Ana Castillo

The Spanish siege of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán is largely known today because of the written reports by of those who witnessed it. In 1521 the Spanish took over the capital city of Tenochtitlán, resulting in the ultimate demise of the Triple Alliance. Versions of this historical event tend to vary due to the array of perspectives involved. For instance, whereas Spanish solider Bernal Diaz wrote his personal account The conquest of New Spain, multiple Aztec informants, including Aztec…

Women throughout the world have always had multiple roles in a society. Some roles were more influential, while others remained more domesticated. Yet, throughout both novels, women shared similar duties. Sundiata, by D.T. Niane, describes the journey of King Sundiata Keita’s road to become ruler of the Mali Empire. The Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz, recounts the downfall of the Aztec Empire. In the Aztec, Spanish, and Mali Empires women were portrayed as domesticated, were used as a…

A Realistic Depiction: A Magical Experience In So Far From God, Ana Castillo attempts to make the traditional Chicano community more accessible to the American society. Castillo delves into a small conservative town where Sofi, a mother who struggles to find her inner strength, lives with her four daughters. In her depiction, Castillo uses magical realism to blur the lines between the real and the unreal in order to enable her characters to challenge the political and religious…

define them and their outlook on culture. “We Would Like You to Know” by Ana Castillo expresses that skin color, stereotypes, and assumptions of a culture do not define someone’s…

Vanessa Ayala Instructor Dr. Gutierrez Major Assignment 1 10 October 2016 Women’s Spiritual Interconnection With Nature Ana Castillo’s novel, So Far From God, chronicles how a Chicano family, its neighbors, and their community confront and overcome the obstacles of racism, poverty, exploitation, environmental pollution, and war in the terrain of New Mexico. Ana Castillo depicts the earth-binding consciousness of Caridad through her intimate, spiritual practices and relationship with nature in…

have made it awfully clear where they believe Latinos belong in the social pecking order.” Individuals of Mexican-American decent are being discriminated against and viewed as inferior individuals solely due to their identity. In the same manner, Castillo and her mother were treated in her…

Ana Castillo’s So Far from God is a selection of Chicana feminist movement which is based on the struggle of woman not having a role in society, but rather than only having a male-domination society which “her roles are typically in the home and she is isolated from and ignorant to the world surrounding her” (Chicana Feminism). This book illustrates feminism in many different ways as the culture in this book is surrounded by a male-domination society. Castillo portrays this concept of the…

The novel “So Far from God” is an account of a Chicano family. Sofi, her spouse Domingo together with their four girls – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico (Castillo, 1993). The story concentrates on the battles of Sofi, the demise of her little girls and the issues of their town. The novel accounts how this family, its neighbors, and their group go up against and beat the problems of prejudice, destitution, abuse, natural contamination, and war. The…

Chicanx as what the media portrays us to be, a discussion should be had on the traits such as resiliency that is possessed especially by Chicanas. This trait is highlighted in Ana Castillo’s A Countryless Woman wherein she details many of the struggles Chicanas face on a daily basis. Among the plethora of issues, Castillo points out, “[t]he cultural and religious beliefs that maintain that most Latinas on either side of the border are (and should be) dependent on their men for economic survival…

Both Oscar Zetas Autobiography of the Brown Buffalo and Ana Castillo’s Novel So Far From God are examples of the use of magic realism and mythology in Chicano/a literature. However, both pieces of Chicano/a literature display their own unique interpretation of self-identity. Beginning with the plot of the Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo, Oscar is a lawyer at the East Oakland Legal Aid society. He drives to his office in downtown San Francisco only to discover that his secretary, who usually…