The Circuit
Written by Francisco Jimenez
Published by Houghton Mifflin
After dark in a Mexican border town, a father holds open a hole in a wire fence as his wife and two small boys crawl through. So begins life in the United States for many people every day. And so begins this collection of twelve autobiographical stories by Santa Clara University professor Francisco Jimnez, who at the age of four illegally crossed the border with his family in 1947. “The Circuit,” the story of young Panchito and his trumpet, is one of the most widely anthologized stories in Chicano literature. At long last, Jimnez offers more about the wise, sensitive little boy who has grown into a role model for subsequent generations of immigrants. These independent but intertwined stories follow the family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots–and back again–over a number of years. As it moves from one labor camp to the next, the little family of four grows into ten. Impermanence and poverty define their lives. But with faith, hope, and back-breaking work, the family endures.
Primary ISBN: 9780395979020
Available As: Hardcover, Audiobook
Nonfiction, Age 09 or older
Community Represented: Mexican/Mexican American
Themes: Discrimination: Immigration Status, Family Relationship: Parents, Immigrant: Economic, Immigrant: Undocumented, Migrant/Seasonal Worker, Multiracial Identity, US/Mexican Border Crossing
Setting: Mexico (Guadalajara), United States
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Immigrant
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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