Decolonial Healing and Epistemic Disobedience in Ana Castillo's So Far from God

Abstract

Abstract: Ana Castillo's So Far from God draws attention to the effects of global toxicity on female bodies as the characters of the novel fall victim to various forms of social, economic, and environmental injustice such as war, AIDS, cancer, and rape. This essay engages theories on decoloniality to illustrate how Castillo textualizes spiritual practices and alternative forms of knowledge to weave an epistemically disobedient narrative. By constructing Chicana figures who embody hybrid, subversive spiritualities enabled by the syncretic space of the US-Mexico border, Castillo offers avenues for liberation from colonial and patriarchal ideologies that are textualized as physical, sexual, and spiritual transformations. Notably, the characters who refuse to see the colonial difference are consumed by the colonial matrix of power, eventually falling victim to war and industrial toxicity. By weaving spirituality, curanderismo, and the supernatural into the lived experiences of the female characters in So Far, Castillo constructs Chicana subjectivities that enact body politics of knowledge and decolonial forms of being in the world.