The power and pride of Rudolfo Anaya’s enchanted world

With the passing of writer Rudolfo Anaya on July 1, at the age of 82, the United States lost a giant of Chicano literature, and New Mexico lost a beloved native son. 

Anaya is the author of the 1972 novel, "Bless Me, Ultima," which established him as an early and influential voice in Chicano literature. Set during World War II, the work focuses on the life-changing relationship between a Mexican-American boy and Ultima, an older curandera, or healer, who uses herbs and magic to cure physical and spiritual illness. 

“Bless Me, Ultima” is a spiritual and cultural coming-of-age novel, with a style heavily influenced by the Spanish-speaking oral storytellers of Anaya's youth. His use of both English and Spanish, his cultural references and his unapologetic Chicano voice and experiences were revolutionary at the time and provided inspiration for countless Latino writers in the United States. 

Anaya will be remembered as a highly regarded man of letters, and the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships and honors for his writing. He was a teacher and mentor to numerous writers, and an inspiration to many more. 

But such accolades were far from assured growing up in the tiny central New Mexico town of Santa Rosa, where Anaya's family traces its Hispanic roots back to colonial Spain. Of the seven Anaya children, Rudolfo was the only boy to attend primary school. 

After graduating from Albuquerque High School in 1956, he attended Browning Business School through 1958. However, instead of becoming an accountant as intended, he enrolled at the University of New Mexico, earning a bachelor's degree in literature in 1963 and starting work on what would become “Bless Me, Ultima.”

However, throughout college and for years afterward, Anaya was an outsider in an overwhelmingly white, English and Eurocentric education system. He taught public school during the day, and struggled to find his voice as a writer. It was during this struggle that the figure of Ultima appeared to him in a vision, telling him that the book would not be right until she was in it. 

That vision provided the spark he needed to channel his own deep experience, his truer self, and his voice began to emerge. Anaya was eventually accepted into the University of New Mexico's graduate program in literature, and continued work on his book.

It was during this period that he met Patricia Lawless, a guidance counselor, whom he married in July 1966. Anaya received his master's degree in literature in 1968, followed by another master's degree in guidance and counseling in 1972. 

Even when Anaya finished “Bless Me, Ultima” in 1970, it was a hard sell. Anaya struggled to find a publisher until he stumbled upon the tiny Quinto Sol press, which released the book in 1972. Acclaim for the novel followed, as did several more books, including “Tortuga,” “Heart of Aztlan” and a book on Anaya's travels in China, “A Chicano in China.” Anaya became the director of counseling at the University of New Mexico, and taught there until 1993. 

After a relatively quiet period, Anaya broke through again in 1995, with his rich and memorable novel, “Alburquerque,” which won the Pen Center West Award for Fiction, and “Zia Summer,” the first of Anaya's four-book Sonny Baca detective series, which emphasized the landscape and culture of New Mexico. The Sonny Baca books paid particular attention to the state’s unique festivals, cuisine and folk beliefs, and won him praise and devotion from legions of murder mystery fans. 

Anaya’s body of work includes six plays and numerous stories, essays and novels, including “Albuquerque,” “Serafina's Stories,” “The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories” and “Rudolfo Anaya: The Essays.” He is the author of a dozen children’s books, including “My Land Sings, Elegy on the Death of Cesar Chavez,” “Roadrunner's Dance,” “The First Tortilla” and the enduringly popular “Farolitos of Christmas.” 

Anaya received numerous awards: the Award for Achievement in Chicano Literature from the Hispanic Caucus of Teachers of English; the Mexican Medal of Friendship from the Mexican Consulate of Albuquerque; two Governor’s Public Service Awards from New Mexico; the American Book Award; a Kellogg Foundation fellowship; two National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) literature fellowships; and the NEA National Medal of Arts Lifetime Honor in 2001. 

In 2013, “Bless Me, Ultima” was released as a feature film. In 2015, Anaya received the National Humanities Medal, with a citation reading: "For his pioneering stories of the American southwest. His works of fiction and poetry celebrate the Chicano experience and reveal universal truths about the human condition — and as an educator, he has spread a love of literature to new generations." 

His most recent novel, “The Sorrows of Young Alfonso,” was published in 2016. 

Anaya stayed true to himself and his heritage and culture in his entire body of work. His work derived power from it, and that power was subsequently channeled to his readers. He paid homage to the language, the spirits and the ethos of New Mexico, and to the people, landscape and culture that make it unique. In addition to inspiring legions of fans and writers, Anaya's books made people proud to be Chicano, proud of their language and heritage, proud to be New Mexican. 

Rudolfo Anaya will long be remembered and revered by lovers of literature for helping unleash a flood of Chicano-centric literature in the 1970s and ‘80s.