1. Would you want the blog to be more public? (for people to read, though not comment/post on)

2. If no to the first question, would you be okay if it was made public at end of term if your specific posts were not made public?

3. Week 10: poetry or drama?

Three questions:

Under the Feet of Jesus,

Helena María Viramontes

Parts 1 through 3

What is Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism?

Environmental racism describes the disproportionate effects of pollution, toxicity, and other environmental harms on racial minorities (and often lower classes) while environmental justice is the name of the social movement that emerged in response to this problem.

3 million migrant and seasonal farm workers in the USBackbone of 28 billion dollar fruit and vegetable industry, 85% of which is hand harvestedOne of the most economically disadvantaged people in the US: 3/5 live below poverty levelStatistically one of most dangerous occupations:

EPA estimates 300,000 workers are poisoned by pesticides each yearMany more die or are injured from heat or accidents

Migrant Farmworker Facts

Chicana/o

Latina/o

Hispanic

Chicano Civil Rights Movement (El Movimiento)

Chicano Civil Rights Movement (El Movimiento)

Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist

Founder and leader of United Farm Workers

Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)

Labor union founded in 1960sMade up largely of Mexican-American immigrantsUsed strikes, lawsuits, and boycotts to get rights for agricultural workers in California and other areas of the south/west

United Farm Workers (UFW)

The family:

Estrella (oldest child)Petra (mother)

Ricky Arnulfo

Perla and Cookie (twins)

Absent father

Maxine Devridge & theDevridge family

Other workers in the fields

Man at gas stationWoman at vending machine

Nurse

Perfecto FloresMercedes (dead wife)

AlejoGumecindo

Under the Feet of Jesus – character map

Viramontes, close reading: Alejo is poisoned “He thought first of his feet sinking, sinking to his knee joints, swallowing his waist and torso, the pressure of tar squeezing his chest and crushing his ribs. Engulfing his skin up to his chin, his mouth, his nose, bubbled air. Black bubbles erasing him. Finally the eyes. Blankness. Thousands of bones, the bleached white marrow of bones. Splintered bone pieced together by wire to make a whole, surfaced bone. No fingerprint or history, bone. No lava stone. No story or family, bone. And when he awoke from the darkness of the tar, he was looking up into the canopy of peach trees, his forehead a swamp of purple blood” (78).

Viramontes, close reading: Alejo is poisoned

“He thought first of his feet sinking, sinking to his knee joints, swallowing his waist and torso, the pressure of tar squeezing his chest and crushing his ribs. Engulfing his skin up to his chin, his mouth, his nose, bubbled air. Black bubbles erasing him. Finally the eyes. Blankness. Thousands of bones, the bleached white marrow of bones. Splintered bone pieced together by wire to make a whole, surfaced bone. No fingerprint or history, bone. No lava stone. No story or family, bone. And when he awoke from the darkness of the tar, he was looking up into the canopy of peach trees, his forehead a swamp of purple blood” (78).

For Tuesday1. Read Viramontes, Under the Feet of

Jesus, Parts 4-5 (pages 133-180).

2. Take-home quiz, bring to class on Tuesday.

3. Comments on blog posts due by class time on Tuesday.