So Far from God


So Far from God is a novel written by Ana Castillo, first published in 1993 by W. W. Norton & Company. It is set in a town in New Mexico called Tome and revolves around the lives of Sofia and her four daughters: Esperanza, Fe, Caridad and La Loca. The novel addresses themes such as rebellion, spirituality and gender.
Since the novel combines different styles of literature including poetry, folk literature, social and political commentaries, absurdist techniques and postmodern fragmentation, it is multi-generic and therefore cannot be classed with one specific genre.

Plot

At the age of eighteen Sofia, who is oftentimes called Sofi, marries Domingo and has four daughters with him. Shortly after La Loca's birth, who is the youngest of the sisters, Sofia leaves Domingo after she notices that he gambles away the land she inherited from her father. Because of that Sofia has to raise her children on her own until he suddenly returns after twenty years of absence. In the course of the novel Sofia becomes the self-proclaimed mayor of Tome, the city in New Mexico where they all live. When she finds out that Domingo starts to gamble away her belongings again, she decides to get divorced from him. After La Loca's death she becomes the founder of M.O.M.A.S., an organization for the mothers of martyrs and saints.
The youngest daughter of Sofi La Loca is pronounced dead at the age of three, however she reawakens at her funeral claiming to have travelled to heaven, hell and purgatorial fire. From then on, she behaves differently by never leaving the house and being unable to stand the smell of other humans except for her mother. Furthermore, she gains healing powers after that incident. In her twenties she gets infected and dies of AIDS.
Fe leads a rather stereotypical life working in a bank until her fiancé suddenly leaves her. After that she starts screaming from nowhere and does not stop for a whole year. Once she mysteriously recovers from that she goes back to her job at the bank and eventually marries her cousin Casimiro. Because she desires to gain more money in order to be able to afford valuable household appliances, she later starts working at a company called Acme International. There she has to work with dangerous chemicals which cause her to suffer from cancer. That is why she later dies.
After Caridad's husband is unfaithful to her, she starts drinking and having casual sex with strangers. One night she gets attacked, raped and abandoned half dead in the streets. After the doctors claimed to not be able to do any more for her, she lies in Sofi's house while her sister Fe is screaming. The same night Fe's screaming stops, Caridad is miraculously healed from her wounds and after that she is gifted with visions and healing powers too. To train her healing powers she is taught by doña Felicia. Later she falls in love with a woman called Esmeralda, whom she meets on a trip with doña Felicia and with whom she jumps off a mesa in the end with their bodies never being found.
Sofi's oldest daughter Esperanza is a TV journalist, who is sent to Saudi-Arabia for work. There she goes missing and is pronounced dead by the military. After her death she frequently still visits her family in spirit form.

Character list

One of the most prominent themes in So Far from God is religion. Especially the Catholic church is directly addressed and criticized in this novel for oppressing its female members by forcing them into stereotypical gender roles. That is why the female characters seek inclusion and freedom of action and thought within the Catholic church and want to escape this oppressive situation.
Two other themes that are tightly interwoven with the theme of religion are spirituality and culture. In the novel spiritual hybridity is presented particularly. Indigenous as well as Christian elements are combined and appreciated equally, which creates a notion of a rather untraditional church. One of the most prominent examples for that in So Far from God is Caridad's and Esmeralda's jump off the mesa. They both embody a mixture of spiritual and cultural traditions and values. By uniting them in their jump off the mesa they manage to create a whole new cultural and spiritual identity which speaks for a progressive change concerning culture and spirituality.
On the theme of progress there is not only the interlacing of the different religious and cultural beliefs, but also the desire of the female characters to escape the one-dimensional labels the society enforces on them. Especially Sofi seeks to create new roles for women by becoming the Mayor of Tome and founding M.O.M.A.S. Before that women could only take the role of wife or mother.
Connected to that is the theme of gender and stereotypes. The men in this novel are presented to have the stereotypical attitude of “machos” and seek to dominate the women in their lives. The most prominent examples for that are Domingo and Esperanza's ex-boyfriend Rubén. This displays cultural norms that associate women only with passivity and submission. However, the women in this novel do not stand for that and instead manage to triumph over these oppressive views. In a variety of ways, the female characters stand up for themselves and their rights. Sofia for example shows that by kicking Domingo out and getting divorced while Caridad and Esmeralda stand up against Domingo and his homophobic attitudes by jumping off the mesa. As the women in this novel have to resist domination every day in their lives, a feminist ideology is strongly noticeable, which makes the novel a feminist piece of literature.
Furthermore, sexuality is one of the most prominent themes in So Far from God. One of the most striking examples for that is La Loca, whose behavior leaves no hint at her sexuality. In the course of the novel she never has a sexual partner. Connected to her dislike for other people that could even suggest asexuality. Moreover, none of the heterosexual relationships in this novel seem to work, whereas the homosexual relationship between Caridad and Esperanza does work. That becomes especially clear in their unification during the jump. This casts a light on homosexuality and queerness, which is why the novel can be labeled as a queer text which critiques heterosexist normativity.
Another theme in this novel is the theme of rebellion. Not only the collective agency of the women in this novel, but also the association of different cultural and religious values and beliefs as well as the critique against heterosexist normativity make So Far from God a rebellious novel. Furthermore, the fact that the novel touches upon the subject of sexual abuse and sexuality is rebellious in itself as it is not common to talk about such things in Chicana culture. Moreover, La Loca's jeans boycott stands for political resistance. Rebellion is also shown in the style the novel is written in. The use of code switching, language and grammar does not tie in with the norms of the English language. That in addition to the character's constant struggle against cultural inequality, stereotypes and macho politics makes So Far from God a rebellious novel.
Other themes that are not explicitly mentioned above but can also be found in So Far from God are the supernatural, identity, individualism, nature, personal fulfillment and death.