The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child

“I heard it for the first time back in the late 1940s when Papá and Mamá told me and Roberto, my older brother, that someday we would take a long trip north, cross la frontera, enter California, and leave our poverty behind.”

Francisco opens The Circuit by sharing his four-year-old understanding of la frontera and the promise it holds: wealth, success, and ease, the opposite of their life of subsistence in Mexico. Ironically, the move does not erase their poverty, and the American Dream does not come true for Papá and the family during Francisco’s early childhood. This quote sets the stage for Francisco to explore the theme of The Challenges of the Immigrant Experience.

“Roberto was quiet. He had a sad look in his eyes.”

Roberto, initially excited to leave Mexico, quickly realizes that their new life in the United States may not be an improvement when Papá has no work, and they must live off the land. Roberto shows how deeply he longs for a better life in his naïve, childlike hope they are not in California, and that it is still a shining land of riches.

“Once I lost sight of them, I felt pain in my chest, that same pain I always felt whenever they left Trampita and me alone.”

Francisco reveals a mix of emotions in his desire to pick cotton with Mamá, Papá, and Roberto: the physical ache of loneliness, soledad, his recognition of The Value of Family, and the drive to show that he can work and be useful. Francisco’s feelings reveal both his sensitivity and resilience.