"The Circuit" (The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child)
by Francisco Jimenez
This chapter provides an insight into "the life of a migrant family, which is one of constant change, brutal poverty, and back-breaking work. Panchito's family moves from place to place, following the crops. Once the strawberry season is over, they must move to Fresno to work in vineyards. For Panchito, the son of Mexican migrant workers, there is one more challenge to face - how to get an education as his family moves from place to place."
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The author, Francisco Jimenez, immigrated with his family to California from Mexico. As a child he worked in the fields of California, and the stories in The Circuit are largely autobiographical.
Before students read this text, I display a map of California, on which we locate a few of the central California crops that migrant workers help to grow and harvest: Watsonville, San Francisco, Oxnard, Los Angeles - strawberries; Firebaugh, Fresno, Coachella Valley - grapes; Cutler - citrus; Firebaugh - cotton.
During reading difficult and unknown words and phrases are scaffolded
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(or simplified) and paraphrased.
A Migrant Family
by Larry Dane Brimner
For the most part we look at contemporary photographs taken in one migrant workers' camp near San Diego, California. The author and photographer Larry Dane Brimner traces a day in the life of the twelve-year-old Juan Medina, who lives in a damp makeshift shack. Juan's parents, like other Mexican migrant workers, travel north as fruits and vegetables ripen. I read the most striking excerpts from the book describing the hardships of migrants in California. Two photographs from this book are used for further discussions and writing.
The first photograph is next to the title page, showing the main character Juan in the center. He is dressed in clothes that are far from being new and fashionable. He is outside in front of the family's shack in the woods. The rest of the background displays different attributes of life-on-the-go and suggests the uncomfortable conditions in which this family lives. Juan is perhaps having a breakfast or snack as he holds a piece of some food in his hands. There is a kitchen table filled with a lot of dishes and bottles in front of Juan.
The second photograph on page 23 shows a group of five young migrant workers, all but one sitting on the curb of the road and apparently waiting for an employer to offer them jobs. The viewer sees them in profile. Some look in front of them with hope, searching the distance for an appearance of an employer's car. Some look down on the ground. They are wearing working clothes. The view of these people carries a sense of despair, uncertainty, depression, and need.
I have also found amazing photographs showing migrants in California taken in the era of Great Depression on the Library of Congress website: http://memory.loc.gov. There are photographs by photographers of the Farm Services Administration (FSA), who were sent to document the terrible farming and living conditions of the rural poor. Among them is the famous photograph by Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California of 1936. This photograph offers a lot to discuss, and it raises many questions. I may also employ this particular photograph in the routine sequence of activities described in this unit if I feel that my students need more exposure to this kind of photographs or if they become good at working with the photographs and enjoy the process and the product.