The Rebellious and Independent Chicanas of So Far From God Anonymous College

Ana Castillo’s So Far From God explores the ways in which Chicano women are forced to exercise resistance to the existing male and anglo dominated society. In the story, Sofi and her four daughters, Esperanza, Caridad, Fe, and La Loca, as well as other female characters reveal how Chicanas (Chicano women) resist their patriarchal society and gain control and create change in their own worlds. The novel serves to act against “a pervasive stereotype of Chicanas as passive individuals victimized by oppression...by presenting a cast of female characters who resist domination” (Delgadillo 888). They rebel against the norm and seek to escape the submissive and domestic lifestyle traditionally expected of women in Chicano culture. Sofi, Esperanza, and Fe resist a culture that is traditionally patriarchal dominated society and with their own acts of female independence are able to create and control their own futures.

Fe is the third daughter of Sofi, and the most traditional member of the family. She is the one in the family who “longs to shape her life into a success story and to lift herself up from her familia through her work ethic” (Mermann). In order to achieve the American Dream she so desires, Fe utilizes this work ethic to...