Under the feet of Jesus

“Under the feet of Jesus” and “The tattooed Soldier”

Thesis statement:

The two novels “Under the feet of Jesus” and “The tattooed soldier” illustrate the difficulties that migrant workers from South American countries face in their bid to realize the American dream that attracted them to migrate into the United States from their home countries. This is seen in the different elements of the human condition their stories bring out including their lives as low income earners and the resultant poverty’s impact on straining their existence.

The treatment of immigrant labor as portrayed in these two novels

Compared to citizens who have the luxury of seeking employment in the different parts of the economy, immigrant workers are often denied this luxury as a result of their desperation and lack of skills that will allow them to maneuver through the job market in a meaningful manner. As a result these immigrants tend to be concentrated in jobs that entail manual labor. In the novel titled “At the feet of Jesus” it can be seen that the different characters that form part of the immigrant community get their income from the different menial tasks they have been employed to carry out on a daily basis (Viramontes, 5). The challenge associated with these jobs is the fact that they expose the workers to many health risks whose threats are seldom mitigated by the employers. Alejo and Gumecindo for instance harvest peaches for a living. This fruit played a central role in their lives as seen in the narrator’s statement “who would catch the peach, [and] who was hungry enough to run the field in all that light. (Viranmontez)”

The fact that Alejo got pesticide poisoning is a strong indicator of the absence of any protective gear for these workers. At the same time he could hardly afford his own treatment and this is an indication of the meager earnings that were paid to immigrant workers. In the “tattooed soldier” Longoria’s workplace is seen to be a less than legal establishment that frequently cons its customers out of money they are trying to send. This is in stark contrast to the power he wielded during his days as a soldier in Guatemala as seen in the following quote, “It was exhilarating to find yourself still walking and breathing when you left a village that would soon disappear into the smoky sky (Tobar, 135).

Wage work

Wage work for immigrant laborers as presented in these two novels is basically an unsustainable system that seems to only favor the employers while leaving the immigrants with the short end of the stick. While business continues and prospers for those who own the factories and shops that employ these immigrants, the workers are only left with scarcely enough money to cater for their most basic of needs and at times even these are threatened. When Alejo becomes seriously ill, the old man, Perfecto, comments that he is too ill for prayers or traditional herbs to heal him. This statement by the old man is suggestive of the fact that when wage workers fall ill, the first resort is traditional herbal medication and prayer while seeking medical care was more of a last resort because the costs are prohibitive for many of them. The wage work system seems to discriminate against the immigrants due to their limited rights thus greatly reducing the bargaining power they might otherwise have (Tobar, 13).

Working class life as seen through these novels

Working class life refers to the quality of life that is being experienced by the immigrants who are depicted in these stories. In “the tattooed soldier” it is evident that life is miserable for majority of the people who immigrated to the United States with the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families. The fact that the protagonist in this story is evicted from the room he had rented with his fellow immigrant serves to emphasize the inadequacy of the finances these people have. Basically having a job does not automatically give them a ticket out of poverty. He then goes out to live with fellow immigrants who are homeless and the sheer size of this number highlights the widespread nature of poverty in the immigrant population.

In the story “At the feet of Jesus” it is again seen that having a source of income is scarcely the same as having a comfortable life. Perfecto the repairman is very good at his craft, so much that clients are often quoted marveling at his work. Gumecindo and Alejo work in the plantation but don’t have the luxury of tasting the peaches they pick. This is a very powerful allusion of the lack of correlation between the jobs they do and the impact it has on their lives. As mentioned above Alejo becomes acutely ill from his work but cannot afford medical services. The family uses the car for moving around the plantation and collecting harvests yet has a very hard time affording their car’s fuel. When Alejo is taken ill, the best they can do is drive him to a local clinic and while there they make a futile attempt at bartering perfecto’s skills for the young man to be treated. One positive thing that emerges in this element of the story is the fact that the poverty experienced by immigrant workers serves to help bring them closer together whether as a family or as a unit in society.

The American Dream

The American dream basically propagates the idea that anybody can make something out of themselves when they are in the United States of America (Cullen, 3). In the novels being discussed here both authors employ the use of juxtaposition between the lives of the characters prior to their immigration and their lives while they are in the United States. This is done to adequately bring out the different ways that their dreams, hopes and aspirations were shattered. In “Under the feet of Jesus” these migrants moved to California as a family possibly because of the better opportunities that they expected to find in the United States. The different aspects of their lives such as the fact that they can’t afford fuel, healthcare and work as a family suggest a life of desperation in many ways contradictory to what the migrants had expected when they first came to the United States. What they found on the contrary seems to be more of a nightmarish existence for all of them. The quote “a stunned deer waiting for the bullet” captures the mood of what immigrants experience on a day to day basis (Viramontes).

“The tattooed soldier” also juxtaposes the expectations of the immigrants with the reality at hand by showing the challenges they face as they work towards attaining this dream. At the beginning of the book Antonio and his companion Jose are evicted from their room. This leads him to a life of homelessness but despite this he still resolves to work and regain respect in society and this indicates the drive he had towards the attainment of the American dream. The life of the ex-soldier Longoria is another testament to the immigrants’ inability to achieve the American Dream as seen in the jokes that go around about his losing each and every chess game he plays (Tobar, 78).

Works cited

Viramontes, Helena María. Under the feet of Jesus. Penguin. com, 1995.

Tobar, Héctor. The tattooed soldier. Delphinium Books, 1998.

Cullen, Jim. The American dream: A short history of an idea that shaped a nation. Oxford University Press, 2003.