VEINS OF OPPRESSION IN UNDER THE FEET OF JESUS

“Veins of Oppression” takes an interdisciplinary approach towards unearthing the layers of subjugation piled on Chicano/a/x migrant farm workers in the fields of California, visible in Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus. While critics such as Christa Grewe-Volpp, Anne Shea, and Sarah Wald have produced progressive work about this text that adds to their respective disciplinary fields, unique to this collection, the interdisciplinary framework visible in “Veins of Oppression” forces readers to bear witness to the many ways Chicano/a/x migrant farm workers are kept from accessing the privileges implicit in U.S. citizenship through longstanding and current agricultural practices. Drawing on the work of Stacy Alaimo, Donna Haraway, Lisa Lowe, Jason Moore, Mai Ngai, Rob Nixon, Sylvia Wynter, and more, “Veins of Oppression” explores the ways humanist scholarship can be intentionally written as interdisciplinary to be more clearly positioned to function as a more kinetic base for actual change.