Challenges Give Meaning to Our Lives: Francisco Jiménez and Social Justice

ALAN Review, Fall 2004 by Carlile, Susan

The story continues in the San Joaquin Valley, where he found life a constant challenge as he and his family "did the circuit" from farm to farm, trying to eke out a meager living picking strawberries, grapes, carrots, lettuce and cotton under the hot California sun. Like the original short story, this collection won high praise. It received many prestigious awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Award for Fiction, the California Library Association's 10th annual John and Patricia Beatty Award, and The Américas Award for Children and Young Adult Literature. It has also been published in Chinese (1999) and Japanese (2004). However, even more impressive has been the sale of The Circuit, which reach 100,000 in both soft and hardcover in 2003.

Writing The Circuit was challenging. "As I was writing, I would read parts to my children and my wife, but I didn't show it to anyone else until it was completely done. I had to rely on creativity to fill in the gaps where I couldn't remember details, since it's further back in time. 1 did do a lot of research, and I went to the San Joaquin Valley and visited some of the places where I knew we lived. Some of the labor camps were still there, but others no longer existed. All of those visual things brought back memories and emotions that I incorporated into the book. I also talked to my mother and Roberto. They were both extremely helpful, especially for the first story, 'Under the Wire.' I had some of the pictures that are reproduced in the back of Breaking Through, like the one that was taken in Tent City, Santa Maria. Most of the pictures were taken more or less at the same time, but I don't know who took them or how we ended up getting them. However, I am glad my family collected them and I wish I had more. I had to rely more on emotional memory to write this first book."

The biggest challenge for Jiménez was telling the story from the point of view of a child. "This may sound a little bit strange; but the Spanish dramatist, Federico Garcia Lorca, explains how every adult has a child in him and that we have to maintain the child in us-his innocence and his creativity-to look at the world and appreciate it. I think I have been able to maintain the child inside of me. Sometime my kids will even say, 'Dad, you are just a big kid!' I love children. I am able to empathize with them, especially those who suffer poverty or discrimination. I visit migrant families who are in literacy programsthrough the P.E.N Foundation-and I think my experiences help me feel more compassion for children. And hopefully that connection-the child inside of me-helped me capture the voice of the child in The Circuit. "

Jiménez decided to publish The Circuit in English because he thought he would get a wider readership. He explains, "That was important to me because the stories that I write are the experiences of many families in the past and in the present. I wanted readers to have some insight into the migrant experience." However, Jiménez does keep some Spanish words and phrases and uses the context to give the meaning to non-Spanish speakers. The stories were clearly in his head in Spanish as well, "When Houghton Mifflin asked me to translate it into Spanish, it was very easy."