| Description |
1 online resource (xxviii, 210 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Introduction -- The Spinach Capital of the World -- Following the Migrant Trail North to Iowa and Minnesota -- Leaving for California -- The Migrant Experience from Birth to Age Five -- A Crystal City Education -- Joining the Workforce in Wisconsin -- Compromises in Delano, Wind Lake, and Burlington -- From La Grammar to Elk Grove Consolidated -- Youthful Rebellion in Billings, Montana -- Competition in Moses Lake, Washington -- Crystal City High -- New Beginnings in Iowa -- Graduating from Crystal City -- Hauling Tomatoes to the Heinz Plant -- Experiments in the Iowa Fields -- School and Work from Texas to East L.A. -- Working the Rows between Classes -- Using the Long Hoe in North Dakota -- Adjusting to Academic Life in San Marcos -- Leaving the Migrant Trail |
| Summary |
"Every year from April to October, the Sánchez family traveled--crowded in the back of trucks, camping in converted barns, tending and harvesting crops across the breadth of the United States. Although hoeing sugar beets with a short hoe was their specialty, they also picked oranges in California, apples in Washington, cucumbers in Michigan, onions and potatoes in Wisconsin, and tomatoes in Iowa. Winters they returned home to the Winter Garden region of South Texas. In 1951, Saúl Sánchez began to contribute to his family's survival by helping to weed onions in Wind Lake, Wisconsin. He was eight years old. Rows of Memory tells his story and the story of his family and other migrant farm laborers like them, people who endured dangerous, dirty conditions and low pay, surviving because they took care of each other. Facing racism both on the road and at home, they lived a largely segregated life only occasionally breached by friendly employers. Despite starting school late and leaving early every year and having to learn English on the fly, young Saúl succeeded academically. At the same time that Mexican Americans in South Texas upended the Anglo-dominated social order by voting their own leaders into local government, he upended his family's order by deciding to go to college. Like many migrant children, he knew that his decision to pursue an education meant he would no longer be able to help feed and clothe the rest of his family. Nevertheless, with his parents' support, he went to college, graduating in 1967 and, after a final display of his skill with a short hoe for his new friends, abandoned migrant labor for teaching. In looking back at his youth, Sánchez invites us to appreciate the largely unrecognized and poorly rewarded strength and skill of the laborers who harvest the fruits and vegetables we eat. A first-person portrait of life on the bottom rung of the food system, this coming-of-age tale illuminates both the history of Latinos in the United States and the human consequences of industrial agriculture."--Publisher's website |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Sánchez, Saúl, 1943-
|
| SUBJECT |
Sánchez, Saúl, 1943- fast |
| Subject |
Migrant labor -- United States -- Biography
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Emigration and immigration law.
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Labor market.
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Mexican American families -- Social conditions
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Mexican Americans -- Biography
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Employment (Economic theory)
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employing.
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Labor.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Labor & Industrial Relations.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
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Emigration and immigration law
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Labor market
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Mexican Americans
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Migrant labor
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United States
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| LC no. |
2013952704 |
| ISBN |
9781609382599 |
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1609382595 |
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