Change and Instability
The Circuit, a collection of autobiographical linked stories by Francisco Jiménez, follows the Jiménez family as they weather one big life change after another, starting with their move to California from Mexico in search of a better life. As itinerant farm laborers in California, young Francisco (the narrator) and his family are always on the move, going wherever they can find work. They feel the strain of this endless moving, since they are always…
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Immigrants, Discrimination, and Injustice
Francisco, the narrator and protagonist of The Circuit, moves with his family to California from Mexico in search of a better life. They slip under the border fence and arrive as undocumented immigrants, and as a result, they live in constant fear that they might be caught and deported. Through their experiences, Jiménez shows that immigrants in the United States face discrimination from people as well as policy, and he argues that this…
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Childhood vs. Adulthood
Francisco (the protagonist of The Circuit) and his family illegally cross the border from Mexico into California when Francisco is a young child, and he views the event as an exciting adventure. Through the course of the novel, Francisco grows into a teen who better understands the precariousness of his family’s situation as undocumented immigrants. Like his father, whom he calls Papá, and his older brother, Roberto, Francisco begins to feel a…
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Family and Community
The world of The Circuit is filled with hardships, but the bright spots in the characters’ otherwise melancholy lives are the connections they share with one another. The narrator, Francisco, and his family illegally cross the border from Mexico into California and make a living as itinerant laborers. Life is stressful for the family as they struggle to make ends meet, but their close, loving relationships with one another help to bolster them in…
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