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Taking hold : from migrant childhood to Columbia University

by Jiménez, Francisco, 1943-

Format: Print Book 2015
Availability: Unavailable 0 copies

Summary
In this fourth book in his award-winning memoir series, Francisco Jimenez leaves everything behind in California--a loving family, a devoted girlfriend, and the culture that shaped him-- to attend Columbia University in New York City.  

With few true accounts of the Latino experience in America, Francisco Jimenez's work comes alive with telling details about the warmth and resiliency of family and the quest for identity against seemingly impossible odds.

"Many [students] have commented that your books give them hope and coruage and, thanks to you, many are seriously thinking about college for the first time in their lives" --John Padula, teacher, Boston Public Schools

Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Following Reaching Out (2008), this is the fourth in the series of fictionalized memoirs documenting Jiménez's life in the U.S. as a Mexican immigrant. Now far removed from his life as a poor migrant farm worker, Jiménez begins this account with his arrival in New York to begin graduate studies at Columbia University. With characteristic grace and insight, he describes his new life in the grit and crush of Manhattan, the initial alienation of being a misfit among peers for whom Ivy League life is an extension of home, and the strain of missing his family and girlfriend in California. This is also the story of how Jiménez became politically aware. In the anti-Vietnam demonstrations, the assassination of Dr. King, and the literature of the Mexican revolution, he finds the language with which to understand the depth and meaning of the words of his literary mentor, José Martí: Anything that divides men from each other, that separates them, singles them out, or hems them in, is a sin against humanity. --Chaudhri, Amina Copyright 2015 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Additional Information
Subjects Jiménez, Francisco, -- 1943- -- Juvenile fiction.
Jiménez, Francisco, -- 1943- -- Fiction.
Columbia University -- Juvenile fiction.
Columbia University -- Fiction.
Mexican Americans -- Juvenile fiction.
Mexican American families -- Juvenile fiction.
Migrant agricultural laborers -- Juvenile fiction.
College students -- Juvenile fiction.
Mexican Americans -- Fiction.
Family life -- Fiction.
Agricultural laborers -- Fiction.
College students -- Fiction.
Coming of age -- Fiction.
California -- Social life and customs -- Juvenile fiction.
New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Juvenile fiction.
California -- Fiction.
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.
Autobiographical fiction.
Bildungsromans.
Publisher Boston :Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,2015
Language English
Notes Autobiographical fiction.
Sequel to: The circuit, Reaching out, and Breaking through.
Description 191 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm
ISBN 9780547632308
0547632304
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