Under The Feet Of Jesus

Under the Feet of Jesus is a 1995 novel by Helena Maria Viramontes. It tells the story of a family of Mexican-American migrant workers—also known as piscadores—who make their living harvesting crops in California. As the novel opens, the main character, a 13-year-old girl named Estrella, has just arrived at a new home alongside her mother, Petra, her mother’s boyfriend, Perfecto, and her four younger siblings. The children’s father abandoned the family several years ago, making their already precarious existence that much more difficult.

As the family settles into their new home, they meet two teenage boys who also work in the nearby fields. One of these boys, Alejo, sees Estrella swimming in the irrigation ditch and quickly becomes infatuated with her, stopping by the family’s bungalow later to offer them some peaches he has stolen.

Estrella soon begins her new job picking grapes, working alongside Alejo, who hopes one day to leave the fields in order to become a geologist. Although Estrella initially seems uninterested in Alejo’s attempts to get to know her better, the two share a romantic moment one night during an eclipse, drinking from the same bottle of soda and taking turns creating sound by blowing across the top of it. Shortly afterwards, however, Alejo is accidentally sprayed by a crop duster and falls ill from his exposure to the pesticides. Because Alejo has no family in California except his cousin, Petra eventually agrees to take him in and care for him.

Estrella’s family, however, has several problems of its own. Perfecto asks repeatedly for Estrella’s help in tearing down a derelict old barn; unbeknownst to her, he is haunted by memories of his long dead girlfriend and child, and is considering deserting Petra in order to return home before he himself dies. Meanwhile, Petra’s health is becoming more and more of a problem. She suffers from varicose veins and has also become pregnant, although she hasn’t yet told Perfecto for fear of disappointing him. As the various folk remedies Petra tries on Alejo fail to yield results, even she begins to reconsider helping him. Meanwhile, Alejo and Estrella are growing closer and closer, sleeping next to one another and talking about their hopes for the future.

At last, the family decides to take Alejo to a local medical clinic. Simply getting there is an ordeal—their car becomes stuck in mud and has to be laboriously dug out—and once at the clinic, it soon becomes clear that Alejo will not get the treatment he needs; the clinic is staffed only by a nurse, who examines Alejo and pronounces him to be suffering from dysentery, but says that the family will need to take him to the nearest hospital. Although she lowers the customary fee for a clinic visit, the cost still threatens to use up all the money the family has, leaving them with nothing to buy the gas they need to transport Alejo to Corazón. Frustrated, Estrella grabs a crowbar from the car and threatens the nurse, forcing her to return the family’s money.

Now able to buy gas, the family drives to Corazón, where Estrella leaves Alejo in the care of the hospital. By the time they return home, both Perfecto and Petra are worrying about the consequences of Estrella’s actions—specifically, whether the nurse will call the police. Perfecto considers leaving that same night, but can’t bring himself to take such decisive action. Petra, meanwhile, attempts to pray at her altar but finds it brings her no solace; what’s more, she accidentally knocks the statue of Jesus off the altar, breaking it in two. Only Estrella seems relatively at peace. Alone, she walks out to the barn Perfecto had wanted to tear down and climbs up onto the rooftop, where she stands looking out at the night sky.