was important; his characters would not be enslaved. He realized that if he could write about his experiences and his family, using the town where he grew up as a setting, he could focus on these early years and create a sense of being liberated. While doing so, he would also come to know himself better and better understand the forces that shaped him as a person yearning to write and yearning to be free. Using his childhood as the subject matter for a novel, Anaya put together a world filled with ideas and activity. Initially, Anaya circulated the manuscript among the east coast publishers, but none showed an interest in it. Turning to Chicano publishers, he submitted it to Octavio I. Romano-V. and Herminio Ríos, editors of Quinto Sol Publications, who were immediately interested in publishing the novel.

In 1974, two years after Bless Me, Ultima was published, Anaya accepted an invitation to teach creative writing at his alma mater, the University of New Mexico, and was promoted to full professor of English. Over the years he has received many awards, including a Kellogg Fellowship and the prestigious University of New Mexico Regents Meritorious Service Medal in 1990. In retirement, he continues to promote Chicano/a literary scholarship and study and continues his own creative writing.

Summary: Anaya’s literature has been largely based off his life, and how he wants to “break the chains” of his people and see them set free. Following his love for writing,

Victoria Sutherland

11/1/2017 04:27:35 pm

Very interesting! Do you think his paralysis actually brought out inspiration for him?

Corinne Wegner

11/2/2017 08:16:03 pm

Source: https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/b/bless-me-ultima/rudolfo-anaya-biography
My topic was Rudolfo Anaya’s bibliography.

julia jackman link

11/1/2017 11:27:19 am

I'll begin with a definition of Chicano literature. I use the term Chicano to refer to people of Mexican ancestry who have resided permanently in the United States for an extended period. Chicanos can be native-born citizens or Mexican-born immigrants who have adapted to life in the United States. For me, Chicano and Mexican American are interchangeable, although some scholars would argue, not without justification, that the terms are distinct, the former connoting a certain degree of cultural awareness and political activism about which the latter is relatively neutral. In any event, to my mind Chicano or Mexican American writing includes those works in which a writer's sense of ethnic identity (chicanismo) animates his or her work manifestly and fundamentally, often through the presentation of Chicano characters, cultural situations, and patterns of speech.
As a distinctive body of writing, Chicano literature is relatively young, having taken shape in the generation or so after the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848. But the cultural forces that gave rise to Chicano literature date from the late sixteenth century when the Spanish conquistadores began their exploration and colonization of what is now the southwestern United States. The Spaniards were remarkably courageous, audacious, and, inevitably, brutal, as the narratives of Cabeza de Vaca, de Niza and Castañeda excerpted in The Heath Anthology amply demonstrate; and they planted their institutions, particularly language and religion, throughout this vast region. Coming to America during Spain's Golden Age, the era of Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Góngora, the conquistadores were avid story tellers and makers, depositing legends, tales, and songs along the paths of conquest. In 1598, Juan de Oñate and a group of 500 colonists celebrated their settlement of New Mexico with a dramatic presentation composed for the occasion. In 1610, Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, a classical scholar from Salamanca and a companion of Oñate, published his Historia de la Nueva México in 34 Vírgilian cantos (see Heath 1: 162-172). The historia is one of the first examples of an emergent literary tradition, rendered in Spanish and evincing a Catholic sensibility, but American nonetheless.

The literary culture of the Spanish-speaking Southwest developed spasmodically in a harsh frontier environment marked by episodes of intense cultural conflict, first largely with native Americans and later with Anglo-Americans. Literary forms commonly produced in frontier cultures predominate: personal and historical narratives which sought to capture the epic experiences of conquest and settlement; and, of course, poetry of various types, frequently religious and occasional. The authors of such works, especially in the early days of Spanish dominance, were government officials and priests who possessed the tool of literacy and who typically regarded their mission in the Southwest on a grand scale. (See, for example, the selections by Otermín, 1: 475-483; de Vargas, 1: 440-445; Delgado, 1:1211-1217; and Palou, 1: 1217-1226.) Belletristic fictional works, particularly novels, were rarely produced until the cultural infrastructure necessary to support such writing a stable, relatively well-educated middle-class population, the introduction of sophisticated printing technology, and efficient means of distribution, for example came into existence in several southwestern towns and cities.

In a setting where education and literacy were often luxuries, oral expressive forms figured prominently. Folk dramas were performed from California to Texas. Traditional Spanish plays were sometimes adapted to the particular circumstances of the Southwest. In New Mexico, The Moors and the Christians, which featured an abduction of the Christ Child by the Spaniards' mortal enemies, metamorphosed into Los Comanches, in which the kidnappers were pagan Indians. Folktales and legends became widely dispersed, many of which made their way north from the Mexican interior. La Llorona (the weeping woman), one of Mexico's best-known legends, circulated in many versions in the Southwest (1: 1282-1283) and later became the inspiration for any number of Chicano works of fiction.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, some thirty years after Mexican independence, the literature, both oral and written, of the Spanish-speaking Southwest was not remarkably different from that created in the Mexican heartland. Although key cultural centers such as Santa Fe and Los Angeles were located great distances from Mexico City, they were visited regularly by Mexican traders, entertainers, and government officials who brought with them news and all manner of cultural information. Southwest Mexicans knew about cultural events and styles not only in central Mexico but in Spain and other parts of Europe. Indeed, the Spanish-speaking Southwest was never as culturally isolated or impoveris

Adam Job

11/1/2017 11:28:52 am

Chilango– Specifically Mexico City inhabitants. People from Mexico's provinces use it as an insult denoting a lazy, tricky, cheating person from the big city. Seen on bumper stickers: "Haz Patria, Mata Un Chilango" (Make Mexico great, kill a Chilango)

Wetback, Mojado, Wab – words related to being wet and crossing the border (Guadalupe Hidalgo be damned!)

