Summary
As the summer comes to an end, Antonio spends his mornings
walking with Ultima, gathering herbs and medicines from the llano.
During this happy time, Antonio grows to love both the llano and
the river. Ultima teaches him that plants have spirits like people
and tells him stories about the old days. Antonio realizes that
Ultima is happiest when she is out on the llano, and her happiness
helps him to realize that he too is a part of the llano and a part
of nature. Antonio tells Ultima that he will soon visit his mother’s
brothers, and Ultima tells him that she is an old friend of his
mother’s father. He asks her why his Luna relatives are so quiet,
and she replies that it is in the Luna blood to be quiet like the
moon, just as it is in the Márez blood to be loud and restless like
the sea. (In Spanish, la luna means “moon” and el mar means “sea.”)
Antonio feels the presence of the river and wonders again about
Lupito’s soul.
Back at home, Antonio and Ultima dry the plants on the
chicken shed. María tells them over dinner that, as Antonio had
expected, it will soon be time to visit the Lunas to help with the
harvest, a yearly ritual that keeps Antonio close to his grandfather
and uncles. Antonio spends the rest of the afternoon playing at
Jáson’s house and then cuts wild alfalfa by the river to feed to
the rabbits.
Every night, Antonio’s family prays before María’s statue
of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a beautiful, two-foot-tall likeness
of the Virgin in a blue gown. Antonio loves her because she always
forgives; the Virgin is his favorite saint. He knows that she is
the patron saint of his land. On the foot of the statue a little
paint has chipped away so that the white plaster is visible, and
Antonio thinks of the plaster as the Virgin’s pure soul.
That night, Antonio hears Ultima’s owl singing its mournful
song outside his attic window. Antonio slips into sleep and has
a dream in which the Virgin speaks to María. The Virgin promises
María that his older brothers will return home from the war safely.
When María asks her to make Antonio a priest, Antonio sees the Virgin wearing
the clothing of mourning for him while standing on the moon. When
he cries out in his sleep, Ultima comes to comfort him.
Analysis
Because Anaya’s audience likely has had little previous
experience with the culture he describes, Ultima is a mentor figure
not only to Antonio, but also to us as readers as well. She relates
both to Antonio and to the general reader cultural beliefs about
the spirits of plants in nature and also historical information
about Antonio’s indigenous ancestors and about the Spanish in Europe.
Ultima’s guidance introduces Antonio to his cultural identity as
a Chicano. The knowledge she conveys to him is particularly important
not only because Antonio will be in school soon but also because
of the changes his culture will face as it integrates with a modernized world.
In particular, Ultima’s advice that Antonio does not need to choose
between his parents’ conflicting wishes for him gives Antonio the
resolve to move beyond his parents’ split views. Ultima’s lessons
illustrate a deeper desire: she wants him to listen to the voices
of the land and his heritage. She believes that this knowledge will
help him build his future out of the pieces of his ancestral past.
Although María’s devout Catholicism represents the Spanish
elements in her cultural tradition, the form of Catholicism she
practices is naturally a mixture of both Spanish and indigenous elements.
The legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe is partly an allegory of the
cultural and racial clash between Spanish colonists and indigenous
peoples. When the Spanish came to the New World, they launched an
intense campaign to convert indigenous people to Catholicism. The
legend has it that the Virgin Mary appeared to a native man who
was baptized with the Christian name Juan Diego. However, she appeared
with the dark skin of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. She told
Juan Diego that she wanted a church built on the hill of Tepeyac,
the former location of an Aztec temple destroyed by the Spanish
colonists.
