Pesticides, Poverty, and Poisoning

In part two of Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus Alejo gets directly sprayed with pesticides while in the height of a tree, picking it’s ripe fruits. After this contact with the pesticide or insecticide, Alejo explains how he feels as though he cannot breath right after the spray of the poison gets on him. Extreme pain envelops over Alejo’s body as the poison gets onto his pores. For the next few weeks Alejo gets no better, although some days are better than others.

After reading about Alejo’s conditions not getting any better in part three, I wanted to do a little research on pesticides, and what kind of effects they have on the human body, when in contact with one another. I found out that there is three categorizes to pesticide poisoning. Mild, moderate, and severe. Alejo had all the symptoms of the severe pesticide poisoning, with symptoms including any:

  • inability to breathe
  • chemical burns on skin
  • respiratory distress
  • loss of reflexes
  • uncontrollable muscle twitching
  • unconsciousness
  • convulsions

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Struggle and Unionization Among Migrant Farmworkers

In Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, the difficult life of the main characters takes place against the greater backdrop of the struggle among migrant farmworkers for legal protections, safe working conditions, and fair pay. As I read the book, I was reminded of details from a history class I took last spring that explored the awakening of political awareness among different ethnic groups during the civil rights era.

Although people of Hispanic descent have been present in the American Southwest since before California became a state, the arrival of large numbers of Mexican immigrants began in the early years of the Second World War, when the Bracero program was hatched. Conceived as a guest worker program during a period of growing agricultural demand, the idea was to bring in farm laborers during the harvest season who would then return to their native land in the off season. While it was in effect, the Bracero program was interrupted at regular intervals by deportation actions such as “Operation Wetback” in 1954. Nonetheless, by the time this legal framework ended in 1964, over 4.5 million guestworkers had entered the country at one point or another.

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Environmental Justice

The novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, by Helena Maria Viramontes deals with the idea of environmental injustice and how people of low-socioeconomic status and/or of color are unfairly forced to deal, first-hand, with environmentally unsound and damaging situations, such as pesticide exposure and toxic water. In response to this phenomenon a movement called environmental justice, supported by writers such as Helena Viramontes and Rachel Carson, has taken root.

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The true sun maid

In class on Tuesday, we observed and analyzed a commercial for sun-maid raisins. In said commercial we pointed out a few facts about the way it was made–how the landscape seemed beautiful and lush, and how the woman looked as though she’d never worked a moment in her life. This goes the same for many other ads out there–noticeably in my mind orange and grape themed products. However, one then realizes that oranges and grapes are mostly grown in California–a place that is the opposite of lush and thriving. Not only that, but again, the woman is very ideal–the perfect weight, a beautiful face, and flawless skin. These are all the exact opposite of how the field really work.  Continue reading

The Use of Spanish in Viramontes

This week I will write about the use of Spanish in Under The Feet of Jesus. Viramontes use of Spanish in Under the Feet of Jesus has a jarring effect at first if you do not know Spanish (or even if you know some Spanish but cannot speak it that well like myself). Even though I am an English major I have plenty of trouble with the English language so  any additional languages lead to doubts about being able to relate to the text, but it will be argued here that this may be a desired effect.   It seems that the result of combining two languages seems to alienate the reader who does not know Spanish, unless they spend time researching what these passages say. Yet the use of English as the main text does give insight into these experiences, so for the English speaker, Spanish seems to be used as a method  of saying while you can relate to these people in the text, they are also part of a different world that you can only relate through by a translation. From what I have learned about Spanish a translation may suffice, but it is not the same as knowing the language as something always seems lost.

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Coast Conscious

The state of Oregon is many things to various people all over. Though, to a group of individuals who reside on the coast and dedicate their lives to change, it is known as a pioneer in the growing industry of sustainable fishing: an industry created to save fish and human interest alike in an effort to clean up a historically old and often waste laden profession.

There are so many fish in the sea it is hard to imagine the ocean bare. However, at the current rate at which humans fish, this could soon be a reality. Already scores of species of fish are endangered and over-fished to exhaustion as the demand for fish worldwide is overwhelming. Currently, seafood is expensive and those prices will only go up as certain species continue to fall off the radar. Due to this issue becoming rapidly more severe it has only recently evolved into one of visible importance and, in September, I was lucky enough to meet with one of the groups taking action in Port Orford, Oregon.