Beaner, Nacho, Taco, Jalapeño – words related to stereotypical food

Personal Response: These terms are all considered extremely offensive by those of the Spanish and Mexican culture. Many of them originate from the cultural foods and customs they are associated with. Some of these slang words are even created by citizens from other regions of the country or sphere of culture. In a general sense, one should not be penalized for their background or way of living (as long as it is just).

Madison Roush

11/1/2017 11:29:34 am

Though the tales vary from source to source, the one common thread is that she is the spirit is of a doomed mother who drowned her children and now spends eternity searching for them in rivers and lakes.
Source https://www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona/

La Llorona is a spirit of a mother who supposedly drowned her children from neglect. Her spirit would search rivers and streams to try to find them and if a child was caught at night, he would surely be dead. She is known in the Sante Fe area and has been "reported" since the time of conquistadors.

Amanda Schlecte

11/1/2017 02:42:45 pm

Very interesting, I like the info you included here. Do you think she searches the rivers because she feels guilty?

Victoria Sutherland

11/1/2017 04:25:43 pm

I think that she does feel guilty. Josh’s blog covers the guilty aspect of the story really well!

Tiffany Lain

11/1/2017 11:37:27 am

La Virgen de Guadalupe

Translates to - Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 9, 1531, and Juan Diego saw the image of a young woman surrounded by light who spoke in Nahuatl and told Juan Diego that a church should be built in her honor at the top of Tepeyac hill, where there had once been an Aztec Temple to the goddess Tonantzin.
But when Juan Diego related this to the Spanish archbishop,Juan se Zumárraga(the cleric) didn’t believe him and told Juan Diego to go back to Tepeyac and ask for a miracle to prove that what she said was true.
The Virgin told Juan Diego to gather Castilian roses at the top of the hill. The Virgin helped arrange the flowers in Juan Diego’s tilmátli (a type of cloak), and he carried them back to Mexico City.
When he arrived on December 12 and opened his tilmátli in front of the archbishop, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe had been imprinted on the tilmátli.
A woman with brown skin. This, and the fact that the account of her apparition to Juan Diego was related in texts in both Nahuatl and Spanish during the time of the Conquest of Mexico, make her the ideal unifying force for what Mexico was to become: a mestizo blend of native and Spanish blood. In many ways.
Her image is one that unifies and reconciles Mexico’s history and blends its Spanish and Aztec heritage. Also, an important image in Mexico’s struggle for freedom and as a patriotic symbol.
La Guadalupana is revered and respected in the same way mothers are revered and respected by Mexican men, despite the country’s machista society. Just as the toughest men might melt and bow to their mother, they do the same for the Virgin.

Personal Response:
La Virgen de Guadalupe is a symbol of unification between the Spanish and Aztec heritage as well as a representation of Mexico’s freedom.

Amanda Schlecte

11/1/2017 11:48:32 am

https://blog.esl-languages.com/blog/destinations-worldwide/latin-america/differences-latin-american-spanish-spanish-spain/
http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-mexican-and-vs-spanish/
Spanish originally evolved from a variety of different languages on the Iberian peninsula. Its root language was Latin, but it was also influenced by ancient languages such as Basque, and borrowed from neighbouring Romance languages and Arabic.
When Spanish colonisers travelled the world to spread the word of god and take precious metals in return, they brought with them a language that was in the process of changing back at home. Later on, immigrant groups from different parts of Europe brought linguistic traditions with them to Latin America. In turn, these groups met different local linguistic traditions, creating variations in local dialects. Both Spanish and Mexican people speak Spanish language, which is what makes the situation confusing for the people in US. However, there are differences in Spanish as it is spoken in Spain, and the way it is spoken in Mexico. Whatever its origins, Mexican Americans have used the word “Chicano” to describe people of Mexican origin living in the United States since the early twentieth century, de León writes

Summary: Spanish speakers include: Spanish, Mexican, Latino, and Chicano. Spanish evolved from its root, Latin, but had many influences including Arabic. Latin is a term usually used to describe immigrant groups from Europe who have different dialects than the traditional “Spanish”. Spanish speaking Mexican Americans often use the word “chicano” to define their origins.

