So Far from God

“For those with charity in their hearts, the mutilation of the lovely young woman was akin to martyrdom.”

These lines point to the double standards of this community. Caridad’s mutilation is like “martyrdom” because this community both glorifies and objectifies female beauty. Ironically, however, this same community condemned Caridad for sleeping with many men, thus shaming her for using this same body.

“She was beginning to feel like part of a ritual in which she herself participated as an unsuspecting symbol, like a staff or a rattle or medicine.”

Here, Esperanza comments on her lack of true agency in her relationship with Rubén. She compares her body to the objects used in the Native-American Church ceremonies. She feels like a ritual object in their relationship becauseRuben uses her when he needs her but discards her when he does not.

“Knowing and preventing are two very different things, aren’t they, doña Felicia?”

Caridad predicts that her horse,Corazón, will die, but she is powerless to prevent it. This thought points to the ways in which women of this novel are deeply empathetic and perceptive, yet they cannot always control their own fates and protect themselves in the context of their patriarchal society.

“But I gave birth to eight children and never once did I cry like I saw some of those men out there before they even fired a shot! I think it has something to do with the unnaturalness of killing compared with the naturalness of giving birth.”

Doña Felicia comments on soldiers’ reactions during wartime to her own experience giving birth. These lines draw a contrast between the aggressive violence of war and the nurturing act of childbirth. One takes life away while the other gives life, thus commenting on the aggressive actions of men and the nurturing actions of women.

“But as the decades wore on, doña Felicia came full circle, reaching a compromise with the religion of her people when she became caretaker of the House of God in Tome.”

This section points to the melding of religious traditions that informs the novel. Doña Felicia once only embraced Native religion, but as time wore on, she realized that this religion could exist alongside Catholicism. In her practice of a curandera, she employs both folk healing and Catholic prayers. 

“It’s not every day that you see a crowd following a Christ-like figure carrying a cross along the highway (unless your people are from Chimayo or Tome or similar places throughout the territory controlled by the Spanish queen and friars for centuries with such ferocity that neither Mexican nor U.S. appropriation diluted the religious practices of the descendants of the Spaniards who settled there, including this procession that has been performed annually for two hundred years and will probably go on for two hundred more, such is their fervent devotion).”

These lines express the deep influence of religion on the people in So Far from God. This Holy Friday traditional procession has endured over centuries despite all the influences of competing cultures. True devotion to a cause has great strength in this world.

“When he left her withtheir four daughters all she could think of was that thank God her mother […] had not lived to see that day, for she surely would not have let her live it down.”

Sofi is glad that her mother was not alive to see the day that she and Domingo parted ways. Shame is not only a result of men’s actionsbut is also enacted by the women in the community. Women in this society shame other women when they are not with a man and thus do not uphold this social standard. 

“Sofi […] was transfixed by the handsome stranger’s white teeth, with just a slight gap that added to his charm in a sneaky kind of way […] and above all, by those dark, sinful eyes.”

These lines characterize Domingo as a suave, handsome man in his youth. Adjectives like sneaky and sinful point to the fact that Domingo is not trustworthy, and this untrustworthiness is, in fact, attractive to Sofi. These arguably negative and suspicious characteristics are a draw to women such as Sofi. 

“Ma Cheri! Díos mio! You look like you just crossed the Jornada del Muerto.”

Doña Felicia utters these words upon seeing Caridad return from her year in a cave. These lines provide an example of how doña Felicia speaks, in English, Spanish, and French. She blends all of these disparate linguistic cultures in her communication style.

“Her dreams were not hits and misses no more like in the beginning, but very clear messages which, with the help of her mentor, doña Felicia, she became adept at interpreting.”

After returning from the cave, Caridad’s powers are more fully realized. By taking time to herself and removing herself from a toxic society, Caridad’s gifts flourish. Time and seclusion help to heal the emotional wounds from her attack. 

“Maria, tarot card reader and pseudo-poet, herself would have said […] that even this existence of ours has no start and no finish but is the continuance of a journey on an endless, unpaved road.”

Maria’s opinion points to the structure of this novel. It goes back and forth in time with great fluidity, and endings are not final,sincedeath is often negotiable. What matters is development and the journey, not endings or beginnings.

“Innocent people were shot at by snipers on freeways in big cities but it was too much for Helena to see that even on these sleepy roads, people could fear for their lives. And that furthermore, dudes were just dudes no matter where you went, even in the sacred land of the Anasazi.”

