Bless Me, Ultima Chapters 8-12

Through the first seven chapters of Bless Me, Ultima the author had my complete attention and i was submerged in the plot of the text. From chapters 8 to 12 i slowly lost interest as the plot remained the same and the essential question 'Who will Tony grow up to be?' started getting really old. By chapter 12 i have my mind set on the fact that Tony is going to grow up to become a male form of Ultima. It is very clear that Ultima already knows this, hence the fact why she brought him along with her to cure his uncle. One thing that i found very interesting within these chapters, was the situation where Tony's brothers came home, and then Leon and Gene left shortly after in order to start their new lives without their family. Andrew stayed home no one really knows why he did, but his family is extremely grateful that he did. I believe that this shows the difference between Tony's mother and fathers backgrounds. Leon and Gene take after their father and have adventure in their blood where as Andrew is scared of leaving the family, taking after his mother. Some of the questions i have after reading these chapters are what spiritual connection do Tony and Cico have that they can both witness the Golden Carp and be trusted? Also i wonder how Cico knows all that he knows, how did he know that the entire town was surrounded by water and how did he know the fate of the city? What is the difference between a bruja and a curandera? i know that Ultima isnt a witch but part of me believe that her powers are not always good. One scene that lead me to believe this is when all the men outside the house were waiting for Ultima to walk through the doorway with the holy needle cross on it to prove whether or not she was a witch. When Ultima was about to walk through her owl attacked Tenorio, blinding him. This caused a huge scene, they went to help Tenorio and the next thing they know Ultima was outside she had crossed through the door and was fine. This proved that she was not a witch, but once the men left Tony finds the needles on the floor.I believe that Ultima knocked down the needles when the owl caused a scene outside so that she could pass through the doorway. I believe that Ultima does have some evil powers but she does not want anyone to find out and she is really good at hiding it.