Myth, folkways and identity in Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga

The 20th century is marked by social, cultural and political movements which paved the way for new literary studies. One of these movements is El Movimiento, or the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 70s, which was a reaction against the Anglo-American status quo due to the fact that Chicanxs were treated as minorities living in the United States. Therefore, the Chicano Movement was a big step for 'Mexican- Americans' or 'Hispanics' to cry out their own Chicanidad, or Chicanx identity, which indicates not only Spanish roots but also particularly brings back the indigenous heritage that was disregarded by the status quo. Born out of the Chicano Movement, the cultural framework of the Aztlán Myth, which is the idea of an Aztec homeland, is the strategy to re-claim indigenous culture and traditions. These reactions which were practiced in the social and political arena of the Chicano Movement also found a place in the literary world. Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya, who is regarded the founder of the Chicanx literary canon, participated in the Chicano Movement. He has been holding a cultural nationalist stance in Chicanx cultural criticism and this stance is reflected in his fiction. Thus, in Chicanx consciousness, it is essential for him to revive the lost and repressed indigenous past, culture and tradition that flourished in the Southwest United States with particular reference to New Mexico, which is used as a symbolic representation of the ideal homeland for Chicanxs. Based on this context, the aim of this study is to analyze the representation of Chicanx identity formation in Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and Tortuga within the theoretical framework of Mary Louise Pratt's contact zone and Fernando Ortiz's theory of transculturation. This study also shows how Anaya deals with Chicanx identity by applying the mythical past by means of the Aztlán myth, which exerts a healing and uniting power on Chicanx people. Chapter 1 will illustrate how the protagonists represent the dualities of Chicanxs through the application of Pratt's theory to the lives of the protagonists. Later chapters within the framework of transculturation will demonstrate how the protagonists harmonize their bi-cultural heritage through myth, New Mexico's natural features and the curandera figure, which are three connected concepts that stand for indigenous traditions. Keywords: Chicanx identity, Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, Tortuga, Native culture