Forms of Oppression in Ana Castillo's So Far from God

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Ana Castillo’s So Far from God (1993), begins its tale by immediately immersing the reader in the full drama that is typical of a Spanish soap opera describing the lives of five Hispanic women. The oldest daughter, Esperanza, wants to make a name for herself and succeeds in doing so by leaving Tome. Fe wants a normal life that she will never be able to have in Sofia’s household. Caridad is a simple soul that would have been content with her high school sweetheart had he not cheated on her. The youngest daughter, La Loca Santa, dies at age three and is resurrected to pray for the people. Lastly, Sofia turns out to be the strongest of the women in the novel by taking a stand for what she believes is right. Castillo uses Sofia and her four daughters to express her negative and distrustful view of patriarchy and oppression of women through class, gender and sexuality.

Castillo first shows the reader her distrust of patriarchy and its vertical structures through La Loca Santa’s death. The first structure under scrutiny here is the Catholic Church. After La Loca awakens she throws herself into the air and lands on the top of the Church, saying that those below her carry the same scent that she had smelled while in hell. With Loca high above the others she can be seen as a “substation” for a new Chicana Christ figure (Delgadillo 895). She tells those gathered below that she has been sent back to pray for them so that they would be able to see their Creator in heaven. Father Jerome pleads with her to come down so that the congregation could pray for her. She then reminds him that it is she that was sent to pray for them. With La Loca in the position of a Christ figure of the system, the structure of the system, in this case religion,...

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...Far From God. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993. Print.

Christopher, Renny. "A State of Courage and Wisdom...Not an Uncontrollable Participation in Society: Ana Castillo's Novel of Feminist and Working-Class Resistance." Class of Its Own: Re-Envisioning American Labor Fiction. (2008): 189-200. Print.

Delgadillo, Theresa. "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's So Far From God."Modern Fiction Studies. 44.4 (1998): 888-914. Delgadillo, Theresa. "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's So Far From God."Modern Fiction Studies. 44.4 (1998): 888-914. .

Rodriguez, Ralph. "Chicana/o Fiction from Resistance to Contestation: The Role of Creation in Ana Castillo's So Far From God."MELUS. 25.2 (2000): 63-87. Print.

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