Throughout Rudolfo Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya presents the reader with the complications and difficulty of cultural identity and in the end suggests that a person can draw from several cultural traditions instead of just one in particular. The main character, Antonio, is the guide to Anaya's lesson. Antonio's parents, Ultima, and even his town present him with different situations and ideas that contributes to his identity.

In the first chapter we are introduced to Antonio and his family. Antonio is a young six-year-old boy and lives in his Spanish village. Antonio himself is not a full fledge Latino. His father had been a vaquero all of his life, "...a calling as ancient as the coming of the Spaniard to Nuevo Mexico" (2). Antonio then comments on how being a vaquero, or cowboy, meant so much to his father by stating that, "Even after the...