In Salt of the Earth, the filmmakers’ decision to center the narrative on a female

character, Esperanza, who initially displays qualities that embody her gender role, including

subservience, docility and domesticity, reflects interplay of ideology and the

socioeconomically subjugated. From the opening scene, the filmmaker’s illustrate

Esperanza’s tireless performance of strenuous and endless household duties and labor, but it

is only as the film progresses that Esperanza learns to demand the labor rights she so clearly

has earned. Esperanza’s experiences—including her initial hesitance to actively join the

movement, in which her participation contradicts her assigned gender role and her husband’s

expectations, as well as her subsequent effective role in the workers’ strike—reproduce

conflicts perpetuated by hegemony; namely, how to strive for equality when society has

created internalized beliefs of validity in social and gender hierarchy. Echoes of internalized

hegemonic beliefs can be seen in Esperanza’s interactions with her husband, as well as the

women’s interactions with the labor union. Through her participation on the picket line and

reinforced resilience, Esperanza comes to question the validity of the gender role that has

been assigned to her.

The filmmakers’ decision to assign the character of Esperanza the role of disembodied

narrative voice not only enhances Esperanza’s role as the film’s protagonist, but also centers

the entire film within her consciousness. Employing her character as narrator not only

represents a radical decision in terms of the time period of the film (it was filmed in 1953 and

received an extremely limited release in 1954), but also provides the audience with an

intimate look into the character’s representation as an ambivalent struggle between socially-

dictated gender expectations and the reality of female oppression. Esperanza identifies herself

first and foremost as a miner’s wife, and this identification More specifically, with

heightened access to Esperanza’s thoughts, the audience perceives her guilt and anxiety over

as well
 Esperanza’s resentment and bitterness over inequality in sanitation measures is

initially, quietly voiced in her conversations with her husband, Ramón, highlighting her

awareness of the unfair living conditions. However, Ramón’s objections to and

condemnations of Esperanza’s concerns and her willingness to quiet her voiced anxieties

reflects a larger discourse of domestic relationships between husband and wife. Indeed, the

film’s first interaction between husband and wife demonstrates Esperanza’s valid and

understandable concerns over the strike. After Ramón explains the men’s demands must be

addressed first in the strike, Esperanza replies: “Have your strike. I’ll have my baby, but no

hospital will take me, because I’ll be a striker’s wife. The store will cut off our credit, and

the kids will go hungry . . . and then they’ll come and take away the radio” (Salt of the

Earth). It is at this point in Esperanza’s speech that Ramón sees his opportunity to undermine

her concerns. Latching on to her worry over losing the radio, he chastises her, exclaiming,

“Is that all you ever care about? That radio? Can’t you think of anything except yourself?”

The fact that the possible loss of the radio is at the end of Esperanza’s list of concerns and is

preceded by unselfish anxieties over the outcome of her upcoming delivery and her children’s

health not only undermines Ramón’s objection, but it also points to a much broader ideology:

female display of self-concern is objectionable and inappropriate, contrary to the culturally-

perpetuated role as suffering mother and self-sacrificing caretaker.

The scene proves particularly interesting for the displays of spousal interactions

during the dialogue. Ramón washes his face after dinner, and upon finding the fire to heat

the water has gone out, he tells Esperanza to “forget it,” a request she finds frustrating since

the majority of her household labor comprises of chopping wood, “five times a day, every

day.” Shortly thereafter, Esperanza’s concerns over sanitation are voiced as Ramón gets soap

in his eyes and cannot see, suggesting a literal interpretation of blindness towards his wife—a

blindness that is enforced throughout the scene. More specifically, Esperanza performs heavy
lifting, pours water for Ramón and provides him with a towel to wipe his eyes during the time

it takes Ramón to wash his face. Each act remains unacknowledged and underappreciated.

The scene concludes with Ramón ordering Esperanza to stop crying, since the children are

watching, suggesting Esperanza’s emotions are not appropriate if they distress or disturb

other members of the family. The entire scene provides a remarkable example of female

gender expectations, including but not limited to the ideological expectation of women as

more or less silent and undervalued caretakers.