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About Reaching Out
Product Description From the perspective of the young adult he was then, Francisco Jiménez describes the challenges he faced in his efforts to continue his education. During his college years, the very family solidarity that allowed Francisco to survive as a child is tested. Not only must he leave his family behind when he goes to Santa Clara University, but while Francisco is there, his father abandons the family and returns to Mexico. This is the story of how Francisco coped with poverty, with his guilt over leaving his family financially strapped, with his self-doubt about succeeding academically, and with separation. Once again his telling is honest, true, and inspiring. Review "[Jimenez] does a thorough job . . . of describing the difficulties, such as feeling unprepared and disadvantaged when compared to others, that some first-generation college students face . . . There are several kind-hearted mentors and benefactors . . . These gestures of kindness offer readers hope. This book is recommended for the library that already has the first two books on its shelf."--VOYA (3Q3P) "No one who reads these life stories will forget them. Jiménez reaches out to let us walk in his shoes, feel his pain and pride, joy and sorrow, regrets and hope. All three books should be required reading for Californians. Students of Mexican heritage will see themselves. The rest of us will better understand what it takes to make this journey. And we'll all be hanging on for the next book."--Sacramento Bee, Living Here section (pg. D3) "In this eloquent, transfixing account, Jimenez again achieves a masterful addition to the literature of the memoir."--Smithsonian Magazine, Best Books of the Year 2008 About the Author Francisco Jiménez emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, to California, where he worked for many years in the fields with his family. He received both his master's degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now professor emeritus in the Modern Languages and LiteratureDepartment at Santa Clara University, the setting of much of his novel, Reaching Out. He is the award-winning author of The Circuit, Cajas de carton, Breaking Through, Senderos fronterizos, Mas Alla de mi, Taking Hold, The Christmas Gift/El Regalo de la Navidad and La Mariposa . He is the recipient of many national literary awards, among them arethe John Steinbeck Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Americas Award the Pura Belpré Honor Book Award, the Tomás Rivera BookAward, Reading the World Award, and the Carter C. Woodson National Book Award. He lives with his family in Santa Clara, California Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. <div>College Bound<br><br>The day I had longed for had finally arrived. It was Sunday, September 9, 1962. I felt excited and nervous as I got ready to make the trip north to Santa Clara. I had worked hard to make this journey to college even though it seemed improbable for so many years. I did not anticipate, however, how difficult it would be to leave my family, especially my older brother, Roberto.<br>Roberto and I had been inseparable ever since we were children living in El Rancho Blanco, a small village nestled on barren, dry hills in the northern part of the state of Jalisco, Mexico. I called him Toto” because when I was first learning to talk, I could not pronounce Roberto.” In Mexico, he used to take me to church on Sundays. In the evenings, he and I huddled with our parents around a fire built with dry cow chips in the middle of our adobe hut and listened to our uncle Mauricio tell ghost stories. I kept Roberto company every day while he milked our five cows by hand before dawn, and I helped him fetch water from the river. I cried every time Toto was out of my sight. Whenever I misbehaved, my parents punished me by separating me from him.<br>Hoping to leave our poverty behind and start a new and better life, my family emigrated illegally
