Under the Feet of Jesus
...me because never before had Viramontes’ even hinted that Perfecto had a family back at home that he yearned to be with. “Perfecto desired to be home. To his real home, not the bungalow. The desire became as urgent as the money he brought in for Petra’s family…What would happen if he forgot his way home?”(End of pg. 78- top of pg. 79). Perfecto then went on to describe how he made love to Mercedes, and how his first born son died very young. “They returned the blue silenced baby to the soil days later, without the blessing of a priest, a plastic wreath wrapped around with fake stems. Only a baby’s blanket was left” Wszolek 2 (pg. 80). The pain of the old man was now prevalent to the reader. Perfecto’s world, a world we had not yet seen, was unfolding right before our eyes and Viramontes’ wanted us to see this. The main question here is why did Viramontes put that scene in that part of the book, and why did we have to know every little detail about the situation. Upon further review I realized that Helena opened up many doors for herself by revealing this about her character. She put Perfecto as a helpless aging man who is seeing his life and his mistakes flash right before his very eyes, because it shows us that growing up is surviving your past. She also took Perfecto and compared him to Estrella’s real father by hinting that he’s going run away and leave the family, something that would be terrible and shameful. Viramontes is very clever in how she words her scenes as well. She points out every detail, “without the church’s legal ...