So Far from God

The world of So Far from Godis one in which cultures, ethnicities, and religions collide and mix. There are the Native, or Acoma Pueblo, people, as well as those of Spanish and Mexican descent. Gringos, or white people, also filter into the equation. On the level of the text itself, this cultural mixing is apparent as the text intermixes Spanish with English. Both the characters and the narrator speak in this manner, thus giving a sense of the tenor of this community.

Though these cultures exist together, tension is still apparent. It’s better to have Spanish blood than Native blood, and the women in Sofi’s family, “despite her grandmother’s insistence that they were Spanish, descendants of pure Spanish blood all shared theflat butt of the Pueblo blood undeniably circulating through their veins” (26). Many people are a mixture of these cultures but perpetuate a subtle racism against the Native people, who are darker. So, too, are the white people encroaching on land belonging to Native and Latino people. Many can no longer afford to tend the farms, so the land is being bought up by white people with more money.

Catholicism and native religious traditions mix more fluidly in this community. This is a world in which Francisco can be both penitente and santero, and in which