Another underlying theme of So Far From God was the corrupt corporate-government collusion that practiced an environmental racism against the hapless Hispanic residents of the area. Faced with NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) Syndrome from wealthier, more politically active classes, the nuevo mexicano community is the perfect back yard to hold a plant that is no more than a toxic waste manufacturer.
Fe leaves her job at the bank after twice being passed over for promotion and remaining in New Accounts with no prospects of getting a raise. She is told, “although the company did not want to discriminate against her new ‘handicap,’ her irregular speech really did not lead itself to working with the public” (177).
When a former co-worker tells her about openings at Acme International where “the work was shit,” but “the pay was real good” (177), Fe applies there, knowing she could make twice what she made at the bank. What she does not know is that all the workers there are getting deathly ill, because they do not know it themselves. Their symptoms made them see the company nurse who gives them ibuprofen and tells them their headaches and pre-menopausal symptoms are normal in women over thirty and “had nothing to do with working with chemicals” (178).
Fe starts taking “every gritty job available” because “people were … given raises on the sheer basis of ’utilization and efficiency.’” (178) Fe ends up “working in a dark cubicle … with a chemical that actually glowed in the dark” (181). She is told that it harmless, merely ether, used to clean aircraft parts. However, she has to work alone with it. She is given a minimal of safety equipment, that is very ineffective and she is deliberately left to her own devices. She pours it down the drain until a supervisor bawls her out. “He instructed her then, like she was stupid instead of having only been following the order she’d been given by all the other supervisors, that from then on she should just let what was left in the pan evaporate rather than pour it down the drain” (184).
Fe is called a “specialty person” (184), but that is just another name for scapegoat, because she ends up being investigated by the government and “protected” by a corporate lawyer. Both tell her not to say anything to anyone even her coworkers (185), However, that doesn’t matter, because she is quickly dying of multiple cancers. She is put on unpaid probation, which leaves her without medical benefits and puts her at the mercy of medical care for the indigents, which she can only describe as “torture” (186-187). Left by her lawyer to dig up her own evidence to defend herself, she finds that she was not working with ether, but a substance that was illegal and banned in the United States. Furthermore, the substance she had inhaled was heavier than air, should have always been sealed and this is what she routinely dumped down the drain, allowing it to get into the area’s sewage system and water table. (188-189).
This section of the book really hit home, reminding me of what the locals call, “Cancer Alley,” in Trenton, New Jersey. It is a working-class neighborhood near some manufacture ring plants. Every other family in the area has someone who has died of cancer. I lost two uncles within five years of each other, one to brain cancer and the other to lung cancer. Though the authorities have repeatedly “investigated,” they have found “no reason” for this odd phenomenon.
Also in Austin’s poorer Eastern neighborhood, even though its residents were very politically active and vocal about it, it took years of lawsuits before the noise pollution that disturbed their peace during the summer from racing the boats at Aqua Fest was stopped. It took several more years to remove a local refinery that was right next to a densely populated area off East Airport Boulevard. The smell of that refinery was so strong, it made your eyes water, especially during the heat of the summer, when there was no breezes.
The only hope for the people of this country to address this environmental racism and classicism is to demand a government that investigates and promotes Green Companies or corporations that practice environmentalism. We have renewable energy sources in our own grain fields to fuel our engines as Rommel did during World War II. We can harness the wind and the sun even though they cannot be turned off if someone does not pay their electric bill. We have the very dirt that can build well-insulated homes. Even until we can put all these more environment-friendly companies into place, they can still be used to help clean up messes, even if they affect the stockholders’ bottom line.
Work Cited
Castillo, Anna. So Far From God. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
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