"Bless Me, Ultima" Plays in Northern New Mexico

The play based on the novel by Rudolfo Anaya, “Bless me, Ultima,” continues with its tour of New Mexico during October and November 2010. The theatre company played to a full house in Espanola at Northern New Mexico College’s art center on November 6 and 7. “Bless Me , Ultima” has already visited Santa Fe, Santa Rosa, Socorro, Clovis and Las Vegas. There are two more cities to go on the tour: Albuquerque and Silver City.

The production is a joint presentation of The Vortex Theatre and the National Hispanic Cultural Center which has been benefitting from the simultaneous filming of “Bless Me, Ultima” in northern New Mexico during the past month. In September the State of New Mexico trumpeted the beginning of filming of “Bless Me, Ultima” during the fall. For a casting call to be circulated like this one for "Bless Me, Ultima," there was certain to have been more than a small regional ripple effect.

It's expected that some people will compare the play to the big screen version, and there's no way of knowing right now which will come out on top. The theatrical production on tour has an edge in terms of intimacy and the fact that most of the performers live in New Mexico. And they’re good, too. There’s an authenticity about the acting and a receptiveness from the audience that speaks to an understanding, on a very basic level, that “Bless Me, Ultima” is not only very much New Mexico, but it speaks to a broad audience across the United States and around the world because of its universal themes.

“Bless Me, Ultima” addresses the strong character of Ultima, the spiritual healer who is the grandmother figure. She's a respected elder, and story is about the relationship she has with Antonio as he’s growing up. Antonio’s mother wants him to be a priest. His father has a vision of his son becoming a rancher and living on the land. Antonio is a writer instead, and the play is a flashback on his early life. 

It’s a beautifully moving coming of age tale with strong themes of spirit, soul, primal relationships and spirituality. The audience is reminded of the interrelatedness of all life at least twice during the performance as the various characters grapple with evil and the creative life force. It’s hefty subject matter and few people nod off during the performance, especially when cap guns go off during fights.

“Bless Me, Ultima” is a book that's still very much read by New Mexicans, in spite of the fact that it has been controversial at various times because of its subject matter. In 2008, “Bless Me, Ultima” was on the list of frequently challenged books. By 2009, the book dropped off the challenged list and it became the recipient of a broad wave of  praise. The novel is one of 30 books selected for The Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts initiative designed to revitalize the role of literary reading in American popular culture. “Bless Me, Ultima” was included in the 2009 United States Academic Decathlon.

When you listen to Rudy Anaya speak about his writing and his life on a special program advertsing “The Big Read,” you wonder what the controversy is all about. If Anaya deserves special attention, it’s because he’s one of our own and his excellent writing brings people together in storytelling as a way of expressing the experience of being fully human.