Migrant Workers In Francisco Jimenez's The Circuit

“A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, describes the spectacle of an angel that falls into the yard of a village family. Told by a third-person narrator,

The documentary film “The Harvest/La Cosecha” is based on migrant agricultural child labor. In some countries, children work 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of those countries is the United States of America. Every year there are more than 400,000 American children who are torn away from, their friends, schools and homes to pick the food we all eat. The film has three main characters being Victor who is a 16-year- old boy, and two girls who are Zulema (age 12) and Perla (age 14).Out of those 400,000, three of them are Victor, Zulema, and Perla. Throughout the documentary it gives you a view about how migrant families live and all the obstacles they encounter and how they overcome them.

The setting mainly took place in south of Soledad, California, near the Salinas Valley, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Salinas Valley had many substantial farms during the Depression. This was essential because colossal farms employed a massive number of workers, often up to hundreds. Since farm workers with no steady employment, would often head to these communities, it was logical that Salinas Valley was George and Lennie’s destination. Migrant farm workers were perfect examples, to highlight the solitude and loneliness engendered by the Depression. These men had no place to call home, and had only a few belongings to call their own. They were perpetually at the mercy of the farmers. They would promptly become friendless.

A house is not a home. A home is somewhere your heart feels content, a place where you feel safe. In fact, a wise person once said, “Home is not a place, it’s a feeling.” This particular theme of home appears several times during Sandra Cisneros’ novella The House on Mango Street. Cisneros uses indirect characterization to show that the main character, Esperanza, feels discontent with her house, and feels as if it is not really her home, because deep in her heart, deep in her mind, she feels that her home is somewhere else, and she feels lost.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a semi-autobiography shown through the eyes of the story’s narrator, Esperanza Cordero, an adolescent Mexican-American girl who is about thirteen and growing up in an impoverished, mostly Latino neighborhood in Chicago. The novel is a coming of age story, told over the course of about a year in a series of standalone vignettes, written in a non chronological order, that use poetic and figurative language, such as metaphors and similes, to convey its themes.

Numerous people stumble upon obstacles, but only a few can overcome them. Most obstacles are influenced by the values of the society. In The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Liesel Meminger overcomes her lack of education and her different beliefs on Jewish people. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet both overcome the obstacle of not being able to be together because of the feud between their families. In “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza overcomes the obstacle of not fitting into her society because of her lack of money. Liesel Meminger, Romeo and Juliet, and Esperanza all overcome many big obstacles influenced by their society.

The House on Mango Street is set in a poor, primarily Hispanic neighborhood. Author Sandra Cisneros creates an atypical, yet easily digestible world for the reader to experience while learning about Esperanza’s childhood. The culture of her environment influences Esperanza’s development as she becomes a young woman, and contributes to the book’s driving theme of self-empowerment.

Many people are undermined by the drawbacks of belonging to a low socioeconomic status. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza is raised in a poor, Latino community, causing her to be introduced to poverty at an early age. This introduction of poverty affects Esperanza in many ways, one including that she is unable to find success. Esperanza struggles to achieve success in life because the cycle of poverty restricts her in a position in which she cannot break free from her socioeconomic status.

“Rosa Vargas’ kids are too many and too much. It’s not her fault, you know, except she is their mother and only one against so many” (Cisneros 29). In the novel The House on Mango Street, the author, Sandra Cisneros, touches on the many negative consequences of a single, impoverished mother raising an overwhelming amount of children. Poverty, discrimination, parental and neighborly responsibility, and respect are all issues and social forces that act upon the family; their presence or lack thereof cause several grisly occurrences to take place.

Esperanza’s house on Mango Street is not the house she dreamed on when she lived on Loomis Street, not the kind of house her parent’s talked about, not the house she wanted. Her house on Mango Street is a small, red house with even smaller stairs leading to the door. The brick are falling out of place and to get inside, one must shove the door, swollen like Esperanza’s feet in later vignettes, open. Once inside, where you are never very far from someone else, there are small hallway stairs that lead to the only one shared bedroom and bathroom. This house is just, “For the time being,”[5] Esperanza claims, for this is nothing like the house she longs for. Esperanza does not like her current living conditions, saying she wants, “A real house. One I can point to. But this isn’t

In hope to leave the life of poverty behind, Francisco and his family crossed underneath the Mexicali barbed-wire border. For the next ten years, he’s been helping out the family with work and attending school while cautiously fearing deportation. For instance, “ I lived in constant fear for ten long years, from the time I was four until I was fourteen years old” (Jimenez 1). Unfortunately, one day at school border patrol calls Francisco out of his class and deports him and his family. However, Francisco and his older brother Roberto are able to stay, gaining their visas, but struggled with being home alone. Undoubtedly, Roberto showed family loyalty, “ I’ll send you money every month when I get paid” (Jimenez 15). In order to cope with the loneliness, Francisco and Roberto stepped out to school dances, listening to rock music and talking to girls. Eventually, the family is together again legally and back working the fields. Soon after, Francisco is graduating junior high following summer skirmishes, and starts high school; however, his father’s back pain causes him to get a job as a

The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man, authored by Nels Anderson, offers an account of the behaviors, choices, relationships and living situations of the homeless in 1920’s Chicago. This study, conducted for the Chicago Council of Social Agencies, provides a platform to voice first hand accounts of the adventures and the hardships of the vagrant life. Born to a Swedish immigrant father and housemaid mother, Anderson spent much of his childhood moving around; from The West, to an Indian reservation, to Hobohemia, he moved 10 times over the course of 10 years. Anderson seeks answers to the many questions surrounding homelessness because he grew up in a milieu that only knew the vagrant life. Once he left high school, Anderson joined the

Gruesz reviews the new Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (NALL). She notes that as Kenneth Warren's argument and the recent history of African American tradition building it refers to can help people appreciate the Latino literature. She states that Norton is “hobbled by the lack of any prior powerful literary-historical narrative with which to contend”(Gruesz). She argues, however, that the NALL “would raise a skeptical eyebrow at the repeated characterizations of NALL as a “treasure” and a “celebration” of the ethnoracial groups whose genius they index”(Gruesz). She argues that the Latino literature is viewed as an instrumental tool into the management into culture, shows a sign of times, and is is accommodating.

Anyone who has ever worked hard has heard the saying, “It builds character.” For example, say someone went to college. They worked hard to graduate with a degree, and finally got their dream job. Two months in they get laid off. Their first job is gone, but still must move on. This person goes and applies for another job, this time better built and ready to face the world. This relatable moment is similar to The House on Mango Street, due to the fact that, in “The Monkey Garden”, Sandra Cisneros conveys symbolism with the garden, for people must face hard times, but it is those hard times that build people up and prepare them for the future.

El Paso and Ciudad Juarez lie side by side, but are separated by the Rio Grande. The border’s way of life relies on the dividing line. As a resident of Ciudad Juarez, I experience a blend of cultures on an everyday basis. However, in 2010 the unique culture of the city was darkened by the shedding violence in Ciudad Juarez. Ciudad Juarez came to be known as the deadliest city in the world.