Under the Feet of Jesus: Chapter Three Summary & Analysis

As the days pass and Alejo’s condition worsens, one of the other piscadores diagnoses him with “daño of the fields,” a very serious illness. Gumecindo consults with Perfecto and Petra; it’s time for them to take the bus back to Texas, but Alejo can’t even move. Gumecindo is worried about Alejo. He says he always knew something would go wrong, but he also clearly wants to go home himself. His anxiety to leave resonates with Perfecto.

In between scolding Cookie and Perla for trying to eat ladybugs, Petra suggests taking care of Alejo at the bungalow. Perfecto is reluctant to take on the responsibility, especially since Petra’s legs have swollen so much that she can barely stand up, but she says that if one of her children got sick, she would want someone to help him. It might even be a test from God. Perfecto says he won’t “allow” it, but Petra just sits down and crosses her arms.

In the end, Gumecindo and Perfecto carry Alejo to the bungalow and lay him in a makeshift bed. Previously, Alejo had been left alone for hours at a time while his cousin and friends worked; he’s glad to know that at least he won’t die alone now. Petra feeds him rice water and performs folk rituals to heal him. Once he wakes up to find her washing him and realizes that he’s soiled himself; he hopes that Estrella doesn’t know about this.

For Alejo, the sensation of sleeping in a room full of children is new. When everyone is asleep, he notices Estrella’s bare back and moves closer to cuddle against her skin. She’s used to sleeping among many bodies and pushes closer against him. She smells like sweat and “Eagles’ condensed milk,” and her face seems relaxed as it never does when she’s awake.

Perfecto wonders if Petra knows what’s on his mind. He worries that his preoccupied attitude and search for extra jobs might be giving her hints. He’s continued to dream that his first wife is calling to him; his dead child appears to him as well. He even dreams that Petra is pregnant. He wants the spirits to go away and let him take comfort in his new partner, but they won’t. Alejo’s appearance and probable death is the “final sign” urging him to go.

In the cabin, Alejo wakes up to Cookie tickling his face. When he turns his head the other way, Perla is curiously touching the stubble on his face. He tells them go to away and they run out of the house, laughing.

Perfecto carefully checks over his car. It desperately needs a new battery, and Perfecto hopes that by tearing down the barn he can buy one and leave the leftover money to the family. As he supervises Ricky and Arnulfo gathering firewood, he wonders where his own children are and how they managed to drift away from him. The twins run outside to tell him that Alejo woke up, but for some reason Perfecto recoils from the feeling of their clammy hands in his.

In a flashback, Petra remembers a long, hot walk with her children to the grocery store. While they wait for a chance to cross the highway, they see a beautiful green car pull into the gas station on the other side. Petra and Estrella lift up the twins and run across the road; the mother warns the children that soon they’ll have to learn to cross on their own.

Walking past the car, Petra eyes its pristine seats. She’s jealous that its owner can travel so quickly from one place to another. He must be “a man who knew his neighbors well” and “who could tell where the schools and where the stores were” in his town “and where the Nescafe jars in the stores were located.” The boys haven’t crossed the road yet, and Petra shouts to them when it’s safe, earning a stare from the car’s owner.

In front of the store, a woman in high heels is wrangling the vending machine. She stares at Estrella, who silently points at a coin she’s dropped. The twins coo at the growling watchdog, although Petra warns them to stay away from it. She tells them to stay on the porch; when they see the candy inside, they always start misbehaving, causing Petra to spank them and then regret her anger. The store owner is sitting over a ledger “as thick as the Bible.”

In the back room, someone swears in Spanish and Petra tuts at his language. The unseen man is trying to fix some pipes. Petra scans the aisles, constantly doing math in her head to determine what she can and can’t buy. The produce selection is meager and old, nothing like the firm fruit she harvests in the fields. Watching over her as she shops are posters of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Marilyn Monroe.

As Petra roots around for a good bulb of garlic, she sees another hand in the bin and notices a tall and wiry man (Perfecto) across from her. He looks old – but then, everyone who works in the fields is prematurely aged. The man chooses a particularly good bulb and gives it to Petra, who remarks on its pungency to an unimpressed Estrella. She shakes the man’s hand before he picks up his tool chest and walks to the storeowner, who says that since he fixed the pipes, his bill is paid.

Petra continues to smell the garlic, which she will use to cure stomachaches, ease the pain in her veins, and spice her chili. After she pays for the groceries and leaves the store, the twins tell her that a “nice man” (Perfecto) gave them some ice to eat. Petra feels that the strange man is someone she can trust. Perla throws a piece of her ice to the watchdog and says she loves him.

