5 comments about Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America.

1. The story of Rosela begins in Mexico, in a dry land where people need much and many times do not have enough. She and her mother take the journey up, to unknown lands with so much uncertainty...but with an incredible desire to see their lives amount to something other than a shunned, divorced mother and her fatherless daughter. Mexico will remain Rosela's identity throughout her memoir, sometimes she loves this fact, others ( like when she was a teen in the 60's she wishes it were not so) she wishes she could be, and especially look more like her blond American friends. She lives in time when immigrants lives were even more uncertain than they are today, a time when the Vietnam war was full force, and the excitable 60's and 70's were rolling through. I enjoyed reading about how this impacted her as a foreigner, and what the feelings were towards her during this time.
   
   Rosela does not set the goals that would be acceptable for her to reach (as an immigrant in a small town), but she longs for dreams that will satisfy her, and fulfill her purpose. She grew up an outsider, but not only an outsider when she was in California, but also when she went on trips back to Mexico. Life is not easy, and mistakes are made, but Rosela's story is one of hope, dreams and much courage. I was honored to read Rose Castillo Gibault's memoir, the lessons she learned are not only for her situation, but I found them completely relatable. Because I could easily relate to this feeling of not fitting in very well, or depending on other's mercy to feel "at home", Farmworker's Daughter was that book that just feels right. Not pretentious, preachy or condemning, but just the right blend of truth, reality, and life.
   
   The writing of Farmworker's Daughter was really great, I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the little girl, then adolescent, then college age woman. It had really good follow through and lead me on right to the end of the book very smoothly. I loved reading this book, check it out!
   
   
   
   Here are some quotes ( I love quotes so I always have to include them!!):
   
   "As a teenager I once asked my mother why she had left since she always talked about the greatness of Mexico. Maybe she had given up too much to come here, I suggested. She thoughtfully considered what I knew to be an impudent comment, and I immediately felt guilty. She shook her head sadly and looked into space, as if her gaze could travel back in time and pinpoint the precise moment she had made that momentous decision. [...] "There was nothing to loose. There was nothing for you and me.""(p. 23).
   
   " Once I stepped outside my door, I was all alone and had to fend for myself. The only thing I feared more than school was disappointing my mother, so I hid my anxieties" (p. 48).
   
   "One of the most memorable episodes during my years in Mrs. Rojas class was the day our class picture was taken and Mrs. Rojas announced that the prettiest and most photogenic person in class was Ramona--a shy Mexican girl. The blondes were shocked, Ramona blossomed with new self-confidence and the rest of us were struck by the notion that a Mexican could be considered beautiful" (p. 86).
   
   "It was great to be popular in Mexico by acting out being an American, because in the United States I certainly didn't feel like one" (p. 112).
   
   " Those Americans found Mexicans in Mexico charming, but those same Mexicans, it seemed, quickly lost their "charm" once in the United States. My cousins were proud, and being snubbed left them with little desire to explore beyond the small-town prejudices. They did not return" (p. 114).



2. Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir is a great addition to the narrow field of autobiographies by Mexican American women! Well written and honest, this memoir will help readers, teens and adults, experience what it was like to grow up as a working class Mexican American girl in Arizona and California in the 1950's and 60's. In spite of our cultural differences, after reading this book I feel a kinship to this author. I believe that Rose and I could have been friends if we had gone to school together. I look forward to her next memoir because I sense there is much more of her life story that needs to be told.



3. We haven't read the book yet, but our eleven-year-old, grand daughter did. She liked it so much, that she patterned her school report about her grandmother on it.



4. Teens will be moved and inspired by Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir, "Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America" (Heyday Books, $11.95 paperback). The chapters in this richly detailed book arose from a series of essays first published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
   Guilbault is best known as an award-winning broadcast and print journalist who now is vice president of corporate affairs at the Automobile Association of America of Northern California. Her memoir recounts the intellectual, cultural and emotional trek from her youth in the border town of Nogales, Mexico, to growing up in California's Salinas Valley. Guilbault fights bigotry, economic hardship and sexism. She eventually finds success in the world of words -- although the phrase "I can't" has no place in her vocabulary. [This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]



5. These biographical vignettes surely represent the experiences of many immigrants to the US. But they also describe the problems faced by most families as they struggle with the challenges of personal differences, adolescence, bad luck, and poor decisions. As a result it failed to inspire either my sympathy for the characters or a sense of need for immigration and/or social reform. Sadly, it is boring. The style is not professional; it is not even "good writing". I expected a story of hope and inspiration or a call to activism but was disappointed. I regret my reaction. Perhaps it would have been different had the story been told by a seasoned author.

No comments about Ten Hispanic American Authors (Collective Biographies).

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2 comments about The Border Patrol Ate My Dust.

1. This book is a superb collection of real-life adventures. Some are a few pages, while others are several pages. All share a common theme: In first-person narrative, they tell the story of a person from Latin America who is heading to the USA to find a better life. Each story is quite distinct, due to the narrators' age and gender differences, their available resources, their life experiences they have left behind, and what they expect to find awaiting in the USA. In each story I became acquainted with a unique person of different aspirations. Translated from the Spanish, these are day-by-day accounts from good storytellers, describing that important transition of their life when they left poverty behind. Entering the USA illegally is difficult, expensive and dangerous. Some have died trying. In these stories, we read about tragic situations and even some comical ones, as our narrators do everything they can to evade capture from the ever-present border patrol. Though sometimes it looks like capture is imminent, the reader keeps in mind that these are the lucky ones that made it. They arrived here safely, and now have quite the story to share with us.
   
   Regardless of one's opinions concerning the "immigration issue", anyone reading these stories would want these people to make it safely across. They describe their hopes and dreams that any normal person could relate to. They also describe terrible economic hardships in their homelands. It would seem there is no other option than to go to the USA. In one particularly memorable story, a young narrator describes leaving his mother and little sisters behind. The mother and girls were crying. The narrator told them not to cry and promised to send back money after he reached the USA. He set out on foot and had food for barely two days. Many weeks passed before he could send back word that he had arrived safely in the USA. It was enough time that his family feared he had died. The truth was that he almost had, after several days in the desert!
   
   In conclusion, these are fascinating stories, and I highly recommend them. But how much better the world would be if they were only fiction...



2. Southern California radio personality Alicia Alarcon invited her immigrant listeners to call in and share their stories: The Border Patrol Ate My Dust (translated into English by Ethriam Cash Brammer de Gonzales) is her recorded collection of these stories of hardship and deprivation suffered by those who struggled to enter this country. Natural and man-made obstacles are recounted in recollections of making it across the border and making a new life in America.

No comments about An Organizer's Tale: Speeches (Penguin Classics).

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1 comments about De León, a Tejano Family History.

1. Every now and then you luck into a beautifully produced book which changes your frame of reference. "De Leon" is as close to telling us about who we are and what made our nation as any I've read.
   You don't have to be an historian or a scholar or someone with a particular interest in Mexican American history to realize that the De Leon story, in Crimm's telling, is as engaging, exciting, and moving as any part of our American story. "De Leon" offers an understanding not just of a piece of family history but of a whole landscape, storied but unfamiliar to many of us. Highly recommended!

No comments about The Life & Times of Willie Velásquez (The Hispanic Civil Rights Series).

1 comments about House with the Blue Bed.

1. Arteaga's anecdotes are vivid; Each packed with wit, sarcasm and intelligent thought. I highly recommend this book as one of my all-time favorites.