Bless Me, Ultima Critical Essay | Interview by Rudolfo Anaya with Ray González

Interview by Rudolfo Anaya with Ray González

SOURCE: “Songlines of the Southwest: An Interview with Rudolfo A. Anaya,” in Conversations with Rudolfo Anaya, edited by Bruce Dick and Silvio Sirias, University Press of Mississippi, 1998, pp. 153–60.

In the following interview, originally conducted in 1993 and published in The Bloomsbury Review, Anaya addresses his retirement from the University of New Mexico, his writing projects, the lasting influence of Bless Me, Ultima, and his views on contemporary Chicano literature.

From The Bloomsbury Review, Sept/Oct 1993: 3, 18. Reprinted by permission of publisher and Ray González.

This interview was conducted in March 1993 during Anaya's visit to The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas.

[González:] You're retiring from teaching at the University of New Mexico and want to devote more time to your writing and other interests. At the same time your novel Alburquerque is reaching a larger audience. It's going to appear in a mass paperback...
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