Grace Phillips

11/1/2017 11:56:49 am

The Chicano Literary Renaissance

"The Chicano literary renaissance, a flowering of all forms of literature by Mexican Americans throughout the Southwest, started in 1965 with the Teatro Campesino (Farmworkers Theater) in California. In Texas, however, the renaissance started in 1969, with the publication of poet Abelardo Delgado's 25 Pieces of a Chicano Mind, and lasted for about ten years of renewed literary activity among Mexican Americans in the state. The writers reaffirmed their ethnic identity and addressed their community through fiction, poetry, essays, and works of drama that responded to its political, economic, and social history."
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kzcfa

Synthesis: The Chicano Literary Movement, more commonly referred to as the Chicano Literary Renaissance, is a rejuvenation of literature by Mexican American, or "Chicano," authors. Starting in the late 1960's in the southwestern US, the Chicano Literary Renaissance saw the rise of works regarding Chicano identity.

Victoria Fair

11/1/2017 12:40:37 pm

Rudolfo Anya Biography:
- He was born on October 30th, 1937 in Pastura, New Mexico.
- He was the eighth out of ten children, although not all of them were full blooded siblings.
- He was born into a Mexican American Family
- He moved from Pastura to Santa Rosa and from Santa Rosa to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- He taught high school and college classes as a teacher
- A swimming accident left him temporarily paralyzed at one point in his life.
- Studying English taught him the importance of literature as a means for expressing ideas.

Victoria Sutherland

11/1/2017 01:12:32 pm

The Chicano Literary Movement:

-Chicano literature is the literature written by Mexican Americans in the United States. Although its origins can be traced back to the sixteenth century, the bulk of Chicano literature dates from after 1848, when the United States annexed large parts of what had been Mexico in the wake of the Mexican-American War. Today, it is a vibrant and diverse set of narratives, prompting a new awareness of the historical and cultural independence of both northern and southern American hemispheres.

-It is a vehicle through which Chicanos express and represent themselves, and also often a voice of social critique and protest.

-Other important themes include the experience of migration, and the situation of living between two languages. Chicano literature may be written in either English or Spanish, or even a combination of the two: Spanglish. Politically, too, Chicano culture has been focused on the question of the border, and the ways in which Chicanos straddle or cross that border.

-The contributions of feminists such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga have been particularly pronounced over the past couple of decades.

-Major figures in Chicano literature include Sabine R. Ulibarri, Rudolfo Anaya, Américo Paredes, Rodolfo Gonzales, Rafael C. Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Julian S. Garcia, Gary Soto, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Luis Valdez, John Rechy, Luis Omar Salinas, Tino Villanueva, Denise Chavez, Daniel Olivas, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Tomás Rivera, Luis Alberto Urrea, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sergio Troncoso, Rigoberto González, Rolando Hinojosa, Luis J. Rodriguez, Rudy Ruiz and Alicia Gaspar de Alba

Synthesis:
The Chicano Literary Movement is the flourishing of literature written by Mexican-Americans. It largely focuses on cultural and societal topics. It brings awareness to discrimination, racism, and historical/cultural independence of Mexican Americans.

Josh Shember

11/1/2017 01:48:03 pm

La llorona, or "the Weeping Woman", is a Spanish folk tale about a mother whose husband leaves her for a younger woman. In a fit of rage she took her two children and drown them in a nearby lake. When she had realized what she had done, she felt so guilty that she drowned herself. When she arrived in heaven, god told her that she could not enter until she found her children. So her spirit wanders the earthly plain, in a desperate search for her kids. If she spots a child who has wandered away from there parents she will take them and drown them as well.
This story was originally told to kids to deter them from wandering around. It originated in mountainous areas where there is a heavy population of mountain lions. Mountain lions mating calls are said to sound like that of a crying woman, creating the legend. There have been multiple film adaptations form the early 1960's to the present.

Emma Coenen

11/1/2017 02:00:35 pm

Literature written by Mexican Americans about experiences that they, as well as their culture, face. Chicano literature includes themes of discrimination, Mexican American culture, migration, language struggles. An extension of the Chicano civil rights movement as the literature is used as a way to incite societal change or address an issue.

Alison Spiga

11/1/2017 02:30:36 pm

Rudolfo Anaya was born in New Mexico on October 30, 1937. He was a college and high school teacher, while at the same time writing groundbreaking novels. His most notable book was Bless Me, Ultima written in 1972. His most recent work is The Old Man's Love Story, written in 2013, the same year Bless Me, Ultima was made into a film. He was awarded a National Humanities Medalby Barack Obama in 2015.

Delaney

11/2/2017 04:21:14 am

Literal Names:
Latino: People of Latin origin
Mexican/Mexicano: (=Literal/Slang) People of Mexican origin
Spaniard: People of Spanish origin

Derogatory Names/Slurs:
Wetback: Used to refer to illegal immigrants living in the United States, coined by “Operation Wetback,” which was a hypothetical plan for the mass deportation of Mexican immigrants, both illegal and legal, back to Mexico.
Spic: Used to make fun of those who speak spanish and cannot pronounce “speak”

Tony Romero

11/2/2017 09:29:12 am

La Llorona is a Spanish spoke tale of a women who husband left her. In greif she decidedd to drowned her own childern. Distraught with her choice, she downed herself. Now she wanders the earth waiting to find kids who have lost their way so she may drown them.

Bless Me, Ultima Background

Leave a Reply.

El Capitan

Archives

Categories