CITIZEN PABLO

Twelve-year-old Pablo reluctantly leaves his native Mexican village when his family turns wetback. Life in the United States is hard for the family: living accommodations are poor, the work is hard, and finally death claims the younger Sanchez child, the beautiful Rosa. Filled with anger and rebellion at this country whose language and ways he cannot understand, Pablo shuts love from his heart, until- with the help of understanding teachers and friends- he finds the security which comes from being able to communicate in a common language. Pablo's development and his resolution to return to Mexico and reenter the United States on a legal basis, his ardent wish to become a citizen, make up the dramatic core of this sympathetic and persuasive exposition of the Mexican's predicament in Western United States.