I Finally met Francisco Jimenez!
I have been a long time fan of the author Francisco Jimenez and finally got to meet him at a lecture tonight. It was a small venue, so I was especially lucky that I got to ask him all my questions and stayed at the end like an author stalkeratsy and took pictures of him and his wife. I have no shame!
The event was at a public library and that made it great because it was a slice of the well-read and a slice of crazy (those who were just there for the public rest room) - but that just made it much more interesting. The top question of the night was about what the name and story was of the dog on the cover of his book pictured to the left. He said he didn't know the dog a few times, but I guess some people didn't hear that. One little kid asked him why his parrot died in the book.
I asked him how old his parents were when they came over from Mexico to do farm labor. His father was 37 and his mother was 28. It is amazing and admirable to me that being so young his parents would take on this huge responsibility to make a living. At 28, I don't know what I was doing, but I would not have been able to rotate between picking crops at three ranches a year and give birth to seven children.
Francisco was four at the time and could only go to school in the fall when there was enough work to support the family without him working. During those few months a year when he could get a little education, he was very happy to be in school. He admitted that he was scarred by the experience of not passing 1st grade and even though he didn't get any special help and could only understand very few words in English.
In later grades there were teachers who took extra time and effort to help him and show him and the other students what his strengths were. He gave the example of a teacher who displayed a map of California to the class and then called Francisco up to the front of the class and asked him to pronounce the cities because he knew he could do it the best. Another teacher in high school gave him a copy of The Grapes of Wrath and that one book changed everything for him. It gave him an understanding of his situation and also planted the seed for him wanting to write his own similar experience.
I mentioned the recent case where a pregnant 17-year-old female farm worker in Stockton was working in over 100 degree heat and was denied water and shade. She kept working until she passed out and died, I choked up a little bit when I said it, but it really angers me.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004458818_apfarmscenefarmworkerdeath.html
I mentioned the death because in his book he mentions the exploitation of the camp store merchants' exploitation of immigrants by inflating prices. I asked him if things have changed or if he still feels that immigrants are being exploited.
He said that this is why he writes his memoirs because he does not want these people and their experiences to be invisible. He wants everyone to know that these immigrants are a part of the American fabric and how they live. He also said in his new book Breaking Out (part 3 of his memoirs) is coming out Aug 25th. In it he writes about his march with Cesar Chavez to Sacramento, and his experience of being the first in his family to go to college. I could have smacked this one lady that said -- don't tell us anymore we want to read it. What the H... I wanted to hear him talk about his stories with the Chavez and she shushed him...
Regardless, I was truly star struck by how this man opened up about his extreme poverty without bitterness then achieved a PhD and professorship at a top University. His story strikes close to my heart being a child of an immigrant myself. Actually I was not born in the U.S. so that makes me an immigrant myself, but one with a much easier path.
A short bio link on him:
http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com/cgi-bin/iowa/english/heros/hero/774.html
