Albuquerque to rename library after novelist Rudolfo Anaya

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Chicano writer Rudolfo Anaya is receiving another honor in Albuquerque. Bernalillo County and the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library are scheduled Thursday to rename a library in the city's North Valley neighborhood after the author of "Bless Me, Ultima." Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley says the Rudolfo Anaya North Valley Library will be a memorial to the novelist's literary legacy. Anaya, sometimes called the godfather of contemporary Chicano literature, was born in Pastura, New Mexico, and raised in nearby Santa Rosa. Experts say Anaya's World War II-era novel about a young Mexican American boy's relationship with an older curandera — a healer of Mexican Indian heritage — influenced a generation of Latino writers because of its imagery and cultural references that were rare at the time of its publication.