The Circuit

by Francisco Jiménez

"'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.

Paperback

Published January 1, 1997

About the author

Francisco Jimenez emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, to California, where he worked for many years in the fields with his family. He received both his master's degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now chairman of the Modern Languages and Literature Department at Santa Clara University, the setting of much of Reaching Out. He is the award-winning author of The Circuit, Breaking Through, La Mariposa, and his newest memoir, Reaching Out. He lives in Santa Clara, California, with his family.

Author photo courtesy of Santa Clara University.

Reviews

[Seth Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever been so outraged by a book ending in my entire life. That type of ending should be illegal. I will be getting the sequel because the story is phenomenal, and Francisco Jimenez is a great writer, but the man should serve jail time for that cliffhanger ending.