In the morning in the present, Petra wakes up next to Perfecto and looks at the sheet that separates them from the children. She hears Alejo and Estrella murmuring to each other; her daughter tells the boy not to worry about his illness, since Petra has been throwing up a lot too. Estrella says that she’s worried about Ricky and Arnulfo, who don’t yet know how to work well in the sun. She asks him about his dreams, and they argue about whether or not she can remember hers. Alejo moves to hold Estrella, just as Petra is clinging to Perfecto. Petra wonders if she is healing the boy so he can “take” her daughter.

Alejo asks Estrella what grade she’s in, and if she plans to work in the fields forever. Petra is annoyed at the question – after all, if Estrella didn’t work, Alejo wouldn’t eat. Estrella says that there’s nothing wrong with “picking the vegetables people’ll be eating for dinner,” but even she admits she doesn’t want to do it. Petra’s hand wanders over Perfecto’s body and he grabs it for a second – but just to push it away.

Petra sits up and gets dressed, struggling to fasten her skirt around her belly. Every day seems like “a tight squeeze of a belt upon a belly.” Watched by a crow, she crouches by the cooking pit and performs a ritual she knows by heart: combining flower, lard, and water to make tortillas. She doesn’t even have to be fully awake to do this. She fills the insides with potatoes and makes a stack for a lunch that will both fill the children up and “make them hungry for more.”

As Estrella comes out of the bungalow, Petra notices how tall she is. Soon she’ll begin menstruating; the thought reminds Petra of her own missed periods. She remembers how scared she was the first time it happened to her and feels sad that nothing she can do will stop Estrella from growing up or keep her “heart from falling into the ground.”

Estrella wishes that it would rain so they could stay home from the fields. She feels that there will never be an escape from this work. Perfecto walks silently past her; Estrella knows that he will stay taciturn until she agrees to help him with the barn. Reproachfully, Petra says that she and Alejo are “like birds that make too much noise.” She tells Estrella that she’s starting something serious, but Perfecto isn’t listening and asks her about the barn again.

Later that day, Petra takes Alejo onto the porch for some air. Some days he’s better than others, but she hasn’t healed him as she thought she could; he only shows any energy when Estrella returns from work. Cookie and Perla play near the porch while Petra cleans nopales (cactus) to eat later. She doesn’t know how long the family can continue to support the young boy, but she also knows she has to take care of him because of the way she would want people to care for her children.

Petra is also troubled by the continued swelling of her legs and Perfecto’s strange attitude. Suddenly she feels sick and walks to the side of the house, where she throws up against a wall. She covers the vomit with dirt. She feels that she’s failed a test. That night, she sleeps next to Estrella, thinking of the “lima bean in her” and wondering if it will be born without a mouth.

The next day, Estrella asks Perfecto how he wants to manage the barn. He predicts that if they both work on it, it will take three weeks of work. Meanwhile, he’s slicing the calluses off his feet and heating up water to burst a boil. Estrella says that Alejo needs a doctor, hoping that Perfecto will pay for the visit if she helps with the barn. Perfecto is taken aback because he expected her to ask him to take Petra to the doctor. Estrella is uneasy that he thinks her mother is “that sick,” and resentful that he’s making her choose between them.

Estrella remarks that they should do the job soon, before someone else does. Perfecto places a heated and sterilized glass bottle over the boil and curses as it bursts. Estrella presses the tender spot.

The next day, the family prepares to visit the clinic, but the car’s back wheel immediately gets stuck in the mud. Perfecto curses and Petra reprimands him. Everyone gets out of the car except for Alejo, who is wrapped in blankets in the back. They all try to push the bumper out of the mud, but there’s no success. Knowing what to do, the children gather rocks and twigs, while Perfecto shifts Alejo in order to retrieve his crowbar from the back of the car. He’s disturbed by the way Alejo’s toes have been shaped by his badly-fitting shoes.

As Perfecto starts to dig a hole around the tire, he becomes sweaty and his glasses slip. Estrella gently moves him out of the way and starts shoveling herself. Soon she’s up to her calves in mud and feels as if she’s sinking constantly. When she’s dug a big enough hole, she begins lining it with rocks. She thinks of the prehistoric girl Alejo once spoke about, who fell into the La Brea tar pits. Only her bones remained to be found; every detail of her life and thoughts disappeared.

As she’s seen Perfecto do before, Estrella lines the hole with rocks and then covers them with broken twigs in order to create traction for the tire. The task takes an hour, and by the end her hands and clothes are covered in mud. When she signals to Perfecto, he starts the motor and everyone tenses in anticipation—but the tire only spins and sinks deeper into the mud. The car is still stuck, and Estrella’s hard work has come to nothing.