Magic in Their Hearts

"It seemed that the more I knew about people the more I knew about the strange magic hidden in their hearts" (Rudolfo Anaya. Bless Me, Ultima. pg. 109).

In Bless Me, Ultima, Narciso is known as the town drunk. One night Cico brings Antonio to the garden of Narciso- a garden with every kind of fruit and vegetable, with soft ground, and with sweet fragrance. Antonio eats a carrot and says he has "never eaten anything sweeter or juicier"(109). Cico tells Antonio that Narciso dances and sings as he plants by moonlight, and that the garden is drunk like Narciso. Antonio realized that people don't simply fit the labels assigned to them by others.

In high school, I became involved with genealogy, using censuses and other records to piece together more of our family tree.

Part of my family tree on my dad's side

For a while, it felt like I was just looking for names. Then I came across a thin book with the story of my ancestors who had come from Denmark to the United States. I read their story and realized that each of those names had been a real person. The more I learned about them, the more I recognized there was so much I didn't know about their lives. Instead of just wondering about names, I wondered who they were as people.

Similarly, as Antonio learns more about the world and the people around him, he has more and more questions. He wonders why evil goes unpunished, why good people suffer, and why people are the way they are. In Narciso's garden, he learns that people should not be categorized. He sees magic in the heart of Narciso that the rest of the town could not see through the label of drunk they had placed on him.

Antonio sees magic in many places growing up: in Ultima's ability to heal, in the evil practices of the Trementina sisters, and in the stories told by the adults and children. He comes to see this magic within other people, but he also sees the magic in that people are unique and complex. The more we learn about others, whether our ancestors or the people around us, the more we realize there will always be more to learn about who they are as human beings.