The Four Winds

When Elsa and her family stand at the crest of a hill looking down at the fertile fields of California, they see not only the promise of economic opportunity but redemption from the scourge of drought and famine. What they find, however, is not a wealth of jobs but suspicion, anger, and resentment from the townspeople. The residents fear not only outsiders taking their jobs—or at least driving down wages—but the disease and squalor they believe these outsiders bring with them. When Loreda complains about the unfair treatment the migrants receive, Jean Dewey replies, “When times is tough and jobs is scarce, folks blame the outsider. It’s human nature. And raht now, that’s us” (232). Suspicion is one thing, but when that fear turns into hatred and becomes institutionalized, the result is a humanitarian crisis. The local hospital won’t treat “Okies,” and Jean’s baby, and later Jean herself, die. Loreda and Anthony are ostracized at school for carrying fictitious diseases. The owners pay the migrants substandard wages because they know they can get away with it. The prevailing bigotry is so pervasive, in fact, the migrants themselves begin to internalize it, devaluing themselves and clinging to the smallest scraps (and being grateful for those). When Jack and his unionists try to organize the workers, they meet resistance not only from the growers but also from the workers, who are too fearful to demand they be treated as human beings.

The discrimination Elsa and her fellow migrants face has a long history. Immigrants to the United States have traditionally been marginalized and stereotyped, from the Irish and Chinese in the mid-1800s to the Italians, Poles, and Russians in the late 1800s. These immigration surges have often been accompanied by a backlash of restrictive legislation, like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924, which established “fixed quotas of national origin and eliminate[d] Far East immigration.” (“Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History: Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress,” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/. Accessed 9 Apr. 2021.) More recently, former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department oversaw a policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the southern border, a policy used primarily as a deterrent. While there have been periods when America opened its borders and welcomed immigrants, those times have frequently been followed by more restrictive policies and political rhetoric used to justify those restrictions. As long as privileged communities feel threatened by outsiders, the discrimination Elsa and her fellow migrants face will continue unabated.

The lure of land and property rights in the United States dates back centuries, and the appeal of owning one’s own slice of land has enticed settlers and immigrants alike. The US government granted over 270 million acres of land under the Homestead Act of 1862. When Tony and Rose immigrate to the United States, eventually settling in Texas, they realize their dream in a private swath of land they can cultivate and nurture. Indeed, the early sacrifices they make—arriving with only $17, living in a sod brick dugout—pay off. When Elsa joins the family, Tony and Rose are the proud owners of a thriving wheat farm with cows, horses, chickens, an orchard, and a vineyard. Tony speaks of the land with reverence, claiming an almost spiritual relationship to it: “My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family. […] It binds us, this land, one to another, as it has for generations. Now it will bind you to us” (51).

Tony’s devotion to his land supersedes all else, even when logic tells him to abandon it, even when most of his neighbors have given up and left. Tony and Rose are bound to their land in a sacred pact, similar to the ties some fundamentalists feel toward religion, as something greater than themselves, something worth dying for if necessary. Even Elsa, a pampered “town girl” with no prior experience, grows into her role as a farmer. She refuses to abandon the land even during the worst years of the drought, and only Anthony’s brush with death convinces her to leave. It’s a sad parting indeed, for her relationship with the land is mutually beneficial. What she has put into it, it gives back many times over both physically and spiritually. Without the land to anchor her, Elsa is adrift, a nomad aimlessly searching for that small piece of earth in which to plant herself.