Peltier 1

Sarah Peltier
Professor Ogden
RCS 110
April 23, 2020
Study Guide: Under the Feet of Jesus written by Helena Maria Viramontes
Part One Summary:
Under the feet of Jesus is a novel that depicts narrative about California’s migrant
farmworkers. The story is focused around Estrella, a thirteen-year-old girl, who is traveling with
her family, and constantly moving from job to job in California. Estrella’s father is absent
throughout the book. He has abandoned his family of five kids, and their mother Petra. Taking
the place of a father figure throughout the book is Perfecto Flores. The book starts off as Perfecto
drives Estrella and her family in an old beat up car in need of a new battery to the newest job
opportunity working the grape fields. The family moves into a decaying bungalow near an old
barn, this barn is a large symbol in the beginning and end of the book as well as throughout the
story. The family meets two cousins, Alejo and Gumecindo. While working in the fields Alejo
and Estrella build up a friendship, and become close, and possibly headed for romance. Perfecto
is reminiscing through out the book about his previous family that he left. He is trying to save up
enough money to “go back home”. He finds sides jobs and offers for Estrella to help him tear
down a barn for extra cash. Later in the book Alejo ends up getting sprayed with pesticides while
in the peach fields, his cousin Gumecindo ends up abandoning him and he is left in the care of
the mother Petra, Estrella, and Perfecto Flores. The family cares for Alejo until he gets to a point
that they must take him to a clinic. On the family’s last $9.07 they take him in to a clinic, on the
way the car gets stuck, the basically run out of gas, they are seen by the nurse who basically tells
them he needs to go to a hospital. Then they are asked for 10 dollars by the nurse for seeing
Alejo. Estrella tries to then negotiate so that the family can provide work as payment instead of
their last dollars. The nurse explains that she can not make that decision then takes the family’s
last 9.07 in payment. Desperate, Estrella grabs a crowbar and demands the money back, the
nurse is scared and gives the money back. The family then uses $5.00 of the $9.07 to put gas in
the car to take Alejo to the hospital. Estrella is told by Perfecto to leave Alejo there at the
hospital, and that they will take care of him from there. While in the waiting room Alejo asks
Estrella to stay but she decided to leave him at the hospital and goes back with her family. The
family goes back home. Scared the nurse will call the police, Perfecto considers leaving that very
night with his 4 dollars that he has left. He stands by his car, quietly crying. Petra sees perfecto
crying and decides to pray. Estrella also sees Perfecto crying by his car. Then she is reminded of
how scared Alejo was in the hospital and how he had asked her to stay. It then occurs to her that
she might “never see him alive again” Estrella then goes outside and runs to the barn.

Part Two Outline:

THESIS: Language, knowledge, literacy, can give you a voice in the world more than labor can.
this leads to power, and freedom and ability to free other. A person can only depend on
themselves to obtain this.

I. Labor

A. The consequence of the labor is felt and can be physically seen on the bodies.
1. characters are constantly tired, hungry, or aching.
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2. Culture would manipulate truth by giving a false image of the field

workers. The raisin ads depict a "woman wearing a fluffy bonnet, holding
out the grapes with her smiling, ruby lips" (49).
3. Picking grapes from the fields leaves Estrella's "back coiled like barbed
wire" (53).
B. Women labors
1. Alejo thought of his grandmother working, ironing, babysitting, cleaning,
selling food she made (50)
2. Estrella accompanying her mother at 4 years old on the field, showing the
women had to work and care for their children at the same time. And
shows the burden of pregnancy for workers: The child growing in Petra’s
belly is compared to the sack of cotton she must haul through the fields
(51).
3. Though she harvests grapes all day, Petra must also cook, clean, and care
for the children (60)
C. Under paid
1. Alejo and his cousin would steal peaches to make extra money (12)
2. Cheat to get more food money “The scale reminded her how she’d wet the
cotton or hid hand sized rocks in the middle of her sack so that the scale
tipped in her favor when the cotton was weighed. The scale predicted what
she would be able to eat, the measurement of her work” (136)
3. The family tried to negotiate with the nurse so they could still have what
little money they possessed (145)

II. Knowledge

A. Literacy is a source of great power in Under the Feet of Jesus.

1. Attention is brought to the power of words by comparing them to
tools. “She lifted the pry bar in her hand, felt the coolness of iron
and power of function, weighed the significance it awarded her,
and soon she came to understand how essential it was to know
these things. That was when she began to read.” (24).
2. In the novel literacy is the key to changing a person’s life for the
better.

