2008 Woodie Awards
Presentation relates issues to Greeley
David Bradley
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
A lecture and film presentation about the life of Rudolfo Anaya took place in the Michener library on Wednesday night to present Weld County Reads' first book, Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima."
Weld County Reads is a program created by the Weld Library District and funded by a grant received from the National Endowment for the Arts. The program intends to increase reading among the adults in the county by choosing one book they can read and discuss with others in the community.
The Endowment for the Arts suggested 12 books the library could choose from, and "Bless Me, Ultima" was picked due to Weld's current cultural atmosphere.
"We chose 'Bless Me Ultima' because of the climate in Colorado right now, particularly Weld County," said Janine Reid, executive director of the Weld Library District. "We felt that this was a very positive approach to the issue that had been surfacing over the past couple of years in this area."
According to history professor Michael Welsh, Anaya's home state of New Mexico was one of the poorest in the country and a leader in illiteracy and rubella. "The environment of eastern New Mexico is a lot like the environment of eastern Colorado," said Welsh. "It's dry and it's hot. It's wide and it's lonesome."
Anaya's 1972 novel is a semi-autobiographical story of a young boy living in a New Mexico town that is sharply divided between farmers and cowboys, mysticism and Catholicism and English and Spanish-speakers. The novel focuses on the boy trying to find where he belongs in his culture and trying to understand why there is evil in the world.
Welsh and former professor, Alfonzo Rodriguez, each gave a lecture on Anaya and his place in the Chicano literary renaissance of the 1960s to go along with a short documentary about Anaya.
The film describes how the ancestral stories that he heard as a child helped shape him as a child. The film also describes Anaya's use of mysticism in his works, stating that he was "not a magical realist, but a realistic magician."
"That's Anaya's greatest gift to all of us," Welsh said. "He saw things that we don't, and then found a way to explain it."
Weld County Reads is a program created by the Weld Library District and funded by a grant received from the National Endowment for the Arts. The program intends to increase reading among the adults in the county by choosing one book they can read and discuss with others in the community.
The Endowment for the Arts suggested 12 books the library could choose from, and "Bless Me, Ultima" was picked due to Weld's current cultural atmosphere.
"We chose 'Bless Me Ultima' because of the climate in Colorado right now, particularly Weld County," said Janine Reid, executive director of the Weld Library District. "We felt that this was a very positive approach to the issue that had been surfacing over the past couple of years in this area."
According to history professor Michael Welsh, Anaya's home state of New Mexico was one of the poorest in the country and a leader in illiteracy and rubella. "The environment of eastern New Mexico is a lot like the environment of eastern Colorado," said Welsh. "It's dry and it's hot. It's wide and it's lonesome."
Anaya's 1972 novel is a semi-autobiographical story of a young boy living in a New Mexico town that is sharply divided between farmers and cowboys, mysticism and Catholicism and English and Spanish-speakers. The novel focuses on the boy trying to find where he belongs in his culture and trying to understand why there is evil in the world.
Welsh and former professor, Alfonzo Rodriguez, each gave a lecture on Anaya and his place in the Chicano literary renaissance of the 1960s to go along with a short documentary about Anaya.
The film describes how the ancestral stories that he heard as a child helped shape him as a child. The film also describes Anaya's use of mysticism in his works, stating that he was "not a magical realist, but a realistic magician."
"That's Anaya's greatest gift to all of us," Welsh said. "He saw things that we don't, and then found a way to explain it."
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