Is Bless Me, Ultima an American novel?

Scott Wood describes a mainstream American novel as one that is consistently revealing at least one common truth about life in this country and that is filled with contradictions and extreme ranges of experience which cannot be recognized.

If one uses this description, then Bless Me, Ultima is definitely an American novel. The setting is New Mexico during World War II, but whether the content is American or not is what is in dispute. Despite using a Mexican descended culture in his book, I would have to call the group of characters Americans. It describes the Chicano culture in America which is from Mexican and American descent. The Chicano culture is not just one type of person, either. In the book itself, two distinct lifestyles can be seen: the Lunas and the Marez. The American culture consists of all the different types of cultures that inhabit places within its boundaries.

Rudolfo Anaya brings together Antonio's beliefs into a peaceful harmony. The story deals with Tony's meshing together of different ideas in his life, mainly the Luna, the Marez, Ultima's currandera lifestyle, and the Golden Carp religion. It attempts to reveal a spiritual truth with a wide variety of different experiences.

The time period of the book

The time period of the book serves no primary purpose. Aside from the fact that Anaya was about the same age during the same time, the time does not drastically decide the plot. The War did not affect any of the major characters, and the brothers could have left for other reasons. Some of the plot may have been different had it been set in some other time. For instance, television could have had a drastic, maybe completely unsuitable, affect on the story. The time plays no drastic part in the story, but does work with all the details of the novel.