Mothers, Martyrs, And Saints

Another aspect of So Far From God is how limited the roles the women are allowed to play. Moreover, the culture seems to have indoctrinated them to their limitations so well that they often find a way to sabotage themselves if the system or their own men don’t do it for them. Therefore these women never find self-actualization outside of being mothers.

The oldest daughter makes her career choices emotionally, strictly based on feeling unwanted by her lover and un-needed by her family. “Esperanza had blown the job offer in Houston back when she first got together with Rubén. Maybe that had been for the better since as it had turned out that was where his ex-wife and child had gone to start their new lives; and Esperanza was the kind of woman who felt that no town was big enough for the two exes of one man.” She accepts another big-time opportunity which takes her to Washington, D.C., because “it was pretty clear that there was no need for of her on the home front.” Finally with “Rubén, she concluded that fatality for them as a couple was only inevitable.” (46) These choices ultimately lead to her demise in Saudi Arabia on a dangerous news assignment which she dreaded taking to begin with. Though people believe she was martyred for her career, she was martyred for love.

After her abusive relationship with men, Caridad years for a relationship with a woman, but her religious and cultural upbringing is so strong that she disappears for a year only to be found living in a cave, becoming known as La Armitaña, roughly translated as the hermit (Larousse 255). She literally yearns for Esmeralda from afar, rarely speaking to her, but content to spy on her and her lesbian lover. Though it is believed she was led to life as a religious ascetic by God, it was forbidden love that pushed her there.

Sofia tries to assert herself and take care of problems in her area by running for la Mayor of Tome. It is an unofficial position, because no one ran for it, but she manages to rally her friends and neighbors to get of their behinds and actually work together for what they needed as a community (146). However, she is sabotaged by her own husband, Domingo, when he gambles away the deed to what is left of her property to the crooked Judge Julano. Even though gambling is illegal, the judge refuses to give it back and Sofia is powerless to make him. She ends up having to rent her own home from him. (216).

The only place where Sofia’s power is not challenged by the culture is her position as a mother and not only that, but a mother of martyrs and saints. To that end, she forms and becomes the first la presidenta of a world-wise organization she called M.O.M.A.S (Mothers of Martyrs and Saints). This is a place where Sofi is allowed to shine and she takes full advantage of it. She rules supreme determining who is a mother. According to her, adoptive mothers don’t count. Moreover, who is a mother of a martyr or saint? She proves this as she declines Tom’s mother’s application repeatedly through the years. In her own tiny sphere of influence, she’s a powerful woman.

Works Cited

Castillo, Anna. So Far From God. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.

Larousse Concise Dictionary. Spanish-English/English-SpanishThird Edition, Paris France. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.