Space, the outsider, and the middleman

What I have found interesting in The Plum Plum Pickers is Barrio’s use of space. In particular, Barrio creates a structure in which space is controlled and inhabited by outsiders. While tied to Turner’s land in what is described as a system of “slavery” (88), the pickers are immigrants, outsiders. Furthermore, in the first mention of Turner, he is somewhere else, occupying a different space, yet controlling the fields and the lives of his workers. This structure then relies on a middleman, an interpreter, in order to execute Turner’s control. Quill fills that role of the middleman, and thus poses the risk of misinterpretation. If we make the connection between Barrio’s character, Turner, and Frederick Jackson Turner the historian, then Barrio’s structure serves to comment on the dangers of interpreting Turner’s frontier thesis. Frederick Jackson Turner is removed from the space of this novel, yet his theories on American expansion and democracy are pervasive in its social structure. It is through the very frontier-thesis-mentality that the Turner of Barrio’s novel justifies his exploitation. Yet the frontier thesis is far removed from this setting. It is only through one man’s interpretation of those principles that they maintain relevancy. The same is true when considering the Turner of the novel. While removed from the fields, Turner’s presence is felt through the various vehicles of interpretation and representation. For example, the driver in the last scene of chapter eleven is described as “one of Mr. Turner’s regular hands” (99). Despite Turner’s distance, his power is invoked by his representatives, who have become a physical extension of the man’s body. The idea of the outside control continues in Lupe’s fears of deportation. She is haunted by the idea of the “border patrol “arriving” in neatly dressed swastika uniforms” (63). In this example the idea of suppression becomes enveloping. Not only is she controlled by the outsider in Turner, but she is also terrified by the larger system, which could take her at any time. Returning to the idea of the middleman, Roberto Morales plays an interesting role in the economic structure of the novel. In playing the middleman for the outsiders, the “anglo growers” (93), he absolves them of any guilt. Morales operates from within the group, yet serves as a buffer for the outsiders to remain removed from injustice while still reaping its benefits.