Library of America Honors Rudolfo Anaya

The Library of America (LOA) has announced the publication of a special collection of three of Rudolfo Anaya's novels:  Bless Me, Ultima, Tortuga, and Alburquerque, all in one volume.  The esteemed and prolific Luis Alberto Urrea was selected as editor, and the book will be available September 13, 2022, in bookstores, but can already be ordered online.  

Here's the write-up from LOA about Anaya, followed by a quote from Urrea.

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A writer powerfully attuned to the land and history of his native New Mexico, Rudolfo Anaya (1937–2020) is one of the giants of Latino literature. “What I’ve wanted to do,” Anaya reflected, “is compose the Chicano worldview—the synthesis that shows our true mestizo identity—and clarify it for my community and myself.” In so doing, over the course of a remarkable and acclaimed literary career, Anaya redefined the American experience for generations of readers.

Anaya broke new ground with his 1972 novel, Bless Me, Ultima, a mythic work that captures the richness and complexity of history, community, and place in the American Southwest. Set just after World War II, Bless Me, Ultima revolves around the young boy Antonio and his quest to understand his identity and the demands of his future. Although his mother’s heart is set on his entering the Catholic priesthood, Antonio is drawn to the charismatic Ultima, an elderly curandera or healer who embodies the ancient wisdom of the pre- Columbian past. “What Ultima tried to teach me,” Antonio comes to realize, is “that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart.” The book’s enduring appeal testifies to Anaya’s special genius as a storyteller and to his unforgettable poetic language, a fusion of Anglophone, Hispanic, and Indigenous cadences and rhythms.

Tortuga, from 1979, draws on Anaya’s experience of suffering and recuperation after a diving accident as a teenager. Its hero, nicknamed “Tortuga” because his body cast encases him like a turtle’s shell, grapples with the realities of bodily pain as he discovers that true healing is spiritual as well as physical. The story reverberates with local folklore about a mountain, also called Tortuga, home to a sleeping spirit who will one day awaken and journey onward to the sea. Weaving these threads together, Anaya creates, in the words of editor Luis Alberto Urrea, “a tapestry inside of which he was encoding an entire history of our very souls.”

In the 1992 novel, Alburquerque (restoring the “r” to the city’s original name), a young Mexican American boxing champion discovers that his white biological mother had given him up for adoption at birth, and he must now reevaluate everything he thought he was. His own steps toward self-knowledge are framed by a larger story about the historic city’s fate in the face of development plans that would transform it. The winner of a PEN West Fiction Award, the novel brims with the powerful characterization, political commentary, humor, and lyrical writing that mark Anaya as an indispensable American storyteller.

Luis Alberto Urrea, editor, is a novelist, short story writer, poet, and memoirist who is currently Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Illinois–Chicago. His numerous prizes and awards include a Lannan Literary Award, a Christopher Award, an American Book Award, the Kiriyama Prize, the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Literary Award, a Western States Book Award, a Colorado Book Award, an Edgar Award, and a citation of excellence from the American Library Association. His most recent works are Good Night, Irene and Zebras in Tijuana.

“I was a bit in awe of him. But he immediately took on the role of some kind of tío and he told me something I have never forgotten. He said if you can make your abuelita in Tijuana the grandmother of some reader in Iowa, you have committed the most powerful of political and religious acts. I hear that small voice every time I work on a book or a story.”
—Luis Alberto Urrea

While we are on the topic of recognition of Latino literary efforts, La Bloga congratulates Aaron E. Sánchez and his publisher Oklahoma University Press for recently winning the 2022 Tejano Book Award for his book Homeland:  Ethnic Mexican Belonging Since 1900.  The award is given by the Tejano Genealogical Society of Austin for a scholarly non-fiction work that focuses on Tejana/o history, heritage, or genealogy.

Later.

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Manuel Ramos lives in Denver. His latest novel is Angels in the Wind: A Mile High Noir.