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About this book
Every year from April to October, the SĂĄnchez family traveledâcrowded 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, SaĂșl SĂĄnchez 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 SaĂșl 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, SĂĄnchez 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.
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 SaĂșl 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, SĂĄnchez 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.
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Yes, you can access Rows of Memory by Saul Sanchez in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword: Rows of Memory as an Exemplary Migrant Experience by Omar Valerio-Jiménez
- Introduction
- 1. The Spinach Capital of the World
- 2. Following the Migrant Trail North to Iowa and Minnesota
- 3. Leaving for California
- 4. The Migrant Experience from Birth to Age Five
- 5. A Crystal City Education
- 6. Joining the Workforce in Wisconsin
- 7. Compromises in Delano, Wind Lake, and Burlington
- 8. From La Grammar to Elk Grove Consolidated
- 9. Youthful Rebellion in Billings, Montana
- 10. Competition in Moses Lake, Washington
- 11. Crystal City High
- 12. New Beginnings in Iowa
- 13. Graduating from Crystal City
- 14. Hauling Tomatoes to the Heinz Plant
- 15. Experiments in the Iowa Fields
- 16. School and Work from Texas to East L.A.
- 17. Working the Rows between Classes
- 18. Using the Long Hoe in North Dakota
- 19. Adjusting to Academic Life in San Marcos
- 20. Leaving the Migrant Trail
- Notes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index