The model on whom Luis Jiménez based this plowman was a friend from his hometown, but this image can be interpreted as a portrait of San Isidro (Saint Isidore), the Catholic patron saint of agriculture. Often represented driving a pair of supernatural white oxen, San Isidro is believed to protect the soil to ensure a bountiful crop. 

The figure of the laborer in Sodbuster has a complicated legacy for Mexican Americans. Since at least the beginning of the Bracero program (1942–64), which arranged for temporary agricultural workers from Mexico to work legally in the United States, migrant workers from Mexico have been the subjects of often vitriolic and discriminatory rhetoric about immigration and labor. San Isidro’s respect for the work of farming, honoring the workers’ diligence and fortitude, celebrates the families whose livelihoods depend on a successful harvest.

Luis Jiménez (1940–2006), Sodbuster. Color lithograph, 1985. 31 5/8 × 45 1/4 in. (80.3 × 114.9 cm). Carl B. Spitzer Fund, 2004.63. Not on view.*

*Art Minute celebrates the full range of the Toledo Museum of Art’s collection. Not all works featured are on view; some (especially works on paper and textiles) are sensitive to light damage and can only be displayed for limited periods of time. Others may be on loan to another institution or in storage for other reasons.