Icons of Ambivalence in Bless Me Ultima Essay examples -- Bless Me Ult

Icons of Ambivalence in Bless Me Ultima  Ã‚        Ã‚   The portrait of Mexican Americans is layered in shades of ambivalence. Aside from the fact there is evidence that they can not really be classified as a migratory culture in that the land where they tend to migrate once belonged to Mexico, they can also lay an earlier claim to the land as Native Americans. The Spanish Europeans who settled in the area that became Mexico evolved as the dominant culture over the oral culture of the Native Americans. Nevertheless, there is evidence of ambivalence among the Native Americans to the dominant culture of the Spanish in what is arguably one of the Mexico's basic texts, the story of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin of Guadalupe does not fit the usual model of the Virgin as she appears to believers, the biggest change being her native appearance. She is of the dominant culture's religion, and yet she is not. Her appearance is one of only eight worldwide that have found acceptance by the Catholic Church (Apparition 48). Moreover, she is a symbol of the native culture as well and has reverence in the eyes of both Mexicans and Mexican Americans that remains evident to date. Notably as well, Bless Me Ultima, a modern work of fiction set in New Mexico, depicts not only ambivalence toward the dominant culture of the United States, but also remnants of the same ambivalence toward the Catholic Church found hundreds of years earlier in the native culture of Mexico. Ultima, one of the principle characters in the novel, practices the ancient art of Curanderismo, an approach to healing which encompasses the body, mind and emotions along with the soul and the spirit (Curandera 1). Ultima practices the four ... ...Robert C. Broderick, ed. New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1987. 48. "Blessed Juan Diego: Model of Humility". 29 Oct. 2000. http://ng.netgate.net/~norberto/juandiego.html. "Blessed or Evil. 5 October 2000. http://www2.cwrl.utexas.edu/sheila/314f95/projects/group5/curan2.htm "Curandera Elena Avila. 5 October 2000. http://www.ph-webnet.com/ph_a/articles/duval-8.htm de Vega, Bechiller Luis Lazo. "History of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Later. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 475-82. "La Curandera: Blessed or Evil." 5 October 2000. http://www2.cwrl.utexas.edu/sheila/314f95/projects/group5/curan.htm "Scapular." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Revised and Updated. Robert C. Broderick, ed. New York: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1987. 543.