THE CIRCUIT

The Circuit

The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez

Aassemblage of twelve short tales offered from the viewpoint of a young young man, in which the scribe narrates his childhood knowledge growing up in a family of Mexican migrant farmworkers. Panchito is a child who crosses the boundary in the late 1940s with his family. He reaches in California and spends most of his childhood traveling from ranch to ranch picking whatever is time of the year, from cotton fabric to strawberries. The article chronicles the labours of he and his family to make ends rendezvous, and the hardships they endure. Particularly poignant is the chronicle of his sporadic schooling, as he is only able to enroll in school in November, when the collection time of the year is over, and the sadness he feels at never getting a possibility to completely take advantage of the learning he is being provided. His nomadic existence forces him to become self-taught, as he holds a periodical of everything he learns, though when the periodical is decimated by fire he recognizes that he no longer desires it because the courses have become internalized. The article finishes with him being taken from the classroom by immigration police, just when he is about to recite the affirmation of self-reliance, an ironic finish that makes one keen to read the sequel, shattering Through , in order to find out what becomes of him after his arrest.

The story, initially published in English as The Circuit, begins in Mexico when the author is very juvenile and his parents announce him that they are going on a very long journey to "El Norte." What pursues is a series of tales of the family's unending migration from one farm to another as they search for the next harvesting job. Each story ...