Santa Clara University

Breaking Through

I lived in constant fear for ten long years, from the time I was four until I was fourteen years old.... What I feared the most happened...when I was in my eighth-grade social studies class at El Camino Junior High School in Santa Maria. I was getting ready to recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, which our class had to memorize.... “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness....” I was ready. After the bell rang, Miss Ehlis, my English and social studies teacher, began to take roll. She was interrupted by a knock on the door. When she opened it, I saw the school principal and a man behind him. As soon as I saw the green uniform, I panicked. I felt like running, but my legs would not move. I trembled and could feel my heart pounding against my chest as though it too wanted to escape.... At that point I wished I were someone else, someone with a different name.... I followed the immigration officer out of the classroom and into his car marked BORDER PATROL.

—Excerpt from Breaking Through by Francisco Jiménez

Francisco Jiménez immigrated with his family to California from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, and as a child he worked in the fields of California. He is currently the Fay Boyle Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and director of the Ethnic Studies Program at Santa Clara University. He earned his B.A. from SCU and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Latin American literature from Columbia University under a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. An autiobiographical story, Breaking Through has won numerous awards and honors, including the American Library Association’s Pura Bupré Authors Honor Book Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Book Award, and the Américas Award. It was also selected for the Silicon Valley Reads: One Book, One Community Reading Program for the winter, 2003.