Bless Me, Ultima: Chapters 8-12

Well after reading up to the halfway point in this book, I have come to a few simple conclusions. The Spanish is now easier to skip over and pretend it does not exist in life, and Toni will sadly not be a wizard priest but merely a Ultima 2.0. He went to save his uncle AND saw the Golden Carp? Too much coincidence for my taste. The Golden Carp event dimly reminded me of the movies and the books with "The Chosen One" type of character. You know, Harry, Frodo, those tough persistent hero characters who overcome obstacles to fight evil. Rather than a good versus evil fight to the death, this story seems to strongly suggest a tone of doing good, in any way that you can do it best. Ultima, to me anywho, is a witch , but she always wants to help others. Toni can see that, and it is causing him to question his faith which in the past had been so unquestionably embedded in his mind. Regardless, Toni is definitely more of his mother's child than his fathers. He seemed almost frightened for his two brothers that left home, as if something terrible was going to happen to them.

Besides the now non-existent Spanish, I really like the way Anaya writes. It has a nice flow and sound. The story is also enjoyable, even if it is a little predictable on what will happen. My hope is that there will be some sort of twist, along the lines of Ultima turning out to be a witch hunter and his mother is the imprint of evil. Or something fun like that.

Bless Me, Ultima: Chapters 1-7

This book is just making me sad. I feel like it has so much potential to be a really great book for me but there is one thing that is driving me crazy. The Spanish. I take Spanish and (kind of) understand it, so I don't really have to look up any of the words but it is just killing this book for me. I want it to be in one language. That's all I want. Just one. It is a very simple request. The editors of this book are also lazy because the Spanish words aren't italicized, which I'm pretty sure is against the laws of proper formatting. So take that Rudolfo Anaya. Maybe he is just bitter because of his awful name and wants to torture us all with a poorly edited multilingual book. I would like to tell Rudolfo there are plenty of unfortunate names out there, and their owners don't lash out at the rest of society and he is a terrible person for being so cruel.
Now that I've gotten that bit over with, I must admit that I do in fact enjoy this book. So far. I think the element of magic and happy spirituality in the story a nice change of pace. My personal prediction? Tony is going to end up as a wizard priest. I think he will end up as a Luna man, like his mother wants, because he constantly has spoken about how much he loves God and how devoted he is to Him. God is mentioned at least once a chapter. But Tony also is fascinated with Ultima and how she heals people and awestruck by her power. He will want to learn her ways and become a wizard priest to please everyone. Except his father. But it seems that his father already has three rough and wild blooded sons, so I think it's only fair that his mother should get one wizard priest. It would be selfish and evil of the father to hog all the sons. Tony was also a little freaked out when Lupito was shot right in front of him, so I do not know if a wild blooded life of what sounds like murder and cowboy police work would be the line of work that would play into his strong suits. Then again, he's only six. So I guess there is time for change in his dislike of watching men get shot. We shall see. I am excited to see where this book goes.