Reconstruction Of Chicano Identity Through Cultural Reconciliation

Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya, credited as "the godfather of Chicano literature", is the first Chicano writer to gain international recognition. With his distinguished talent in mythopoesis, mythology making, he is one of the Chicano pioneers to lay the canon of modern Chicano literature. Anaya is best known for his "New Mexican Trilogy", a series of novels in which he depicts the Chicano experience and explores to re-establish a new mythological center for the Chicano. However, his maiden work Bless Me, Ultima (1972), is universally acknowledged as his most successful work.In Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya adopts the first person flashback to relate the growth of a boy. It presents a panoramic reflection of the Chicano community in turmoil in the late 1940s. Various conflicts confronting the Chicano existence are concentrated in the psychic and spiritual development of the protagonist Antonio Marez. The time span of the novel is around two years, from the eve of Antonio's school education to his third grade, signifying the formative years of Antonio's self-knowledge. Antonio's life is characteristic of dilemmas: the conflict of the subcultures represented by his parents' folks, the choice between school education and Chicano tradition, the confrontation between Catholic God and the Pagan god the Golden Carp, as well as the contradiction between technological development and the ecological balance of the local landscape. These conflicts and the disturbance that follows, hidden in Antonio's unconscious, are displayed through his ten dreams.Antonio is fortunate that he has the old wise curandera Ultima to lead him out of dilemma. Ultima is a folk healer who cures people with herbal medicines as well as supernatural factors. Curandero/a is peculiar to the Hispanic culture, and usually uses forces bordering between shamanism and witchcraft. Ultima comes to stay with the Marez family when the story begins, when Antonio is mentally disturbed by the prospect of leaving his mother to go to school. Ultima teaches Antonio the knowledge of herbal medicines, the history of the Chicano, the respectability of all lives in nature and the mysterious bond between human beings and their environments. Antonio reconstructs his relationship with the landscape by understanding the collective past of his folks. He overcomes the concern that for every of his questions there must be a definite answer. Understanding the seemingly contradictory but essentially interdependent relationship between his mother's farming history and his father's vaquero history, Antonio sees that they in fact represent two indispensable parts of Chicano history, and that he can come out as a new person by reconciling the two. In this sense, everything he experiences constitutes part of his history. Although Ultima never directly tells him what to do or which to choose, Antonio learns about the importance of tolerance and understanding as essential qualities of wisdom. With this wisdom, Antonio mediates conflicts in his life—the narration serves as the mediation between the adult Antonio and Antonio the boy—and takes over Ultima's role as mentor to reveal the secret of reconciliation for a successful survival.Such eclectic wisdom is deep-rooted in the collective past of the Chicano. The Chicano community itself is an example of biological and cultural reconciliations. They have combined both Native Indian elements and Spanish elements in their progress, and further more evolved on the land of the United States. They are neither Mexicans nor strictly American, but both: This identity as a product of cultural reconciliation can trace back to their mythology, whose central idea is the unity of sky and earth, the harmony of human beings and nature, as well as the reconciliation of contrasting or even rival elements. The image of Ultima is typically archetypal, as she embodies the earth mother to provide knowledge and to sacrifice herself to secure peace and safety for human beings. Even Antonio, as a man of letters, a shaman in modern times, is archetypal in the sense that he symbolizes the heir to the Chicano wisdom. So, the whole novel is in fact mythological framed.Through the persona of Antonio, Anaya seeks to reconstruct the Chicano mythical identity and thus to strengthen the Chicano's confidence to overcome the economic andcultural crises in the first half of the 20^th century. By exploring the rich and profound Chicano mythology, Anaya reminds the Chicano of their cultural origin, especially the Indian element that stresses reconciliation and harmony. As myth reflects some universal knowledge of the world of all mankind, the mythological structure of the novel is more accessible to readers with cultural backgrounds other than Chicano. Anaya actually tries to tackle the universal problem of cultural confrontation for various ethnic groups, not only in the United States, but also in other countries. Anaya's efforts to re-orient the Chicano signify a subversion of the authoritative dualistic orientation of Chicano's identity. It challenges the mainstream culture's authority and claims the Chicano share of contribution for the development of US culture. This endeavor helps to transcend Anaya's status as a "regional" writer, and to label him as a spokesman of humanity's consciousness.The technique of mythopoesis used in Bless Me, Ultima is widely discussed by scholars. Anaya's notion of reconstructing Chicano identity through mythology arouses heated dispute. The first chapter traces Anaya's inspirations. He is deeply influenced by Chicano philosophy of harmony, Chicano oral tradition and his personal Chicano experience. Chicano culture is an example of cultural hybridity since it combines Indian and Spanish cultures as well as American experience. Folklore is an essential part of Chicano oral culture, which in turn originated from Indian mythology. Anaya fully makes use of these elements to represent Chicano experience through his discourse. These ideas encourage Anaya to represent the harmony and reconciliation in Chicano experience. He also hopes to encourage his folks to live harmoniously with nature, with mainstream culture and with other ethnical groups.The second chapter mainly focuses on the various conflicts in Chicano existence and the confusion that follows as felt by protagonist Antonio Marez. Antonio is split between father-mother disagreement concerning his own future, conflicts between Catholic belief and pagan worship, and Chicano-Anglo cultural confrontation. In the process, Richard Rubio from Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal and Antonio's brother Andrew are compared as foils. Both of them are disoriented in the face of Chicano-Anglo cultural conflict. Antonio is similarly confused, but he positively endeavors to understand the world without going down with the stream.The third chapter discusses the function of mythology in cultural reconstruction of Chicano identity. At the moment of Antonio's confusion, Ultima teaches Antonio the ancient Chicano philosophy of harmony and reveals the nature of Chicano myth. With the knowledge of harmonious co-existence and the wisdom of Chicano mythical identity, Antonio survives the assimilation and comes out as a "new world man". He reconstructs his Chicano identity through adopting an eclectic and dialectic attitude to the cultural confrontation. By understanding his parents' past and the history of Chicano group, he understands his own status. Only through accepting his Chicano mythical identity is it possible for him to live with a sense of belonging.Chapter four presents a tentative discussion by going beyond the text to the author: to explore how Anaya fulfills his role as a godfather of modern Chicano literature in presenting the universality of Chicano identity to the reader, and how, by reconstructing Chicano identity, he helps reconstruct American literature in general. The three parts respectively focus on the three layers of Chicano reconstruction: realistic, mythological and cultural reconstructions. According to Anaya, the Chicano should first acknowledge their Indian past to understand their American present. He puts forward such an idea as Chicano consciousness with the hope to inspire a sense of pride in his folks. This Chicano consciousness naturally leads to Anaya's effort to create a literature with a universal quality to appeal to the experience and emotions of all mankind. His effort in presenting Chicano mythical identity also aims to surpass the regional status of Chicano literature and to make Chicano voice heard throughout of the world.Anaya in the tide of Chicano Literary Movement became alert to assimilation crisis of Chicano literature. He thus seeks to orient the Chicano within the very source of Chicano mythology. For the Chicano, therefore, the cultural reconciliation and identity reconstruction prove to be important and effective for a successful identification.