The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

In The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1997), Francisco Jimenez describes his childhood in a migrant family as they follow the crop-picking circuit across South-Central California in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Written from the perspective of a child, Francisco’s 12 autobiographical stories illuminate the hardships of a life as an undocumented immigrant farmworker. Francisco endures backbreaking workdays, suffers devastating personal losses, and struggles to get an education, but the love and support of his family and their unflagging hope, hard work, and perseverance help sustain Francisco through adversity.

The Circuit won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and the Américas Award for Children and Young Adult Literature. The Circuit was followed by three collections documenting Francisco’s life through high school and beyond, including Breaking Through (2001), Reaching Out (2008), and Taking Hold (2015).

This guide uses the 1997 University of New Mexico Press edition of the book.

Summary

Four-year-old Francisco and his Papá, Mamá, and older brother, Roberto, leave their home in Mexico in pursuit of a better life across the border in “Under the Wire.” The family travels by train to la frontera and slips through a hole under the border fence. They live off the land, staying in a borrowed tent, until Papá can work picking strawberries. Already, the family is short of cash.

Throughout the stories, Francisco and his family travel around California in their carcachita: to Santa Maria for strawberry season, near Fresno to harvest grapes, and to Corcoron to pick cotton. They live in tents, dilapidated garages and cabins, and run-down barracks. They make the best of their substandard living conditions—which typically have no running water or electricity—by scavenging items from dumps. Although they work hard, they remain very poor. They live in constant fear of la migra. Due to all their traveling on “the circuit,” Francisco’s schooling is interrupted and he often falls behind, but he never gives up his efforts to learn. Through everything, the family loves and supports one another.

In “Soledad,” young Francisco desperately wants to join Papá, Mamá, and Roberto in the fields picking cotton, and is sad and lonely when he is left behind to watch his new baby brother, Trampita. Francisco’s efforts to show Papá that he can help pick cotton backfire.

Francisco excitedly starts first grade in “Inside Out,” but he cannot understand the English that his teacher, Miss Scalapino, speaks—and she will not let him speak Spanish. Francisco wishes he could read. He slowly acclimates, making a friend and learning some English. When Francisco’s drawing of a butterfly wins first prize, Francisco, like the class caterpillar, comes out of his cocoon.

The newest addition to the family, cheerful baby Torito, becomes gravely ill in “Miracle in Tent City.” A neighboring curandera treats him, but Torito’s condition worsens. The hospital doctor says it is too late to save Torito. Mamá fiercely refuses to believe this and promises Santa Niño that the family will pray to him daily for a year if he heals Torito. They fulfill the promise, and Torito is healed.

In “El Angel de Oro” Francisco enjoys watching the neighbor’s beautiful, solitary goldfish swim in its bowl. Francisco makes friends with another migrant boy, Miguelito, and is crushed when Miguelito’s family suddenly moves away. Francisco saves small gray fish from drying puddles after a rainstorm and gives the last rescue fish to the neighbor with the goldfish. Francisco sees it later, swimming happily with the goldfish.

Baby brother Rubén joins the family in “Christmas Gift.” The family is too poor at Christmas to afford the ball Francisco longs for: They are forced to search grocery store trash cans for food. Papá, however, helps a poor couple by purchasing the woman’s handkerchief and giving it to Mamá. Francisco learns the true meaning of Christmas.

In “Death Forgiven,” Francisco bonds with the family pet, a parrot named El Perico. He teaches the bird to talk and loves it dearly. One night, Papá, irritable and worried about finding work, loses his temper at the noisy bird, and kills El Perico. Francisco is devastated. He finds some comfort in prayer and visits El Perico’s grave daily.

Francisco is unhappy that Papá still considers him too little to have his own cotton-picking sack and is determined to prove Papá wrong in “Cotton Sack.” On a raw Thanksgiving Day, Papá, Roberto, and Francisco pick cotton, but the bitter cold is too much for Francisco. He knows he hasn’t shown Papá that he deserves a sack.

“The Circuit,” finds Francisco, Papá, and Roberto in Fresno, harvesting grapes. The boys hide when the school bus comes, so they do not call attention to themselves and risk deportation. Francisco starts sixth grade with Mr. Lema, who kindly tutors Francisco in English at lunchtime. Mr. Lema offers to teach Francisco to play the trumpet. Francisco is thrilled, then crushed when he returns home and finds his family packed to move again.

A bracero named Gabriel stands up to the abusive contratista Mr. Díaz in “Learning the Game.” The man wants Gabriel to do the job of an animal, pulling a plow, but Gabriel asserts his dignity. Gabriel is fired and sent back to Mexico, but Francisco takes the lesson he learned from Gabriel and stands up to a bully who dominates their kick-the-can game. Papá’s health deteriorates.

In “To Have and to Hold,” Francisco loses two of his most precious possessions, his penny collection and his librito. When Francisco’s little sister, Rorra, uses his oldest pennies to buy gum, he is furious, but Mamá teaches him that family matters most. Francisco writes all the information he needs to learn for school in his librito and carries it everywhere. It is lost in a fire, but Francisco understands that he still has its knowledge.

Francisco starts eighth grade in the final story, “Moving Still.” Papá cannot work in the fields anymore because of his bad back. Roberto and Francisco are also tired of the circuit. Roberto is thrilled to get a year-round janitorial job. For a school project, Francisco memorizes part of the Declaration of Independence and is ready to recite, but the Border Patrol comes to his class and takes him into custody.