Column: How A Classic Chicano Coming-Of-Age Tale Changed The Way I Saw Myself

By LAist Staff

Published Jul 10, 2020 12:40 PM

Mis Ángeles columnist Erick Galindo first picked up a copy of Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima when he was about 18 years old.

By the time he was 10 pages into the pioneering Chicano author's classic novel, a coming-of-age tale that features a Mexican American protagonist, something in him clicked. Galindo writes:

It changed the way I saw myself.

I was dumbfounded. In six years of honors and AP English, history, and literature classes, I couldn't recall a single book about someone like me.

He considers Anaya, who died June 28 at age 82, one of the main reasons he became a writer. Now, he's paying that influence forward.

READ THE COLUMN:

Mis Ángeles: Bless Me, Rudolfo Anaya

MORE FROM ERICK GALINDO:

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On Life As A Freckle-Faced, Redheaded, Mexican American From Southeast Los Angeles
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Column: How A Classic Chicano Coming-Of-Age Tale Changed The Way I Saw Myself

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