Rudolfo Anaya

Rudolfo Anaya (born October 30, 1937, Pastura, New Mexico, U.S.—died June 28, 2020, Albuquerque) was an American novelist and educator whose fiction expresses his Mexican American heritage, the tradition of folklore and oral storytelling in Spanish, and the Jungian mythic perspective.

Anaya learned to speak English only when he started school. As a teen, he broke his back, and his recovery from that experience affected his worldview. He graduated from the University of New Mexico (B.A., 1963; M.A., 1968; M.A., 1972) and worked as a public school teacher in Albuquerque (1963–70) before becoming director of counseling at the University of Albuquerque. From 1974 to 1993 he taught at the University of New Mexico.

Bless Me, Ultima (1972; film 2013), Anaya’s acclaimed first novel, concerns a young boy growing up in New Mexico in the late 1940s and an elderly healer who changes his life. Heart of Aztlán (1976) follows a family’s move from rural to urban surroundings and confronts some of the problems of Chicano labourers. In Tortuga (1979) Anaya examines the emotions of a boy encased in a body cast at a hospital for paralyzed children (reflecting experiences that were Anaya’s as a child). These three novels make up a trilogy about Hispanic children in the United States. The novel The Legend of La Llorona (1984) is about La Malinche, an enslaved Indian who became the mistress, guide, and interpreter of the conquistador Hernán Cortés. Anaya’s other fictional works included The Adventures of Juan Chicaspatas (1985), Alburquerque (1992; the title gives the original spelling of the city’s name), Randy Lopez Goes Home (2011), and the novella The Old Man’s Love Story (2013). His series of mystery novels featuring Chicano private investigator Sonny Baca included Zia Summer (1995), Rio Grande Fall (1996), Shaman Winter (1999), and Jemez Spring (2005).

In addition, Anaya wrote A Chicano in China (1986), a nonfiction account of his travels; short stories, such as those in Serafina’s Stories (2004) and The Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories (2006); and a number of children’s books, as well as plays and poems. An advocate of multiculturalism and bilingualism, he translated, edited, and contributed to numerous anthologies of Hispanic writing. In 2002 he was awarded a National Medal of Arts.