Immigrants, Discrimination, and Injustice Theme Analysis

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 leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and injustices.

In The Circuit, Francisco and his family are often discriminated against after they arrive in the United States—and Jiménez shows that these experiences are especially difficult for young immigrant children. When Francisco enters school as a first grader, he is perplexed by the experience, since he doesn’t understand any English. Instead of trying to make him feel at ease, his teacher, Miss Scalapino, reprimands him when she overhears him speaking in Spanish to a classmate. Jiménez writes that “she said ‘NO!’ with body and soul. Her head turned left and right a hundred times a second and her index finger moved from side to side as fast as a windshield wiper on a rainy day.” Miss Scalapino’s emphatic reaction implies that she thinks there’s something inherently wrong with Francisco’s first language, and that it’s not worthy of being accepted into the school. Teachers like her seem to have punished immigrant students like Francisco for their circumstances rather than trying to help them succeed. In a later story called “Moving Still,” Francisco is an older student and has a much better grasp on the English language. Still, he is self-conscious about what he calls his “Mexican pronunciation.” Although he can’t hear it himself, he knows he has “a thick accent” because kids often tease him when he speaks English. When Francisco has the opportunity to earn extra credit in class by making a presentation, he declines because he is afraid his peers will mock his accent. His classmates’ cruel reaction to his pronunciation makes him feel inferior and embarrassed.

Jiménez also shows that American policy discriminates against immigrants, since they are automatically excluded from the ideals and principles on which the United States is built. When Francisco is eventually arrested by immigration officers in “Moving Still,” the book’s final story, it happens at school while he is memorizing the Declaration of Independence. The actions of the officers are in contrast with the words that Francisco is learning—they certainly do not acknowledge that immigrants like Francisco “are created equal” and that they have “certain inalienable rights,” among which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Since Jiménez draws the reader’s attention to these words right before Francisco is hauled away by the immigration officials, he seemingly wants to highlight the hypocrisy of these words. After all, they do not apply to undocumented immigrants like Francisco, who are seen as less than human in the eyes of the law. 

As a result of the constant discrimination that Francisco and his family face, they live in fear, and this leaves them open to further exploitation. Except for Francisco’s father, who has a green card that permits him to live and work in the United States, the other members of Francisco’s family don’t have immigration papers or visas. So, they are afraid that if they make themselves conspicuous, they run the risk of being identified and deported. As a result, they make a habit of lying low to avoid notice, and they do not speak out against any injustices they are forced to endure. For instance, Jiménez shows that farmers pay illegal immigrants like Francisco’s family a pitiable wage for the amount of work they do. Farmers exploit the undocumented workers’ fear and desperation for their own benefit, even though these laborers are crucial for their success. In another example, Francisco gets beaten up by another student when he’s in first grade, and he’s given detention even though he did nothing wrong. When he goes home and recounts this incident to his parents, they are “very upset but relieved that [Francisco] did not disrespect the teacher.” They do not protest on his behalf or try to clear his name, since they do not want to draw attention to themselves. As a result, Francisco and his siblings, too, learn that they must endure their troubles quietly, which makes their entire family vulnerable to more injustice.

Jiménez shows that the American Dream—the idea that all people in the United States have an equal opportunity at success and stability—is unattainable for many immigrants. Instead, Francisco and his family suffer indignities and exploitation and are granted no rights, which shows that all people are certainly not “created equal” in the eyes of American law.