Casebook: Viramontes Under the Feet of Jesus

Images Referenced in Under the Feet of Jesus

In her novel, Under the Feet of Jesus, Viramontes uses specific text concern visual imagery that often assume symbolic or associative meanings related to her themes. Here are some of those images and the associated texts.

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Quaker Oats Box

“Nothing in the cabinet except the thick smell of Raid and dead roaches and sprinkled salt on withered sunflower contact paper and the box of Quaker Oats oatmeal. Estrella grabbed the chubby pin cheeks Quaker man, the red and white and blue cylinder package and shook it violently and its music was empty. The twins started to cry, and for a moment Estrella’s eyes narrowed until Petra saw her headlock on the Quaker man’s paperboard head like a hollow drum and the twins sniffed their runny noses. One foot up, one foot down, her dress twirling like water loose in a drain, Estrella drummed the top of his low crown hat, slapped the round puffy man’s double chins, beat his wavy long hair the silky color of creamy hot oats and the boys slid out from under the boxspring. Estrella danced like a loca around the room around the bulging bags around Petra and in and out of the kitchenette and up and down the boxspring, her loud hammering tomtom beats the only noise in the room” (18).

Argo Corn Starch Box

Argo Corn Starch Box

“Read it out, Maxine said, turning to the fields beyond the water pipe and rows of labor shacks and beyond that to the tarps that fluttered like bats. She stood as straight as the ARGO woman on a box of corn starch. Then she looked down at her bare feet. She wriggled her yellow toes on the planks” (31).

Millie the Model Comic Cover

“Estrella and Maxine lay side by side in the cattail reeds near the ditch to read Maxine’s favorite copy of Millie the Model. . .They were about to find the red-haired Sheila trying to seduce Clicker when the air became thick with the smell of rotting flesh” (33).

Sun Maid Raisin Box

“Carrying the full basket to the paper was not like the picture on the red raisin boxes Estrella saw in the markets, . . ., it toasted the green grapes to black raisins” (49).

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