Under the Feet of Jesus and Mexican American Treament

A recent story I was able to read about was Helena Maria Viramontes Under the Feet of Jesus, a story about a young Mexican girl who is trying to live a life in the United states, but is presented with multiple challenges that others families, mainly white families, do not have to face. The girl, Estrella, must work on a grape farm with other migrant workers and does not have the luxury of being raised like most other kids of her age. She is even held back from being taught to read unlike how her peers are able to, and must struggle with the process of learning it.

It's actions like these Viramontes talks about that show the struggle that Mexican Americans were facing in the late 1960's leading up to civil rights movements, similar to the African American movement. Estrella, like a lot of Mexican American children in her time, had different conditions for education than her whites counterparts, as they were segregated into poorer schools and inadequate teaching conditions.

Even the teachers pay little regard to her, so much so that they were "never giving her the information she wanted." (24) Instead she is taught more to work in the grape fields and other laborious jobs than being taught to read and write. In fact, one could argue that when she begins to learn how to read, her work on the farm effects how she see's the letters in a word, as she pictures them as tools and work objects, and the "curves and tails of the tools made no sense and the shapes were as foreign and meaningless to her.." (25) In a sense, Viramontes uses imagery to explain the conditions that Mexican American kids may faced, mainly a lack teaching Mexican Americans the same way as whites.

In addition, she goes to describe the laboring conditions on the farm, being very intense and tiring to Estrella and the other workers, even showing bi-planes crop-dusting when the farm-hands where working. And the jobs made them so tired and thirsty that "their throats were dry and sore and swallowing meant a painful raking." (32) It is these conditions that Viramontes hints at being the case for many, many Mexican American individuals. Even though civil rights leaders such as Cesar Chavez would begin to lead the movement in pushing for equal rights for Mexican Americans, Viramontes gives us a glimpse into what it was like for Mexican Americans and their unfair treatment from others.