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Environmental Racism

After learning about ‘Environmental Racism’ in class on Tuesday, I was surprised that I had never before heard the term. According to The Environmental Justice Movement, “people who live, work and play in America’s most polluted environments are commonly people of color and the poor” (1). In Helena Maria Viramontes’ novel ‘Under the Feet of Jesus,’ environmental racism is clearly depicted.

    “A large percent of U.S Latinos live and work in urban and agricultural areas where they face heightened danger of exposure to air pollution, unsafe drinking water, pesticides and lead and mercury contamination” (2). This quote is important in describing the situations that Estrella’s family and friends face throughout the novel. Each character is in someway affected by the pollution of the pesticides, which are sprayed from a biplane onto the crops. The character most affected however is Alejo, who is directly sprayed with chemicals; ” At first it was just a slight moisture until the poison rolled down his face in deep sticky streaks” (Viramontes, 77). Alejo must be sprayed in order for Viramontes to portray to us how dangerous the use of pesticides really is.

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Environmental Racism

During class Tuesday, we learned a new literary term, environmental racism, that plays in important role in the books that we have been reading this term. I especially noticed this in “Under the Feet of Jesus”. Environmental racism can be defined as the disproportionate effects of pollution, toxicity, and other environmental harms we see on racial minorities. There are many examples of this form of racism that we see in this novel, involving the main characters. The first example I thought of was the one we went over in class. This example was when Alejo and Gumecindo were stealing peaches in the orchard and the airplane went over the trees spraying pesticides. Continue reading

Literature and Environmental Justice

I have found our recent class discussions about pesticides to be very intriguing and applicable to present environmental issues.  First, I was intrigued by the scientific, yet understandable writings of Rachael Carson in Silent Spring. I am also enjoying the fiction novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, by Viramontes.  I feel as thought the two complement each other well.  Silent Spring presents the factual results and consequences of careless pesticide use, while Under the Feet of Jesus portrays the emotional and more easily relatable aspects of such pesticide use.

I found the use of the familiar to evoke feelings of concern in both texts fascinating.  In the first chapter of Silent Spring, entitled “A Fable for Tomorrow”, Carson utilizes the familiar idea of fruitful life in spring and turns it into an apocalyptic vision of a miserable world.  She accomplishes this through vivid imagery such as seen in the use of, “browned and withered vegetation” (3) as well as, “The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly.” (2).  She also employs a lack of auditory imagery, for example she states, “no bees droned” (2) and  “It was a spring without voices.” (2).  Both of these effects evoke feelings of sadness and revulsion when spring should be considered a time of happiness and renewal.  These results are then related to the actions of the people themselves (i.e. using pesticides carelessly).   She explains that all these incidences actually happened in real places and could potentially increase in commonality. This is supposed to have a shocking effect intended to awaken the reader to the seriousness of the problem.

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A Few Fracking Facts

Fracking

Questions about fracking have been in the back of my mind since I noticed several articles on the internet warning of its dangers. After watching the short film “ The Fracking of Rachel Carson” my interest reached new heights and was prompted by new questions. What does the process actually entail of? Are there different types of fracking? What materials are used?  What are the dangers? Who is benefiting from fracking?

Fracking comes in two forms: hydraulic fracturing and horizontal hydraulic fracturing.  Hydraulic fracturing is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural well drilling. The average well is 8,000-10,000 feet deep. After a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand, and undisclosed chemicals are injected under high pressure. One to eight million gallons of water are needed for each frack. The pressure breaks or fractures shale, and creates openings in the rock allowing natural gas to flow more freely out of the well. When deep drilling stops yielding results, horizontal fracking is employed. In this method, close to 700 chemicals and millions of gallons of water are used to break up the shale.  For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used for and for each well 40,000 gallons of chemicals are needed. All of  the water used in fracking is contaminated by the procedure and must be cleaned and disposed of. Each well requires 400 tanker trucks to transport the water in and out of the site.

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