Classic Hometown Story- Dr. Jimenez (The Circuit)

The Circuit - Life of a Migrant Child is an autobiographical novel written by Dr. Francisco Jimenez in 1997. The book is about a young Francisco retelling the events of when he and his family crossed the border from Mexico to California for a better life. Jimenez describes how his family moved in a “circuit” every few months to follow the seasonal crops for work. The move to California was not smooth, and the family went through many struggles to get where they are today. This book is a well-known Chicano-Latino story, and many teachers have begun to read this book in their classrooms. The Circuit is part of a trilogy of books that Dr. Francisco Jimenez wrote explaining his memories and experiences as a young migrant child and young adult.

As someone who grew up in the Central Coast, Francisco Jimenez and his family are well known in our community. One of the places where the Jimenez family lived and worked was in our very own town of Santa Maria. When my fourth-grade class read the book for the first time, we were shocked to know our town was famous. We did not know this book had descriptions about our town. On page 27 of The Circuit, Jimenez writes, “We called it Tent City. Everybody called it Tent City, although it was neither a city nor a town. It was a farmworker labor camp owned by Sheehy Strawberry Farms. Tent City had no address; it was known as rural Santa Maria. It was on Main Street, about ten miles east of the center of the town. Half a mile east of it were hundreds of acres of strawberries cultivated by Japanese sharecroppers and harvest by people from the camp” (Jimenez, 1997, p. 27). Santa Maria is known for its crops, especially its strawberry fields. In Jimenez’s description of Santa Maria, it is small, next to the town of Guadalupe. However, although Santa Maria is an agricultural city, it is growing in population every year. Recently, the city named a new elementary school, Dr. Francisco and Roberto Jimenez Elementary School. It is one of the newest elementary schools in the city which offers Dual Language courses for students. Dr. Francisco Jimenez does not live in Santa Maria anymore, but his brothers still do, and he sometimes visits with his family to see more family. As someone born and raised in Santa Maria, it is an honor having Dr. Jimenez be one of our most notable community members.

The Circuit would be classified as being a culturally specific book. Temple, Martinez, and Yokota (2014), quote culturally specific books as being books that “illuminate the experience of members of a particular cultural group (Sims Bishop, 1992). The nuances of daily life are captured accurately, reflecting language use, attitudes, values, and beliefs of members of the group portrayed. Such details add texture to the writing, making the stories more real and more believable and therefore making it more likely that readers will see the stories as authentic. The descriptions of situations and events historically accurate, but the character names, the forms of address, the dialogue, and the interactions are true to the culture of the people whose lives are reflected. Although they differ in the depth of the cultural experiences they provide to readers, the full range of inclusiveness in multicultural books contributes to readers’ understandings of their own and others’ cultures. Sometimes, readers see themselves and others as sharing universal experiences, and therefore cultural group membership need not be explicitly discussed. However, it is culturally specific books that offer the insights necessary to truly further readers’ understanding of different cultures (Temple, p. 91-92). Throughout The Circuit, Francisco Jimenez describes the conditions that he is in, the people he is with, and what he thinks. Readers get the point of view of a migrant Mexican child who is surrounded by people just like him. They may feel for him and his family, even if they are not from the same background. Those who are can also understand the struggles of migrant workers. His various encounters with the “American” white people are described as how people of non-white origin would describe them- people that are hard to understand, who speak limited Spanish, and who are of higher authority than those who work in the crops like Francisco and the Jimenez family. Readers get that first-hand point of view, and readers can connect to the protagonist of the story, especially since Jimenez is describing his own story. Also, Temple, Martinez, and Yokota (2014) quote about cultural authenticity. It fits The Circuit because “when a book presents a theme that is true to culture and is filled with specific details that are authentic, members of that culture who read it feel that their experiences have been genuinely reflected and illuminated for others to share (Temple, p. 94).

Thank you for reading. Hope you take the time and read The Circuit by Dr. Francisco Jimenez. See you next week!