Under The Feet Of Jesus

Petra is a migrant worker, and the mother of Estrella, Ricky, Arnulfo, Perla, and Cookie. Although she is only 35, Petra is prematurely aged by the hard work of harvesting; in particular, she suffers from painful varicose veins that now limit her ability to move. Her life has been emotionally difficult as well, in large part because her husband abandoned her when her children were still very young, exacerbating the family’s poverty and leaving Petra with no one but Estrella to lean on for support. Although she eventually finds a new partner—Perfecto—the relationship has more to do with convenience and companionship than with romantic love, as Petra herself realizes: “Petra felt Perfecto touch her hand with his big parchment fingers and she found his gesture tender. Love, Petra knew, came and went. But it was loyalty that kept them on the tightrope together when it was gone” (118). Nevertheless, Petra realizes that even Perfecto’s loyalty is limited, and therefore relies heavily on her Christian faith to make it from day to day.

Despite her devoutness, Petra sometimes struggles to cope with the demands of her life. Shortly after her husband abandons her, for instance, she breaks down while listening to her children drumming on a tin bucket: “She clapped her hands against her ears and screamed Stop it, Stop it, Stop it! and the boys, terrified of her wailing, hid under the boxspring bellyache down” (18). Petra is also more cautious than her daughter, Estrella, thinking through her decisions carefully and worrying about what the future has in store. In particular, she fears for her children—especially Estrella, whom Petra realizes is on the verge of womanhood, and whom she feels she can no longer adequately protect. On the whole, however, Petra is a kind and generous woman, even if she is sometimes also motivated by more practical considerations; she offers to care for Alejo, for instance, because she knows she would want others to do the same for her children if they were ailing and alone.

Perfecto is a migrant worker who also takes odd jobs as a handyman. He is in his seventies, and thus several decades older than his girlfriend, Petra, but nevertheless acts as a kind of surrogate father to Petra’s children. On the whole, he seems to be a loyal and reliable man; in fact, his very name is a reference to his diligence and reliability as a worker.

However, Perfecto has a secret past that his new family doesn’t know about: forty years ago, he was romantically involved with a woman named Mercedes, and had several children with her, the first of whom was stillborn. Mercedes eventually died of cancer, and the couple’s surviving children left home, but Perfecto thinks increasingly about his old family as he approaches death himself. His memories of Mercedes and of the “sweet-sour baby smell [that] still clung to [his dead child’s] blanket” come to symbolize Perfecto’s more general homesickness, and as the novel progresses, he becomes increasingly torn between his desire to leave Petra and his sense of obligation to her (80). In other words, Perfecto’s name and reputation for reliability ultimately come to seem ironic, not only because he is considering abandoning Petra, but also because he proves unable to act one way or the other; as the novel ends, he still hasn’t made a decision about whether to leave, and it’s unclear whether he ever will. Although Perfecto remains a sympathetic figure, he proves to be less of a leader to the family than Estrella, who acts boldly and compassionately in defense of Alejo.

Alejo is a young migrant worker who works in the same fields as Estrella and her family. He is nearly 16, and has come to California with only his younger cousin Gumecindo; his grandmother, who has raised him since after his mother’s death, remained behind in Texas. He is an intelligent boy and a gifted student, and he views education as his ticket to a better life:

Every time he awoke to the pisca, he thought only of his last day here and his first day in high school. He planned to buy a canvas backpack to carry his books, a pencil sharpener, and Bobcat book-covers; and planned to major in geology after graduating (52).

As this passage suggests, Alejo is also a rather idealistic young man, but his run-in with the crop-duster threatens to undermine his hopes for his future by forcing him to recognize just how disposable and invisible he is to the society he serves. Ultimately, Alejo does not succumb entirely to this sense of helplessness, perhaps because of his developing relationship with Estrella. As the novel ends, however, Alejo is gravely ill, and it isn’t clear whether he will survive.

Gumecindo is Alejo’s 15-year-old cousin. Although he isn’t much younger than Alejo, he is less confident and mature than his cousin; he complains about working in the fields—something Alejo regards as a necessary evil—and is afraid of being out after dark. Perhaps because of this, Alejo is protective of Gumecindo, shouting for him to run even as he himself is caught under the spray of the crop-duster.

Ricky and Arnulfo are Estrella’s brothers and Petra’s sons. They are younger than Estrella and therefore relatively innocent and inexperienced. Ricky, for instance, is 10 years old, dreams of being a pilot some day, and hasn’t quite learned how to work in the fields yet; he leaves his hat at home on a particularly sunny day and ends up dehydrated and overheated.

Perla and Cookie are Estrella’s sisters and Petra’s youngest children. They are twins, and still too young to help out with work or chores. They look up to Estrella, who helps Petra care for them, and view her as an almost otherworldly being by the end of the novel: “The twins slowly fell into snowlike quiet, shielded and warm and amazed that their big sister had the magic and the power in her hands to split glass in two” (156).

Maxine is a white girl who lives with her family in the same labor camp that Estrella lived in just before the novel opens. Maxine is illiterate and, like the rest of her family, has a mean and sometimes racist streak; she initially befriends Estrella, for instance, by aggressively asking whether she “talk[s] ‘merican” (29). Nevertheless, the two girls grow close, bonding over the magazines Estrella reads aloud to Maxine. The friendship falls apart, however, when Maxine asks about Petra’s relationship with Perfecto, and Estrella’s family leaves the camp to avoid vengeance from the Devridges.

The unnamed clinic nurse who examines Alejo embodies many of the worst aspects of American society. Although she speaks kindly to Alejo, she is visibly unhappy to see the family appear in the clinic, and eager to close up and leave after dealing with them. She also doesn’t seem to appreciate the obstacles facing the family, asking why they didn’t bring Alejo in sooner. Finally, she rejects Perfecto’s offer to trade services as payment on the grounds that it’s against clinic policy. In other words, the nurse reflects the broader society that prefers to turn a blind eye to the plight and even existence of migrant workers, despite its own dependence on them.

Estrella’s father is gone long before the main events of the novel occur, but he figures heavily in his daughter’s and (especially) his wife’s memories. To Estrella, he serves in part as a symbol of power and capability; she remembers being “impressed,” for instance, by his ability to peel an orange in one strip (12). Petra, on the other hand, remembers his forcefulness in a different way—namely, as connected to his abandonment of her: “He had the nerve, damn him, the spine to do it. She was almost jealous” (17). Estrella, in her willingness to act quickly and on impulse, takes after her father in certain ways, but is implied to be more considerate of those around her.