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.
Having to translate the Spanish in the Viramontes piece is the same as translating the experiences of the characters in a sense in that as a reader never go through what it is like to be a immigrant worker yourself, these struggles and experiences are never fully realized. This same argument could be said of any piece of literature, but the way the Spanish keeps the English speaker at a distance really seems to emphasis the separation between the reader and the characters in the novel. Overcoming this separation for myself becomes daunting as there does not seem to be any real way of fully understanding knowing two separate languages on a intimate level that can provide insight into what it must be like to live in two connected but different worlds simultaneously.
You make a keen observation that switching between two languages alienates the reader yet simultaneously acts to increase the reader’s empathetic engagement with the text. In the same way that we must work to translate the language we must also, as you aptly state, work to translate the experiences of the characters. And yet, the process of translation is never perfect and something always eludes us, or in other words, something about the “other” always remains beyond our grasp, beyond our ability to know and to fully empathize. Empathy is thus never a complete process and it is always a little risky too. These are some fascinating points and are worth pursuing more in depth. For instance, could we think of landscapes, places, or environments in this context? How do understand a place or the depiction of a place that is so foreign to us? Or in other words, how do we translate a place that is unfamiliar into one that is familiar? Along these lines, is the pastoral a form of translation? Great post!
I really enjoy the fact you brought in the use of Spanish in the text because I too felt the alienation from the text (even if I am Hispanic I do not know the language). In fact, the alienation for me was even greater because I felt disconnected from my ancestry and what they went through. I think Viramontes definitely used it to make the people reading it know that they will never truly understand how the characters felt. That no matter what, just as the workers see commercials being lifetimes away from their true work, we will never be in such a field working; we will instead be sitting and watching the sun maid commercials and thinking everything is fine.
I really liked your post. I thought that you made some very keen observations regarding Viarmontes use of Spanish throughout the text. I hadn’t considered that it could be pointing out the translation of characters and plot that each of us does unconsciously. When you wrote,”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.”
Which made me think that most of the dialogue that was portrayed by the book would most likely in Spanish, only a few of the scenes would be in English (like the one at the clinic), because, as we find out later in the book Petra doesn’t speak English.
I believe you are spot on about the implied feelings of separation. I can’t honestly say I can even imagine going through the events of this story as these characters did. It is a setting an situation far from any I have ever experienced and I agree the language is a constant reminder to keep that in mind.