When I look back on the first seven chapters and compare them, chapters ocho to doce were full of those interest-peaking adventures that actually kept me reading. Anaya really knew how to pull his audience in when he wrote these chapters. My prediction about the family unrest and the brothers not wanting to go to California came true, as Eugene and Leon leave Guadalupe. However, Andrew stays which kind of surprised me since I did not believe any one of the brothers were going to stay. Another one of my predictions came true about Antonio's progress with school because his teacher and the principal pass him straight from first to third grade. After Antonio receives this news, he doesn't go straight home, but rather he "realized that he could make decisions," (Anaya 77), and went fishing with Samuel.
While Antonio is fishing with Samuel, Rudolfo Anaya uses another cue in the structure of his words. Just as he previously italicized the word presence, he now italicizes the people, whom are the people that were turned into carps for eating them a long time ago. The presence and the people are definitely connected to the water surrounding Guadalupe and the effect that they have on Antonio. Samuel tells Antonio the story of the carps and begins to tell him of the golden carp, but leaves the remaining of the story for a later time. Cico does eventually find Antonio and shows him the golden carp and its beauty with the story behind it. One thing I noticed about when Cico approaches Antonio and questions him about the golden carp is that Antonio was completely honest in his responses with his knowledge of the commandments and his devout respect of them. From this experience, I predict that Antonio's future is narrowed away from the wild blood of the Marez's. His future holds for a priest of the Lunas or a future following la Ultima's footsteps. Another prediction also comes from the story of the golden carp. Cico says to Antonio, "The golden carp has warned us that the land cannot take the weight of the sins--the land will finally sink!" (Anaya 118). I predict sometime before the end of the book that the town of Guadalupe will have a massive flood or just an overflow of water onto the land.
One event in these chapters that confused me a little was when Antonio and Ultima went to Las Pasturas to cure Uncle Lucas. La Ultima called Antonio "Juan", which is his middle name. I predict that Juan was the name of the last Luna to become either a priest or curandera. Another outcome of this trip to Las Pasturas was that Antonio gets to see the fact that religion and God have failed in curing his uncle, however Ultima had the power and capability to cure him. I think this fact makes Antonio question his belief in God and the power he holds over someone's fate, like his Uncle Lucas. La Ultima and Antonio manage to cure Uncle Lucas, but during those three days, Antonio "suffered the spasms of pain my uncle suffered," (Anaya 101). Was Antonio used as an outlet for his uncle's pain while Ultima was trying to fight the evil? Or did the evil simply attach itself to Antonio? Sometimes Anaya's diction is direct and leaves no questions. However, sometimes the diction lacks that direct statement that will clear all questions in an audience's head.
Finally, Rudolfo Anaya seems to question la Ultima in this reading selection. With the test of her performing witchcraft by Tenorio, and the two nails on the ground from the cross on the door and the distraction she creates with her owl really makes not only the audience, but Antonio question Ultima. Is la Ultima a witch? She avoided detection this time, but I feel in the future she might not be so lucky.
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