The Immigrant Experience: a Personal Story

Author and educator, Francisco Jiménez recounted his experience growing up in a migrant worker family and emphasizes the importance of education. He and his family emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico to California, and as a child worked alongside his parents in the fields of California. Through personal images and stories, he'll also explain his process and why he writes.

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Jiménez’s autobiographical books The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (Cajas de cartón, Spanish edition), Breaking Through (Senderos fronterizos, Spanish edition), Reaching Out (Más allá de mí, Spanish edition), have won several national literary awards, including the John Steinbeck Award, which "is given to writers, artists, thinkers, and activists whose work captures Steinbeck’s empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of people who by circumstance are pushed to the fringes.”

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