Three questions:

1. Three questions: • Would you want the blog to be more public? (for people to read, though not comment/post on) • 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? • Week 10: poetry or drama?

2. Under the Feet of Jesus, Helena María Viramontes Parts 1 through 3

4. 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.

7. Migrant Farmworker Facts • 3 million migrant and seasonal farm workers in the US • Backbone of 28 billion dollar fruit and vegetable industry, 85% of which is hand harvested • One of the most economically disadvantaged people in the US: 3/5 live below poverty level • Statistically one of most dangerous occupations: • EPA estimates 300,000 workers are poisoned by pesticides each year • Many more die or are injured from heat or accidents

8. Chicana/o Latina/o Hispanic

9. Chicano Civil Rights Movement (El Movimiento)

10. Chicano Civil Rights Movement (El Movimiento)

11. Cesar Chavez (1927-1993) • Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist • Founder and leader of United Farm Workers

12. United Farm Workers (UFW) • Labor union founded in 1960s • Made up largely of Mexican-American immigrants • Used strikes, lawsuits, and boycotts to get rights for agricultural workers in California and other areas of the south/west

13. Alejo Gumecindo Perfecto Flores Mercedes (dead wife) Under the Feet of Jesus – character map The family: Estrella (oldest child) Petra (mother) Ricky Arnulfo Perla and Cookie (twins) Absent father Maxine Devridge & the Devridge family Other workers in the fields Man at gas station Woman at vending machine Nurse

15. 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).

16. Viramontes, close reading: Alejo is poisoned “He thought first of his feetsinking, sinking tohis knee joints, swallowinghis waistand torso, the pressure of tar squeezinghischest and crushinghis ribs. Engulfinghis skin up tohis chin, hismouth, hisnose, 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).

18. For Tuesday • Read Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus, Parts 4-5 (pages 133-180). • Take-home quiz, bring to class on Tuesday. • Comments on blog posts due by class time on Tuesday.