The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

by Jimenez, Francisco

• ISBN13: 9780826317971
• ISBN10: 0826317979
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780547377209
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-09-01
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

"'La frontera'...I heard it for the first time back in the late 1940s when Papa and Mama told me and Roberto, my older brother, that someday we would take a long trip north, cross la frontera, enter California, and leave our poverty behind." So begins this honest and powerful account of a family's journey to the fields of California -- to a life of constant moving, from strawberry fields to cotton fields, from tent cities to one-room shacks, from picking grapes to topping carrots and thinning lettuce. Seen through the eyes of a boy who longs for an education and the right to call one palce home, this is a story of survival, faith, and hope. It is a journey that will open readers' hearts and minds.

Author Biography

Francisco Jimenez immigrated with his family to California from Tlaquepaque, Mexico. As a child he worked in the fields of California, and the stories in The Circuit are largely autobiographical. He received both his master's degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now chairman of the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Santa Clara University. He lives in Santa Clara, California, with his wife and three children.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Under the Wire	1	(8)
Soledad	9	(5)
Inside Out	14	(13)
Miracle in Tent City	27	(18)
El Angel de Oro	45	(6)
Christmas Gift	51	(6)
Death Forgiven	57	(4)
Cotton Sack	61	(12)
The Circuit	73	(11)
Learning the Game	84	(12)
To Have and to Hold	96	(17)
Moving Still	113