On their journey to Maria’s ancestral home, Helena is shocked that they are attacked by a man with a gun. Moving towards a holy place does not guarantee protection. Male aggression is pervasive, and women are never truly safe.

“La Gritona […] was dying to get married.”

Sofi comments on Fe’s desire to get married after she recovers from her year of screaming. These lines are ironic: after completely breaking down due to her engagement, all Fe wants to do is to recreate another matrimonial scenario. She is also “dying” to do so, thus implying the deep urgency with which she needs to adhere to perceived female societal obligations. 

“He was an outsider and there were a lot of outsiders moving in, buying up land that had belonged to original families, who were being forced to give it up because they couldn’t live off of it no more.”

Here, Sofi’s neighbor discusses the white lawyer moving into their neighborhood. Due to their economic troubles, Native and Latino families with land are being forced to leave, while white and/or rich people are taking the land over even though it is not truly “theirs.”

“Although in their hearts they never gave up yearning to locate their daughter’s body, without no one important enough on their side to help them do it, Esperanza’s missing body remained a mystery.”

Female bodies, like Esperanza’s, do not inherently contain value. Because she comes from a poor family, she is not important enough to find or to merit explanation. She is disposable, pointing to the value system inherent in the world ofSo Far from God.

“Just like a country changed its name, so did the names of their legends change. Once, La Llorona may have been Matlaciutl, the goddess of Mexica who was said to prey upon men like a vampire.”

These lines point to the mutability of traditions. La Llorona in Spanish mythology is similar to Matlaciutl in Native mythology. Central ideas in both of these traditions converge, thus allowing them to be practiced side-by-side in the world of the novel. 

“Fe found herself wanting to go nowhere else but back to her mom and La Loca and even to the animals to die just before her twenty-seventh birthday.”

As Acme International slowly kills her, Fe wants to move away from the institution and back to her home. She wants to be surrounded by nurturing women before she leaves the earth, and thus symbolically rejects the patriarchal structure to which she had been submitting.

“Most of the people that surrounded Fe didn’t understand what was slowly killing them, too, or didn’t want to think about it.”

Institutions such as Acme have the power to affect many women. Because they need money, women like those in Fe’s community have no choice but to submit to dangerous conditions. Even if they have an inkling about this injustice, they can’t afford to entertain it and thus perpetuate this unjust paradigm. 

“She had married into that family over a quarter century before and knew well enough that it would do no good to laugh nor cry about what she saw the men in her husband’s family do in the name of God.”

Here, Francisco’s aunt chooses not to say anything when she sees him mixing ashes into her food. Her voice is less important than the voices of the men in her family. They are also validated through the institution of religion, giving them even more credence as they propagate their dominion. 

“Sofia’s dry and thirsty land by its very nature was a land of ingenious undertakings; and while its early Spanish transplants learned irrigation methods from the indigenous residents to sustain crops and graze animals, and how to make do with raw materials, talk with the sky, and honor mountains and streams, and despite all their relentless faith together, the sheer toil, the centuries going by the world changing around them, it never got no better.”

This passage points to a certain hopelessness for the Latino and Native people in this community. Though they understand the land and know all its secrets, they are destined to fail. White people and institutions are just more powerful and inevitably encroach on the land that has been in their families for years. 

“Sofi quietly let the matter go, along with her beloved rancheria, which were all one and the same thing, of course.”

After Domingo bets away the deed to their farm, Sofi relinquishes control. She doesn’t rebuke her husband but lets the ranch slip away. This sort of submission to one’s husband is common in this community, as male choices are valued over those of females. 

“Although she had never wanted to see no one after her mother brought her back home so the stories of her miracles could not be verified […] many still believed in her.”

These lines characterize the mysticism and power La Loca holds in her community. Even though she does not perform public miracles after rising from the dead, people in the town still believe in her powers, which belief only deepens after her death. 

“Though they were not in the least religious in nature but about workers and women strikers and things like that, the way she sang them made some people sign and some even sob and still others sand along with their eyes to the sky.”

The Holy Friday procession attended by Sofi and La Loca is atypical. Rather than just focusing on the passion of Jesus, it instead incorporates a social justice narrative. A singer performs songs about issues in the community that resonate strongly with people. Here, abstract religion combines with daily issues experienced by the community.