The Circuit - reflections

I really liked The Circuit. I enjoyed this text because it was very simple, yet communicated very complex feelings and emotions about the author’s experience as an immigrant, as an “other,” as a child, and as a sibling. One of the things I noticed again and again is how much this text spoke to me and my own experience in life, even though the experiences and memories themselves are so vastly different.

Jimenez creates a very careful balance between extraordinary life experiences and universal understandings of family, pride, and home. I have never experienced the difficulty and tribulation that Jimenez went through with his family… but I have felt excluded at times for reasons beyond my control; I have seen the expression my mother wears when she feels that she has somehow disappointed us, and I know how painful that is to see. The chapter titled “Christmas Gift” spoke to me in a special way because of this. Additionally, “Soledad” brought me back to a very specific memory of my childhood as well. I once tried to surprise my parents by cleaning the kitchen – I must have been four at the time. My parents were getting ready to have company over, as I recall, and were very busy straightening the house up. Wanting to help, I brought out the mop and got to work on the floors, doing the best job I knew how to do. I don’t recall where I learned how to mop floors, but I apparently was doing it wrong. Ultimately, I got yelled at and sent to my room. I remember hiding my face in my pillow, thinking of how unfair it was that I was being punished for helping in the best way I knew how. In “Soledad,” Francisco works tirelessly all day picking cotton in hopes to impress his parents, in hope that he will someday be able to go with them to work to help the family. When his family comes home, his parents are upset that he forsook his job of watching the younger sibling, and his father becomes angrier still when he finds out that Francisco included dirt clods in his pile of picked cotton. Francisco has not yet learned lessons on honesty and integrity, and does not know where he has gone wrong. Francisco describes himself as being timid, hurt, and confused. I felt the same exact way.

Another reason that I enjoyed this text is for its ability to work as a comprehensive narrative, and for a collection of stand-alone narratives broken up into chapters. Each chapter seems to have its own unique reflection and theme, though they all tie into the larger whole.

Still another reason that I enjoyed reading this text is because there always seemed to be a silver lining to the hardships endured, even though at some times that glimmer of hope seemed very bleak and dull. Though the family is constantly moving and facing challenges at every turn, there always seems to be something worth hoping for. Though the memoir ends painfully, with Roberto’s dream job being dashed and Francisco being picked up by border patrol just before reciting the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence, we know by reading the book jacket that the author learned and developed from his tough experiences as a child, and took advantage of opportunities afforded to him later in life, eventually immigrating with his family to California, and earning a PhD from Columbia University.

On another note, one of the things that I did not like about this book is the diction. Having graduated with majors in English and Spanish, I have read many texts with the kind of cross-over diction that Jimenez employs, and I have been annoyed by it every single time. I’m not sure why some authors choose to write mostly in one language with a smattering of words in another language as if they fit together naturally. I understand using nicknames in a native tongue in a memoir like this, but it seems to me that Jimenez uses some Spanish words simply for the sake of using Spanish words. Is this meant to make the text more authentic to the reader? If so, I wish Jimenez would trust the authenticity of his memories to stand on their own. If it’s simply a stylistic choice, then I think it’s an ugly one.