III. Uncertainty

A. Father issues
1. Petra’s husband’s abandonment shows that ultimately, she is responsible
for the children. Fathers may flee and live independent lives, but the
mothers are always tied to their kids.
2. Estrella’s father has abandoned her, and Perfecto, her father only father
figure, is thinking of leaving the family.
3. Only Petra is entirely devoted to her children; even though by the end of
the book she is pregnant, and her legs are so weak it is a question if she
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will even be able to care for them.(167) Estrella will be the one left to care
for them all if Perfecto leaves.
B. Work
1. Her family's position depends on "the harvest, the car running, their
health, the conditions of the road, how long the money [holds] out, and the
weather" (4).
2. Work picking fruit or vegetables is seasonal and doesn’t last very long. 
C. Immigration/Police
1. Just walking around at night and seeing car lights was enough to have the
thought of border control cross her mind (59)
2. “Don’t run scared. You stay there and look them in the eye. Don’t let them
make you feel you did a crime for picking the vegetables they’ll be eating
for dinner. If they stop you, if they try to pull you into the green vans, you
tell them the birth certificates are under the feet of Jesus, just tell them.”
(63)
3. Fear that the nurse had called the police for Estrella demanding the money
back with a crowbar (161)
IV. Religion and Superstition

A. Biblical figures
1. Like Moses: “then she lifted her arms, her palms up and then spread them
wide as the twins watched as she stepped forward and the glass doors split
open before her obeying her command.” “Estrella parted the doors like a
sea of glass and walked through” (156)
2. “The termite softened shakes crunched beneath her bare feet like the
serpent under the feet of Jesus.” (175)
3. Estrella stood immobile like an angel standing on the verge of faith (176)
B. Faith
1. By then end of the novel, Petra begins to question her faith (169).
2. At the clinic, Estrella determines that "God was mean and did not care and
she was alone to fend for herself" (139).
3. Instead of asking God to help her, Estrella decides to help herself.
C. Superstitions
1. Petra faithfully draws a circle in the dirt around the bungalow to protect
her children from scorpions
2. The book repeatedly refers to bewitchment. “not even a few drops of
menstrual blood in his coffee would keep him from leaving (23).
3. Petra rubs an egg on the sick Alejo’s stomach to try to heal him (98)

Part Three Key Terminology with Definitions:

 Piscadores- Spanish term for fruit and/or vegetable pickers used in the book.
 Chicharras- Spanish word for "cicadas," large insects known for their clicking or
chirping noises. https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/chicharra
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 Chanklaso- Getting hit by flip-flops, thongs, huaraches, or sandals. A combination of the

words chankletas and chingaso. (Spanish) https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?
term=chanklaso
 Comal- a pan of sorts that is used for cooking a variety of items. It is made of cast iron
and is very heavy. https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-a-comal-2342883
 La Migra- a Spanish slang term used to refer to employees of the United States
Government who are responsible for immigration enforcement and border patrols.
https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-la-migra.htm
 Biplane- a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biplane
 La Virgen- Virgin Mary mother of Jesus Christ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Charity
 Nopales- are the shoots or pads found on the prickly pear cactus, which are peeled in
order to remove the spines. https://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-nopales.htm

Part Four Discussion Questions:

Question 1: Give 3 examples of Alejo and how he noticed Estrella. Was it platonic or
romantic? Did she ever respond to him or notice him with romantic interest?

*Answer 1: I believe Alejo had a romantic interest from the first time he saw Estrella, but
Estrella on the other hand took a while to “see” him in that way. 1) On pages 38-40 Alejo sees
Estrella for the first time, but from afar, she is chasing a watermelon she dropped while washing
it in the water. She pulls her skirt up over her body as to not wet it and Alejo “lost his footing”
and his cousin Gumecindo “didn’t know what hit him (Alejo)” Estrella is unaware she is being
watched at this time, but with Alejo seeing her bare body in the moon light I believe this is the
first time he sees her in a romantic way. 2)On page 65-67 while heading to the fields Estrella
nods hello, then is mostly hidden under her straw hats, aside from her mouth and “chest that
jiggled like flan”. Alejo then tries to strike up a conversation and get to know Estella better, this
conversation is met by Estrella’s suspicious mind, and shows the difficulties of trying to kindle a
relationship amid difficulties. After the conversation she and Alejo get to have what is the closest
thing to a date that they will get. This is the point where I believe she has considered him in a
romantic way. She has a flash of her mother speaking to her about “being tucked away like the
other women” and “the unborn children lurking in their bodies” and “children born in sin”
implying she knew where things would be headed with her and Alejo if they spent intimate time
alone. 3)On page 87-90, Alejo lays near Estrella and takes her hand, they have a conversation
and Estrella, becomes aware of Alejo’s body, though she could not see it. Alejo again takes her
hand into his own hand and he kisses palm. This is the first physical affection between the two
and the first time she has become aware of his physical body.

Question 2: Explain the connection between literacy and tools in the novel.

*Answer: On page 24-26 Estrella is frustrated by “the alphabet she could not decipher”, meaning
the English alphabet. She very upset about it for days. In the book, the alphabet is compared to a
toolbox that is owned by Perfecto Flores. Like the letters of the alphabet, the tools in the toolbox
are “funny-shaped objects, confusing and foreign”. She sees that the tools and the meanings of
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the letters are secrets kept from her. Estrella “hates when things are kept from her”. This attitude
triggers her to und up angry teachers who do not seem to “give her the information she wants”.
She then starts comparing the toolbox to the alphabet, the tools inside the toolbox are depicted as
letters with the “A’s having the curlicue of a pry bar” and “the small I’s resembling nails”.
Perfecto teaches Estrella “the names that go with the tools” and the purpose they serve. As
Estrella learns, her understanding of the tools develops. She is then able to stop being frustrated
and know the purposes and can “understand how essential it is to know” about the purposes of
the tools along with their names. “And that is when she began to read.”

