Anaya wrote with beauty and honesty

With lyrical passages that seemed set to music, “Bless Me, Ultima” reads like an incantation.

Set in rural New Mexico during the 1940s, the novel is told through the eyes of a 6-year-old boy. Antonio learns about evil, but he also learns about goodness, about courage and integrity. And he learns that standing up is hard, but cowering is harder, robbing you of your soul and spirit.

At the center of it all is Ultima, a curandera, healer. She teaches Antonio there is a world beyond the landscape he can see, the hills and mountains and rivers. It is a world of magic.

Published in 1972, the book became a classic, its story captivating a generation of readers — and writers. The author, Rudolfo Anaya, was hailed as the greatest Mexican American writer of his day. But as time passed, eroding the literary biases that constricted artists of color, it became apparent that the category Mexican American was too narrow, too confining. He was a great American writer.

Anaya died June 28 at his home in Albuquerque, N.M. The author had been suffering from a long illness, his niece told the Associated Press. He was 82.

“Through his indelible stories, Rudolfo Anaya, perhaps better than any other author, truly captured what it means to be a New Mexican, what it means to be born here, grow up here and live here,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.

Yes. But like the Mississippi River of Mark Twain and the Michigan woods of Ernest Hemingway, the world of “Bless Me Ultima” is our world, too, no matter where we hail from. Ultima guides Antonio through a dark, turbulent environment — an environment which, while perhaps different from our own in detail and context, is the same in the impact it has on a young, impressionable boy.

Like other great works of literature, the book seemed to have as many critics as it did champions. The story was too bold and graphic for some, including violence and adult language. It was placed on the list of the most commonly challenged books in the U.S. in 2013.

No matter. The book has persevered, just as Anaya himself persevered. A high school teacher in New Mexico, he wrote after school, inspired by the voice he heard during one of his late-night writing sessions. It was Ultima, speaking to him from the depths of his imagination.

“The truly magical moment in the creative process was when Ultima appeared to me and instructed me to make her a character in the novel,” he wrote.

Publisher after publisher rejected his manuscript. He was not deterred. A small California Press, Quinto Sol, finally accepted it in 1972.

We are all richer for his dedication. Anaya wrote other highly regarded books after “Bless Me Ultima,” but his debut work would remain his towering achievement. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal “for his pioneering stories of the American Southwest.”

“He was so honest and beautiful in his storytelling,” U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo told the Santa Fe New Mexican.

This is the hallmark of great writing and why his words will continue to resonate.