Antonio Márez is a young boy in New Mexico about to enter school when the town’s curandera, Ultima, moves in with his family in her old age. Ultima watches over Tony as he navigates upheaval, death, and the pull of family as he begins to grow up.

BLESS ME, ULTIMA has been on my TBR shelf for literal years. I kept putting it off because I generally dislike magical realism, and I completely regret doing that. I am here to concur with the millions of other reviews calling this book a masterpiece.

This book is all about being pulled in two directions - llano versus farm, God versus carp, home versus the world. The narration point of view of adult Tony recalling his childhood made these choices seem all the more painful since it was plain that he did not always understand all the forces at play.

It’s my understanding that Chicano culture and literature embraces magical realism as a common and expected facet of life, and that’s how it was presented here, and I think that’s why this book worked better for me than other magical realism stories I’ve read. It was just woven into the story - it could not have been told without it.

To me the most intriguing part of the book was how the mysticism coexisted with the Christianity for some characters while others were ready to leave Ultima and her teachings behind. Tony is asked repeatedly, both implicitly and explicitly, to choose a path, including this one.