Race and Marginalization Theme Analysis

Under the Feet of Jesus describes the lives of migrant laborers who harvest the food on which the rest of America relies. By focusing on Estrella’s sense of extreme estrangement from the society in which she lives, the novel emphasizes the social and economic gulf between middle-class Americans and the workers living on the fringes of society. For Latino families like Estrella’s, this marginalization is compounded by racism and the threat of deportation, which prevent them even further from feeling at home in America. Their experience contrasts with that of white migrants, who share the same economic conditions but escape other forms of oppression because of their whiteness. While the novel draws attention to the plight of all agricultural workers, it shows how race interacts with class oppression to make the experience of marginalization even more intense.

The family’s social marginalization is most clear through its few encounters with middle-class American life. In one episode, Petra is crossing a dangerous highway with her children to go grocery shopping. Noticing a beautiful car at a gas station, she envies its owner as a man who “returned to the same bed, who could tell where the schools and where the stores are, and where the Nescafé coffee jars in the stores were located.” For Petra, a permanent home and sense of belonging in a community—things many Americans take for granted—are completely unattainable luxuries. Her sense of distance from the basic elements of middle-class life emphasizes her exclusion from that society.

In another moment, Estrella goes to a baseball field after work and covertly watches a Little League game. What she sees as an exotic spectacle is actually the recreational activity of boys her own age who have leisure time and economic resources. While the boys under the lights see playing sports as a normal part of their lives, she feels it’s a luxury simply to have a moment to sit down at the fringes of their game; her wonder at this experience emphasizes the gulf between her upbringing and theirs.

It’s not just their economic status but also racial discrimination that makes the family feel cut off from mainstream America. On her way home from the Little League game Estrella spots a van from La Migra, or the border police; she dives into the bushes and runs home in fear and anger. Although Petra proudly reminds her that she was born in America and has a birth certificate to prove it, Estrella still fears deportation because of her race. The proximity of these two incidents shows how racial discrimination compounds economic disadvantage.

Estrella often feels uncomfortable in public spaces, both physical and intellectual, because of her race. While listening to the radio during a break from work, she hears people calling in to make jokes about “wetbacks” (a slur for Latin American immigrants); this makes her feel that radio entertainment, something which most Americans use and enjoy, is set up to exclude and humiliate her. Recalling her brief period at school, she describes being consigned to the back of the classroom with the other migrant children. This explicit, special marginalization suggests that she doesn’t belong in school and doesn’t have the same claim to an education as more advantaged, white children.

Estrella’s brief friendship with Maxine Devridge, the daughter of a white migrant family, emphasizes the intersection of class and racial marginalization. In their values and behavior, Maxine’s family is arguably worse-off than Estrella’s; she remembers Maxine’s mother displaying urine stains on her mattress without shame, and Petra warns her daughter to stay away from the family due to its rowdy lifestyle. Unlike Estrella, Maxine has not learned to read, and she relies on her friend to interpret her stolen comics.

However, Maxine feels secure in her status as an American, while Estrella constantly has to demonstrate that she belongs—for example, when the two girls meet, Maxine asks if she “speaks American,” forcing her to prove her nationality. While the Devridges share the abysmal living conditions of the migrant camp, they don’t live under the threat of displacement as Estrella’s family does. Maxine never has to worry about La Migra picking her up, and when she and Estrella have a fistfight, it’s the Latino family who gets kicked out of the camp as a consequence. While the novel doesn’t minimize the struggles of Maxine’s family, it shows that Estrella’s faces even more obstacles by virtue of their race.

Throughout the novel, Estrella’s life is characterized by social marginalization. While some of her experiences apply to anyone in her economic circumstances, some hardships are specific to the Latino community. Ultimately, the novel uses this pattern to show how racism compounds economic disadvantage and makes it extremely difficult for Latino families to climb out of poverty.