The hybridity that Caridad and Esmeralda display in this text is even more pronounced in the figure of doña Felicia, who blends indigenous and Catholic beliefs in the vocations of living and healing. Doña Felicia's acceptance of Catholic holy figures and natural spirits parallels that of the Nahuas, who "freely accepted other gods into their pantheon, where they were worshiped together with the ancestral gods" (Poole). Doña Felicia's hybrid spirituality also suggests the new mestiza consciousness that Anzaldúa delineates as the hope of the future in an increasingly hybrid universe—a "tolerance for contradictions" fueled by "continual creative motion that keeps breaking down the unitary aspect of each new paradigm" and creates the possibility for change.

Doña Felicia's embrace of Catholicism comes late in life, and is "based not on an institution but on the bits and...