Under The Feet Of Jesus
What does the nurse charge for her "services?"
$15.00
What food does Petra decide to buy?
6 cans of Spam, onions, and garlic
What happens to Alejo while Estrella is talking to Perfecto?
A biplane sprays him with pesticides.
What do Alejo and Estrella share in the evening?
A blue bottle of cola
What does Estrella remember about the ranch store?
After Alejo tells her that he is not worth their efforts, she recalls the beautifully arranged bell peppers. She also recalls a woman removing one, causing the entire arrangement to fall. What does this remind her and how are Alejo's words and her memory related?
What lies does Estrella tell the nurse?
Alejo is Petra's nephew. Perfecto is Petra's husband. Alejo has been sick a few months. He's the spelling bee champ of Hidalgo County.
Why is Alejo working in the fields? What is his dream?
Alejo is working in the fields to earn money. He want to go to college to become a geologist.
What gift does Alejo bring to Estrella and Petra and why does he do this?
Alejo sees Estrella swimming in the canal at night. He is struck by her. He brings them peaches.
What happens to the statue? How does it happen?
As Petra struggles to get up from the floor, she leaned on the crate holding the statue, it falls, and the head comes off.
What do the cotton balls and scale remind Petra of?
Cheating on the weight when she picked cotton in order to make a little more money.
Why does Estrella stay outside the fence at the baseball field?
Despite the fact that she is an American citizen, she is an outsider and she doesn't feel she would belong
Why does Estrella want to tear the barn down now? What is she afraid will happen?
Estrella agrees to tear the barn down in exchange for Perfecto taking Alejo to the doctor. She is afraid the job will be given to someone else.
What 2 things does Petra fear at this point?
Estrella growing up, perhaps becoming pregnant Perfecto leaving the family
How does Alejo get into the hospital?
Estrella helps him.
Who is in the peach tree and what are they doing?
Gumicindo and Alejo are in the peach tree stealing peaches.
How old is Gumicindo? How old is Alejo?
Gumicindo is 15. Alejo is almost 16 (but still 15)
What questions does Alejo ask Estrella in the truck that upsets her?
He asks about her father.
What does Alejo do to keep the young boy from entering the barn?
He creates shadow puppets, culminating in the eagle which he chases as it flies away. Again symbolic - the eagle representing America/American dream - migrants chasing it.
What does Perfecto think about when they get back to the bungalow?
He imagines that the nurse will have called the police. He considers leaving. He thinks about Petra's pregnancy. He struggles with decision making.
Describe Perfecto.
He is old, wears bifocals, balding with sparse silver hair.
What does Perfecto offer the nurse?
He offers to fix the toilet, recement the poles in the Folger's cans, and sand and paint the walls.
How did Perfecto pay for the beans?
He snaked a man's toilet. (unclogged it)
What did Perfecto teach Estrella and what effect did this have on her?
He taught her to use the tools in the toolbox. She understood then that things have purposes and she learned to read - situational irony in that it is Perfecto who helps her learn to read rather than the teacher.
What does Perfecto ask Estrella to help him with?
He wants her to help him tear down the barn.
Why does Perfecto want to tear the barn down?
He wants money to go back home (to die)
What internal conflict does Perfecto feel?
He wants to go back home to Mexico, but he does not want to abandon Petra and the children.
How did Perfecto feel when they arrived at the clinic?
He was exhausted.
What does Estrella remember about Mrs. Horn?
Her nose and her cruelty - she asks Estrella why her mother never gives her a bath but refuses to help her understand letters and reading.
How does this section of the novel end? Why might this be significant?
If this novel is comprised of a series of symbolic stories that tell of the life of the migrant laborer, what do you think. Read the last sentence carefully and think about it.
Why is Perfecto Flores moved by Estrella's gratitude?
In all the time he has been in the US, no one has ever thanked him.
The episode from pages 103-115 is called what?
It is a flashback.
Why is the car battery a problem?
It is almost dead, and he needs the car to get to Mexico.
What is most appealing about Maxine for Estrella?
Maxine has magazines/comics that her brother stole. She has Estrella read them to her.
What allusion is made as Estrella comes out of the hospital?
Moses parting the Red Sea.
Where does Petra keep the birth certificates?
On the doily crocheted by her grandmother under the feet of the statue of Jesu Cristo
How did they get the car out of the mud?
Other piscadores passing by stopped to help.
As Part 3 opens, what does Perfecto think Alejo should do?
Perfecto thinks Alejo should go back home.
