Francisco Jiménez wrote the story called “The Circuit”. The story was kind of heartbreaking but it is a good story though. It is also pretty short but it is enjoyable reading material. It’s something that you would continue reading after first page of the story.
I looked at the Spanish words and to see if I know any of it because I took Spanish class for one semester in my senior year. But unfortunately, I do not know what any of these words means. These words are: ‘Ya esora’, ‘Carcanchita’, ‘listo’, ‘mi olla’, ‘es todo’,’tienen que tener cuidado’, ‘vámonos’, quince’, and ‘carne con chile’.
So I decided to look it up on Spanish to English translation, and the translation may not always be right but you get the idea what it means. ‘Ya esora’ is not translatable, but from what I see, it seems to mean ready or time to go. ‘Carcanchita’ is an affectionate nickname being given to a car. ‘Listo’ means ready, ‘mi olla’ means ‘my pot.’ ‘Es todo’ means ‘that’s all’ in English. ’Tienen que tener cuidado’ means ‘we have to be careful.’ ‘Vámonos’ means ‘let’s go’ and ‘quince’ means ‘fifteen.’ Lastly, ‘carne con chile’ means ‘chili with meat.’
I am glad that I decided to look it up because it made the story clearer because I now know what these words mean. I want to know why not the boy in the story goes to school right way instead of waiting for the grape season to be over? Why not let his older brother take over the grape picking and let his little brother to go to school? I wonder what happens if they boy did not hide from the school bus? Will his parents get in trouble for it?
Why would they move to Fresno? Is the economy better there? Why would the boy’s father think that the previous owner of the car is a good man based on the blue necktie? Why would the boy’s mother proud of the old pot and get even more prouder when it get more banged up? That sounds crazy. If it was I, I would have threw it away. I wonder where did the boy’s mother learn English? Is it her native language before she learned Spanish? Why did the author leave the ending like that?
I thought it was horrible of the man to give the family a run-down garage as a home. It is barely holding itself up and is infested with termites. It talks about drinking too much water could make you sick. I know pretty well about this because I have experienced it when I drank too much after basketball game, I felt horrible because too much water in one drink. Also you could die from drinking too much, it is called water poisoning.
Also it talked about how the boy was very sore after working all day in the field. That he was sore for a while then finally got used to workload. I could relate to him because I workout everyday in the Field House building. I get sore every time I up the weight, but when I get used to it, then I am not sore anymore. So I totally understand how the boy feels.
I thought it was wonderful that the boy finally could go to school as a sixth grade student because the grape season is over. The grape season is over in the first week of November. But I felt bad about Roberto not able to go to school because he still has to work in cotton season, which is not over until February. It was sad that the boy was so overwhelmed in the class because he knows only basic English. I thought the teacher was very nice to help him with English and this made the boy excited to go back to school because he knows that he is going to learn something new.
I was very disappointed with the end of the story because the boy was so excited that he goes to that school and that he is going to learn music. Which is corridos, it is frequently used in Mexico by everyone. He was so excited that he wanted to tell the good news to his parents but he was let down in the end. Why? When he arrived back home, what he gets is that everything is packed again, this means that he is moving again. I thought it was horrible for him because he only got a taste of middle school for one day.
I learned a lot from this book, mostly on Spanish words and terms. Also learning the name of chili and music that Mexicans eat and uses. I gained little more knowledge of Spanish words, I am planning to take Spanish as my class next semester and this is a good way to start learning some Spanish. I am glad that I was hooked at first page of the story and kept reading to the end.
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