Francisco Jiménez

Francisco Jiménez was born in 1943 in Tlaquepaque, Mexico. His family came to the United States illegally when he was four years old, and they worked as migrant laborers at various farms in California. Jiménez loved learning and yearned for an education, but he was only able to attend school sporadically, since he was expected to work in the fields during the busy times of the harvest. Still, he tried to teach himself as much as possible and studied during the short breaks he got while working in the fields. When Jiménez was in junior high school, immigration agents swept his school and caught him, and they deported his family back to Mexico. Jiménez documents these experiences from his early life in his autobiographical novel The Circuit. Jiménez’s family later returned to the United States legally, and this time, they settled down in the town of Santa Maria, California. In high school, Jiménez did extremely well and won scholarships to attend Santa Clara University, where he got a BA in Spanish. He then went to Columbia University, where he got his PhD in Latin American literature. Jiménez went on to become a professor at Santa Clara University, where he won many awards for his teaching. In 1997, he published The Circuit, which won numerous awards, including the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and the California Library Association’s 10th Annual John and Patricia Beatty Award. Jiménez has written several other books, including an award-winning picture book for young children called La Mariposa. He also published three sequels to The Circuit, which document the later events of his life. Jiménez has a wife, Laura, and three children. He’s currently a professor at Stanford University.