Why does Mercedes believe the baby died?
Perfecto's Catholicism prevented the women of the village from helping her with their non-Catholic practices.
Who was Mercedes?
Perfecto's wife when he was young.
What does Petra envy and why?
Petra envies the man with the lime green car. He could travel easily, he knew his neighbors well because he didn't have to constantly move, and everything for him was stable and predictable, with pay each week.
What does she believe by the end of the novel?
She believes that she can evoke change - a vast change from the hopeless girl in the vineyards.
How does Petra feel about the nurse and the clinic?
She doesn't trust either.
What does Petra do once the family arrives back home at the bungalow?
She gets the children into the house and then retraces the circle in the dirt around the bungalow.
Where does Estrella go after they return to the bungalow?
She goes to the barn.
What does Estrella do to take the twins minds off their hunger?
She grabs the empty Quaker Oats box and bangs on it while dancing around the room. This is a flashback. This is also highly symbolic of Estrella's relationship with America.
Why is Petra upset?
She is afraid for Estrella, she is worn out, and she is pregnant.
Why does Estrella repeatedly have to try not to cry?
She is in intense pain and she believes that her life will be the same whether she is 4 or 14 or 40. She is hopeless.
What change is evident in Estrella when she enters the barn at the end of Part 2?
She is no longer afraid of the barn.
What does Petra make for lunches?
She makes potato burritos.
Whom does Petra first meet there?
She meets Perfecto.
Describe the conversation Petra overhears.
She overhears the conversation between Alejo and Estrella as everyone is waking up. Estrella asks about his dreams, and Alejo tells Estrella he'd like to spend a whole day with her, talking. Then he asks if he can hold her. They also talk about school
What does Estrella first think about when she returns to the bungalow?
She recalls leaving Alejo at the hospital and considers that she may never see him again and that he might even die.
What action does Estrella take and what is the result? Why does she do this?
She takes the crowbar from the tool chest, brings it in, and smashes it on the desk. She then removes exactly the amount of money that Perfecto had given the nurse.
What does Petra first consider upon arriving at the migrant camp?
She thinks about cooking and preparing to live there. She also wants to protect her family from scorpions by etching a circle in the dirt around the bungalow.
As Petra looks the statue of Jesucristo, what does she think about? What exactly is under the statue?
She thinks about her grandmother who crocheted. The children's birth certificates, baptismal certificates, a social security card, an ID, her marriage certificate, and an award given to Estrella.
Why does Petra want to take care of Alejo?
She wants to care for Alejo because she is a mother and she would want someone to care for her children were she unable to do so. And for the love of God.
What does the nurse do to/for Alejo?
She weighs him and takes his blood pressure.
What does Estrella fear would happen after her fight with Maxine?
She will get into trouble because they will have to leave the camp. Maxine's family will come after them.
Describe Maxine Devridge.
Skinny, tall, blond hair, quite crude. She is illiterate. She and her family are trashy.
What do the twins think when Estrella comes out of the hospital?
That she has the power to open doors without touching them.
How does Estrella know that the clinic is still open when they arrive?
The fan was on, the door was unlocked, and there was a car parked outside.
Why does he think of the tar pits?
The remains of those who died there go unremembered.
What does Estrella remember most about her father?
The way he peeled an orange.
What comparison does Estrella draw between herself and the woman on the raisin box?
The woman on the SunMaid Raisin box does not in any way resemble Estrella - she is fresh, clean, smiling. She has a bonnet that cannot protect her from the sun, and she doesn't experience the pain of working in the fields. Her picture is deceptive to consumers.
What was floating in the canal and what is the most likely explanation?
There is a dead dog - most likely killed by pesticides.
Describe the posters in the store. How are they positioned?
There were 3: A lopsided poster of the Virgin Mary decorated with Christmas lights was positioned between posters of Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.
Why doesn't Petra allow the children to go into the store?
There were too many things to touch, and there was candy she could not afford to buy them.
What were the twins playing with at the start of this section?
They are playing with ladybugs.
What difficulty does the family have in the first few pages of that section?
They are trying to cross the highway to get to the store, but the children are small, and the cars are fast.
What happens when they try to get to the medical clinic?
They get stuck in the mud.
What do Alejo and Estrella discuss while taking shelter under the truck?
They talked about the tar pits.
Why does Estrella make a circle with a stick around the bungalow?
To keep the scorpions out - like her mother
What are some of Alejo's symptoms?
What are some of Alejo's symptoms?
What does this person give the children?
ice
