In Rudolfo Anaya’s novel Bless Me, Ultima, conflicts of religion and faith are addressed through the doubts and contemplations of a young Mexican-American boy named Antonio “Tony” Márez. Tony, who begins the novel as a seven year old, was brought up under the rigidity of Catholicism and is initially devout to the point of piety. However, following the arrival of Ultima, an elderly pagan healer and family friend, Tony finds himself in the midst of religious conflicts with himself that arise as a result of his introduction to violence and alternative belief systems. The most significant representation of such a belief system is the colossal golden carp that swims the waters of a lake near Tony’s New Mexico home. The carp, which is regarded by some of Tony’s friends as a god, first signifies the paganism that competes with Tony’s Catholicism for his acceptance as what is true in the world. As the novel progresses, though, and Tony’s faith is tested further, the carp comes to symbolize an opportunity for Tony to form his own constructs of faith and his own definitions of morality.
Tony is first made aware of the carp by a friend named Samuel during an afternoon of fishing. Samuel explains to Tony that to fish for carp is forbidden and tells a story about gods who sent mortal men to live in the same New Mexican valley the boys live in. The men in Samuel’s story were forbidden by the gods from eating carp, but disobeyed the commands they were given during a time of famine. One god, who pitied the mortals, requested that they be turned into carp instead of killed, and this god eventually joined the transformed men as a carp himself – a large golden carp.
When Tony is taken to the lake in which the carp lives, he is awestruck that such a magnificent creature exists: “The huge, beautiful form glided through the blue waters. I could not believe its size. It was bigger than me! And bright orange! The sunlight glistened off his golden scales. He glided down the creek with a couple of small carp following, but they were like minnows compared to him.”
Evidently, Tony’s first experience with the carp is characterized by surrealism. Anaya’s grandiose introduction of the fish is characteristic of a literary element used heavily in Hispanic literature known as magical realism – the existence of fantastic and even supernatural events and entities in a realistic and generally passive context (hence, the realism). In Bless Me, Ultima, the magical realism associated with the carp’s mere existence, its tangibility, serves to drive the idea that Tony’s Catholic-centric reality is being intruded upon and challenged by the paganism to which the carp is linked. For Tony, the ambiguity – and sometimes entire absence – of the Catholic God he worships is frustrating. That the god manifested by the carp is so real and accessible, though, generates turmoil in Tony about what may and may not be real. Furthermore, the golden carp’s matter-of-fact being presents Tony with the fact that other faiths, besides Catholicism and such as paganism, have their own legitimacy.
As the novel progresses, the golden carp comes to represent more to Tony than just an alternative belief system. Over the next few years the novel details, Tony encounters several obstacles of adversity, all of which are traceable to the concept of sin: his uncle is cursed by women who practice witchcraft, the image he holds of his older brother Andrew is tarnished by Andrew’s involvement with prostitutes and, most significantly, he witnesses the murder of a family friend named Narciso. Ultimately, Tony comes to fear that the sins plaguing his town are manifestations of a prophecy related to the legend of the golden carp. This prophecy states that the town formerly inhabited by the transformed men will become the home of a second group of mortals, the weight of whose sins will become so great the town will collapse and sink into the underground lake over which it stands.
The fear Tony feels for the fate of his town haunts him in a particularly extensive dream; in it, Andrew and his other older brothers ask that Tony forgive them for their sins before turning into the Trementina sisters – the witches who cursed Tony’s uncle. The dream witches place a curse on him and the failure of Tony’s mother’s prayers and Ultima’s pagan rituals results in Tony’s “death.” Catastrophe ensues in Tony’s dream world, and ultimately, the golden carp opens “his huge mouth and swallow[s] everything, everything there was, good and evil. Then he swim[s] into the blue velvet of the night, glittering as he [rises] towards the stars … and his golden body burn[s] with such a beautiful brilliance that he [becomes] a new sun in the heavens. A new sun to shine its good light upon a new earth.”
The role the carp plays in Tony’s dream reflects its development from a symbol of paganism to a symbol of something much more significant. That it consumes each of the belief systems Tony has been exposed to (the Catholicism of his mother, the paganism practiced by Ultima and the witchcraft utilized by the witches) before being reincarnated as “a new sun [over] a new earth” suggests that the carp now represents the unity and creation of faith. In fact, the sun and earth imagery of the dream has biblical undertones, which is especially appropriate considering that the dream marks the beginning of Tony’s understanding of his own, personal, spiritual beliefs not only as a response to his questions regarding faith, but also as a method of coping with the adversity he has faced while growing up.
Anaya’s development of the golden carp from a symbol of paganism to a symbol of new faith entirely is a key component of Tony’s development as a character. He goes from a young boy bound by a religion he questions to a young man free to form his own belief system and his own constructs of faith.
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