Medical (In)Justice of Mexican-American Migrant Workers in Under the Feet of Jesus

Helena Maria Viramontes’s representative fiction, Under the Feet of Jesus, explores the oppression and resistance of Mexican-American migrant workers (Chicanos) by revealing racial and gender problems. This article will first demonstrate the contamination of Mexican-American migrants’ working environment in this novel. Furthermore, drawing on medical ethics and other interdisciplinary studies, it will argue against the medical injustice regarding the mistreatment of Mexican-American migrants’ bodies because of the white class’s supremacy, and will state Chicano workers’ resistances and pursuits in facing unfair medical systems. On top of that, this paper would like to propose that empathy and mutual kindness from community members are the key solutions to show resistance to medical injustice.