Question 3: What did the train represent to the Piscadores?

*Answer: On page 54-55 Alejo imagines his grandmother getting a few copies of Reader’s
Digest for him, and hopes that she’s received the money he sent. When the Piscadores hear the
train coming, they take a minuet to stop working and think about the struggles and delights wait
for them after they are done with work. When a woman next to Alejo unties and readjusts her
bandana, he realizes he has been working next to Estrella the whole time. But she does not notice
him. Alejo, and Estrella are both taking on familial duties that should have fallen on the adults.
Seeing the train moving to destinations, reminded the Piscadores, that they were trapped in a
daily routine without achieving anything from their hard labor.

Question 4: What do the names of Estrella, Petra, Alejo, and Perfecto mean and what
meaning do they have for the characters in the book?

*Answer: Petra means rock, Christ is the rock unmovable. Estrella means star, messenger from
god a symbol to follow gods path. Petra is often paralyzed throughout the book, as for Estrella
she is moving and taking action. The mother may have been looking for the “perfect” solution to
her problem in relying on the perfect man, Perfecto but even he could not be trusted, it was
Estrella who took action to make a real difference and make moves to help her and her family as
well as being that guiding light for other men and women in similar situations to follow her and
take action as well so that her and her people can get what they have worked so hard for and
deserve. As for Alejo, his name means defender. This one was not as obvious as the others, but I
believe it is at the end of the book when Alejo says “Can’t you see, they want us to act like that?”
“Cant you see they want to take your heart?” that he was trying to protect Estrella also in the end
when he is left in the hospital room, he begs her to stay but she knows he is where he should be,
“everything’s gonna turn out allright. Just tell the doctors.” Defend mean resist an attack made
on (someone or something); protect from harm or danger. Maybe his being left at the hospital
and telling the doctors is the sacrifice is tied to Christ’s death and sacrifice, and it will bring
protection, redemption, and change for his people.

Question 5: What symbolism does the barn have?

The barn is much more than a building, the book begins and ends at this barn. It represents a
location where Estrella can achieve her transformation and empowerment. The barn is depicted
as a "cathedral," a place of religious contemplation (9). By the end of the book, Estrella uses the
barn as a platform, realizing her own power and believing that she is strong enough to help her
people. Since Estrella is not religious or superstitious, the barn may represent something like the
church but one that uses self-dependence instead of faith in God. The author also uses the barn to
refer to her “womanhood”. The book is almost like a coming of age for Estrella.
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Question 6: Did Petra trust Perfecto? Do you think Perfecto left the family to go home? No
he is not to be trusted, Petra asked for Perfecto’s car keys he asked her what she wants with them
and she just places them in her pocket without answering him.(72) When Petra first meets
Perfecto in a flashback, he says “trust me” (109) implying he is a trustworthy man, but
throughout the book he is trying to convince Estrella to help him tear down the barn so he can
get enough money to leave and go back home. Petra was right to say she did not trust perfecto
only Jesucristo (164) I think he left, “there would be no tomorrow, he knew” (160). Also, when
they're in the car dropping Alejo at the hospital, they're talking about tearing down the barn and
Petra is unaware that he had been planning to tear it down at all. He says we need the money,
then one of the children says “maybe we could stay in one place” then Petra asks Perfecto what
he thinks about that. His answer is “whatever you say”. It says he lied and hated himself for
doing it (154). Meaning that he was planning on leaving still at the end of the book, Estrella and
perfecto are in agreement that they will still tear down the barn which to me means he will leave.

Part 5: Analysis
I enjoyed this book very much; it was written in such a unique and poetic way. It is so deep, and
a person can reflect on so many levels and on so many different things. It really amazed me how
complex and simple the story was, it really gives off a life of its own and you are able to pick the
the emotions of the characters, it is very memorable. There was love, family, justice, religion,
and humanity throughout. I great read, that also a bit controversial, but that is what makes it so
amazing, because it gets a person thinking. These are the truths of Estrella, Petra, Perfecto, and
Alejo. These fictional characters represent real people, people who need to be heard and
understood, people who deserve to be hear and understood. Though the text is confusing at times
since it jumps from past to future and future to past, it reminded me of a movie when a person is
reflecting or having a memory or flashback. This made it fun exciting and interesting. The book
was over all engaging. The symbolism through out was a great way to help the reader relate
everything together and be able to visualize an internal struggle and visualize the physical pain
of a people. Only through stories and a people voice can anyone on the outside beginning to
understand and act against any injustice. Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus is a
book every student, adult, and teen should read. I will likely read it again.