Rudolfo Anaya Landscape Park
Corner of Historic Route 66 and Lake Drive
Santa Rosa, NM 88435
Santa Rosa was the boyhood home of Rudolfo Anaya. Anaya, a prolific author, is most famous for his novel Bless Me Ultima, written in 1972 and retold as a movie in 2013. The park includes a statue of Anaya sitting on a tree stump writing on a tablet. A walkway circling the park includes bronze replicas of hand-written pages embedded within, and plaques depict scenes from the book.
Sculptor Reynaldo “Sonny” Rivera created the bronze statue of Anaya, a bas relief map of New Mexico with images from the novel and the region, “hojas” or pages with quotations from the novel set into the sidewalk, and plaques. The monument also includes a natural stone fountain and a pool with the image of the golden carp from the novel.
Set in New Mexico in the early 1940’s, Bless Me Ultima is a controversial story about a young boy and the mysterious healer who introduces him to the wonders of the spiritual realm.
