Bless Me, Ultima (CH 1-7)

          Bless Me, Ultima is about a Mexican family living with two daughters, three sons at war, and youngest son  Antonio. This Marez/Luna family presents two contrasting sides of the story. The Luna side, the mother, is highly religious and proper. They are avid farmers of the fertile land. The Marez, the father's side, is wild and loud. They seem to have little respect for religion (although the father sometimes plays along to please everyone) and are vaqueros of the llano. These two sides are constantly contrasted in the novel and the destiny of Antonio is pulled between the two. His mother wants him to go to school and be scholarly, then become a priest for the Luna family. His father would prefer him to live like he did as a child; wild ponies and the open llano land living like a "true man". I feel this conflict will be the major/overall drive of the events in the book and won't be sorted out until the very end. With the edition of Ultima to the family was an important one. Antonio definitely has a special relationship with Ultima and I think she will come to play a large role in Antonio's "destiny".
          With Anthony going to school and feeling like an outcast, may contribute to his destiny as well. I assume the remainder of the book will add some focus on Antonio's adventures at school and I bet not all of them will be positive ones.
          Antonio's brothers may also play a role in his future because you can tell he loves and looks up to them. They were his father's sons I think; they went off to the war much to their mother's dismay. Although, the book doesn't specify if they went by choice or they were drafted so I suppose it doesn't really matter. I do think that they will influence Antonio throughout the rest of the novel now that they are home.
          Now, this whole Spanish thing, is killing me. I have no prior knowledge of Spanish so I don't know how the words (even simple ones) are pronounced or what they mean. I find myself constantly asking Google Translate. I think it interrupts the flow of the story if I keep having to stop to see what they're saying, or try extra hard to to understand through the surrounding lines. I think a little bit of Spanish would be okay; it does show the difference between the educated and uneducated individuals. However, its starting to get annoying.