Bless me, Ultima can be taken first of all as a good action novel, a work in which intense and dramatic happenings make up a considerable part. There are violent fights and deaths. The technique and calculated effects of certain scenes seem deliberately to have been drawn from popular literature and movies that reflect a legendary "wild" west, replete with stock situations and characters. One difference we note is that all, or almost all, the heroes, victims, and villains are members of the Hispanic, Indian, or mestizo communities. Some of the stereotyped elements used in the work are a Longhorn saloon, a poolroom, a bawdy house, a wise old Indian who lives in a cave, settlers and sheepherders, farmers and cowboys. But Anaya also moves beyond that borrowed type of scenario by giving symbolic value to places and objects. Thus, we have the house on the hill that is a place of refuge, the bridge that connects to the larger world, the river that becomes such a dominant presence in the lives of several of the characters, the open prairies, the closed valleys, the unproductive terrain that must be worked inch-by-inch, among others.
Anaya adds to the texture of his narrative by tapping other sources of folklore, legends, mythologies, and cosmologies. He shows great skill in narrative acceleration at certain intervals in the work. These dramatic episodes give the novel a dimension of intensity that is worthy of the dramatist or the short story writer. Such set-pieces vary in content, tone, and dramatic impact…. Perhaps the most dramatic episode of the whole work is the carefully prepared and executed ceremony of the lifting of the curse that had been placed on one of Antonio's uncles. The boy himself is drawn into a secret, shadowy world because of his innocence and blood connection to the victim and it is this unspecified, mysterious participation of the boy that contributes naturally in intensifying the action that slowly unfolds before his eyes and ours. What also adds to the suspenseful procedure that has the primary function of saving a man's life is the spiritual conflict sharply felt by Antonio over the efficacy of Ultima's curative power…. (p. 71)
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