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MY MIGRANT FAMILY STORY/LA HISTORIA DE MI FAMILIA MIGRANTE by Lilia García

MY MIGRANT FAMILY STORY/LA HISTORIA DE MI FAMILIA MIGRANTE

by Lilia García

Pub Date: Oct. 31st, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55885-780-3
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público

For years as a child, García would travel north from Texas with her parents and 11 siblings as they worked the various fields picking tomatoes, strawberries and other produce. This succinct bilingual memoir presents the experience through brief vignettes.

The author recalls the rituals of the journey: wrapping the dishes the night before leaving; meticulously packing everything in boxes and bags; hauling the parcels to the pickup truck and camper that would be the family’s home on the road. Specific landmarks and changes in geography revealed how far they had traveled and how many miles were yet ahead. In Michigan, they reached their second home, known as Ponderosa Place, where the family worked the harvest season. As the youngest, the author did not join the others in field work but attended school, which was difficult for her as the only bilingual child. The memoir, appropriate in length and level for emerging independent readers, is heartfelt and direct. However, details that might make it resonate more deeply are sparse. The child’s experience of traveling with a family of migrant workers is presented, but the relationships within the family are not explored outside of the author’s appreciation for her family’s hard work and sacrifice.

A warm, yet slightly distant, recollection of a childhood on the road.

(bilingual) (Memoir. 7-11)