106 pages • 3 hours read
Francisco JiménezBreaking Through
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | YA | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Strawberries
Strawberries are the predominant crop that Mexican laborers are employed to harvest in the late 1940s, and the fruit figures heavily into the narrative. The first person to truly attempt to help Papa in establishing his family in the US legally is Ito, a Japanese sharecropper who hires the family as pickers. He also helps Papa fill out paperwork in order to obtain a green card. The author details all the physical consequences of picking produce, noting that he and his older brother, Roberto, in order to ease their back pain, would take “[…] turns lying flat on our stomachs in the furrows and pressing down on each other’s backs with our hands” (23).
Years later, when Francisco excels in typing class, Mama laughingly comments that “You’re a typing machine […] You got fast fingers from picking strawberries” (93). While strawberries give the family the opportunity to earn a meager income, they are responsible for Papa’s undoing. Violating his own rule about never borrowing money from a bank, he does so in order to purchase a six-acre patch of strawberries with a partner in an effort to make a profit as a sharecropper. He works all day, picking for Ito, and then brings his oldest sons to work with him until dusk. When a blight attacks and kills the plants and Papa’s investment, the author notes that “From that day on, Papa’s spirit began to die too” (53).
Cars
Roberto teaches Francisco to drive by using the Santa Maria Window Cleaners van, and Francisco’s work schedule necessitates his use of the family car to get to his janitor’s job before and after school. He is mortified by their old DeSoto, which “[…] had been in a wreck” (109). Possessed of a non-functioning driver’s window and a front passenger door that is secured with a rope, the car is humiliating to Francisco. Despite his humility and willingness to endure all manner of difficulties in order to help support the family, he despises being seen in the car and parks a long distance away in order to avoid being seen by classmates when he is driving it.
Roberto, on the other hand, is the proud owner of a pristine Buick, upon which he lavishes great amounts of care and attention. He equips it with a stereo system and custom upholstery, and “[…] he took pride when people gawked at his car” (111). After realizing how embarrassed Francisco is about the DeSoto, Roberto arranges to drive him to work each morning and help him with cleaning the Western Union office. Cars may be seen as attainable status symbols that are within range for these young men. While housing, clothes and spare cash are problematic, they take solace in the concept of driving a car that is envied by others.
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Francisco discovers Elvis Presley when he and Roberto live alone in California, awaiting the return of the rest of the family from Mexico. He becomes interested in contemporary music while listening to his classmates discuss it during recess at school, in an effort to make friends. The brothers start to listen to rock and roll on the radio. Francisco, who loves music and dancing, volunteers to lip synch an Elvis song during a rainy-day recess. While he endures some initial teasing about a Mexican singing Elvis, he is greeted with applause. Francisco becomes so enamored of the music genre that he persuades Roberto to attend Vets dances with him, and the pair “[…] meet girls and make new friends” (35).Generally, Francisco adheres to the traditional cultural tenets of his Mexican family; however, rock ‘n’ roll music may be seen as symbolizing his initial approach to American teenage culture.
Baths
Because the family resides in an abandoned Army barracks, they are not equipped with bathroom plumbing. Throughout the book, the author alludes to various important life events which are preceded by his taking a bath in an aluminum tub in a shed adjacent to the barracks. He frequently alludes to using Fab laundry detergent and bleach in order to remove dirt acquired while working in the fields. His arrival at gym class in high school is joyfully anticipated, as Roberto has advised him that he will be able to take hot showers in the school bathrooms; the author also looks forward to doing so in his college dorm.
Related Titles
By Francisco Jiménez
