Helena Maria Viramontes ' novel Under the Feet of Jesus present the true realities that a young thirteen-year-old girl, Estrella, and her family encounter as migrant laborers. Working as migrant laborers, Estrella and her family face conflicts with the legal system, the perpetual state of being short on money, and the depiction of their labor. Viramontes’s novel effortlessly demonstrates how the life of migrant workers are both demanding and brutal through exemplifying Estrella and her family 's life as migrant workers.
One of the biggest hardships that Estrella and her family encounter relate to the fact that their work depends on factors that they cannot control. As Viramontes explains in the first chapter, “work depended on the harvest, …show more content…
As Estrella watches the baseball game, a seemingly harmless light shines on her but she immediately assumes it is the police: “the border patrol she thought…” (Viramontes 59). Being a migrant worker causes Estrella to be in constant fear of being caught by the authorities. Her paranoia causes her to constantly be alerted, a lifestyle that individuals who are there legally do not have to worry about. As Estrella returns home scared, her mother tells her to not “...let them make [her] feel [she] did a crime for picking the vegetables they 'll be eating for dinner” (Viramontes 63). Estrella’s mother, Petra, realizes that Estrella and the family being in the States does not affect anyone negatively and sees no harm in their presence. They only help others by being migrant workers, harvesting the food for others to eat. The harsh realities of migrant workers are present in the examples above as the reader can recognize that the migrants must be in constant fear of being caught by the very authorities who are benefitting from their …show more content…
The evidence of work that Estrella does remains with her even when she is no longer working in the fields: “the fragrance of tomatoes lingered on her fingers, her hair, her pillow, into the next morning and throughout the day, until it became a thick smell that no longer simply lingered but stuck in her nose like paste” (Viramontes 32). The lingering smell of tomatoes are proof of how much time Estrella spends working in the fields. The smell not only signifies the many hours spent in the fields but also the physical effects that the labor has on Estrella’s body. The effects of the labor further affects Estrella’s body’s physical state: “Estrella carried the full basket with the help of a sore hip...the muscles of her back coiled like barbed wire and clawed against whatever movement she made” (Viramontes 53). The physical state of Estrella’s body is deteriorating due to the amount of work she puts in as a laborer. This is additional evidence that helps to show how physically demanding it is to be a migrant worker. As Viramontes offers details on the physical demands of laborers, she is able to make clear her viewpoint on the harsh lives of migrant
One of the biggest hardships that Estrella and her family encounter relate to the fact that their work depends on factors that they cannot control. As Viramontes explains in the first chapter, “work depended on the harvest, …show more content…
As Estrella watches the baseball game, a seemingly harmless light shines on her but she immediately assumes it is the police: “the border patrol she thought…” (Viramontes 59). Being a migrant worker causes Estrella to be in constant fear of being caught by the authorities. Her paranoia causes her to constantly be alerted, a lifestyle that individuals who are there legally do not have to worry about. As Estrella returns home scared, her mother tells her to not “...let them make [her] feel [she] did a crime for picking the vegetables they 'll be eating for dinner” (Viramontes 63). Estrella’s mother, Petra, realizes that Estrella and the family being in the States does not affect anyone negatively and sees no harm in their presence. They only help others by being migrant workers, harvesting the food for others to eat. The harsh realities of migrant workers are present in the examples above as the reader can recognize that the migrants must be in constant fear of being caught by the very authorities who are benefitting from their …show more content…
The evidence of work that Estrella does remains with her even when she is no longer working in the fields: “the fragrance of tomatoes lingered on her fingers, her hair, her pillow, into the next morning and throughout the day, until it became a thick smell that no longer simply lingered but stuck in her nose like paste” (Viramontes 32). The lingering smell of tomatoes are proof of how much time Estrella spends working in the fields. The smell not only signifies the many hours spent in the fields but also the physical effects that the labor has on Estrella’s body. The effects of the labor further affects Estrella’s body’s physical state: “Estrella carried the full basket with the help of a sore hip...the muscles of her back coiled like barbed wire and clawed against whatever movement she made” (Viramontes 53). The physical state of Estrella’s body is deteriorating due to the amount of work she puts in as a laborer. This is additional evidence that helps to show how physically demanding it is to be a migrant worker. As Viramontes offers details on the physical demands of laborers, she is able to make clear her viewpoint on the harsh lives of migrant