"In that one there is hope"

In Chapter one of Rudolfo Anaya's novel "Bless me, Ultima" the author jumps right into the meaty themes of this coming of age story. In Antonio’s dream of his birth, the audience gets to observe why he feels pressure from all angles in terms of his tense family dynamics. Members of his mother’s family have decided he shall be a priest, and carry on their vales of stability and family first. However, his paternal relatives also claim Tony’s future and declare that he will be an adventurous vaquero, to carry on their way of life. It is pretty apparent that young Antonio is feeling conflicted as to which community he fits into. Just by being born, Tony unintentionally finds himself in the midst of rivaling ideologies, and he is now a pawn in the debate of who lives the “right” lifestyle. As if it weren't hard enough for children to navigate the world, Tony doesn't have any unbiased adults to explore his sense of self with, (until the entry of Ultima). No line sums up the pressure placed on Tony's shoulders quite like Uncle Juan’s well-meaning comment, “In that one there is hope”.  His entire family, immediate and removed, have ulterior motives when it comes to Tony's future. Anaya’s choice to use a flashback/dream to let the audience see these events first hand is very effective. It allows him to immerse the readers directly into the eye of the hurricane, which in turn allows them to see the book’s main topics first hand. In this scene alone, the backstory is covered along with the introduction of the book's main focus: struggling to find one’s identity. Readers can feel the stress of little Antonio, and it provokes their empathy.