Refreshing ‘Booktail’ for ‘Under the Feet of Jesus’

Helena María Viramontes’s stunning novel Under the Feet of Jesus features a close-knit group of piscadores in the Central Valley, where they harvest peaches, grapes, oranges, and tomatoes for other people’s tables. Petra, mother of 13-year-old Estrella and her siblings, finds comfort in the love of Perfecto, a much older man with whom they’ve traveled. Estrella, in turn, grows infatuated with a youth named Alejo. The group labors in oppressive heat, encircled by many potential dangers. They’re perpetually dusted with dirt, while small aircrafts pass overhead, carrying pesticides. When Alejo’s life is threatened, Petra, Perfecto, and the children risk the very worst of fates to help him, knowing their kindness may be their ruin. 

Reminiscent of Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, this fever dream of a read exposes the agony and everyday joy of being alive. At a pivotal moment in the novel, Viramontes writes of Alejo, who has been sprayed with pesticide: 

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.

The following recipe is a “booktail” inspired by Under the Feet of Jesus, with flavors derived from the novel’s themes. It’s fruity and refreshing, offering relief and respite. The base of the drink is dry gin, emblematic of Perfecto’s skin, like “the bark of a juniper tree.” The perfumey, botanical notes of the gin are complemented by sweet, floral peach syrup (see recipe below), a nod to the stolen peaches that open the novel and the moment of Alejo’s undoing. Fresh citrus sharpens the flavors and provides balance while evoking the scent of Perfecto’s firstborn baby, a reminder of the most vulnerable things, the loss of which is irrevocable.