But I also love talking to teachers and librarians about this little guy from Crystal City, Texas, whose parents did not speak English, and whose parents didn’t have much money. They were migrant workers. Most students today do not know what those words mean. School after school, I say, “What are migrant workers?” And unless the teacher has done work before my visit, students do not know that.
So, that means they are growing up believing that those strawberries and tomatoes arrive at the store on their own. So, it’s important that people realize that that is really hard stoop labor, and that the living conditions of migrant workers are still deplorable. And we’re talking about right in our own country. And the way migrant students can be treated in schools can still be sort of an embarrassment.
The book is about this journey that he makes. Throughout the book, he’s a child; but he has had a transforming experience. And, of course, I believe in the power of teachers and librarians with my whole heart. And in many ways, this book embodies that that because of this one person who is there for him, who takes an interest in him, who helps him with his reading and in the book I have him teach her Spanish, because I want that notion of balance, that we’re both learning.
He goes on and, as I tell students when I visit schools, he experienced tremendous discrimination. He had a degree in English, but he was hired to drive the school bus. The notion was, how could a Mexican-American teach English?
So, his secret, though, was that he kept learning. And that’s what I tell students. He kept learning. He kept getting more and more degrees. And, eventually, he was a faculty member, and then he was a vice president. And then he became the president of the University of California at Riverside.
So, it’s a great example to talk about the idea that it isn’t money that’s going to be essential for personal success for students. He comes from a family without that. It is really his determination, his love of learning and the fact that there was an educator in this case, a librarian who helped open that world of books for him. And many times when I read the books, teachers and librarians will themselves come up and say, “There was someone like that in my life.” So, how can we be that for the next generation is the question.
