Introduction
Moving still by Francisco Jimenez is the story that depicts an immigrant family that aspires for home and normal life. This autobiographic narration runs about the author’s childhood experience in California and desperate searching of his family for a better life. Moving from place to place, the family was deported back to Mexico. The mere goal of the family was to find a good job and a real home. The story shows that despite the family’s cooperation and mutual effort, still migrated people were not welcome in California.
Family comes first
The Mexican families appreciated labor work so that the authors intended to show the hard life of farmworkers. The fruits and vegetables they planted and cultivated were of great value for them since it was the main sense of their existence. The Tent City, where the family lived reminded a labor camp guided by the migration officers. The atmosphere of fear and poverty forced the families to break the rules and to overcome the frontier in the pursuit of welfare. The lack of money and father’s illness influenced the decision to move illegally to California. Throughout their travel, the author shows the family’s enthusiasm and patience in overcoming the borders both material and moral.
The importance of language
A willingness to live in California made the family sacrifice their traditions and forget their roots. The family lived in constant fear to tell “a soul that you were born in Mexico” (Jimenez, 1997 p. 115). That mortified them and made them feel suspicious. They were forced to lie to gain the right to existence. Still, the members managed to preserve the Mexican tradition of the priority of family relationships. The enormous hope and desire to work were the highest values for the family. Owing to this, not all members were complaining about the conditions they live in California since each one was conscious of responsibility and necessity and dependence for each other. As it can be seen from the story, the author tried to show the mutual love for each other in the family.
The idea of individuality coincides with the idea of community
The story also emphasized the significant role of community in Mexican culture since no matter what individuals do, all their deeds were directed at the well-being of other members. In that regard, the idea of individuality is closely connected with the idea of community and consolidation that was highly appraised by the migrated Mexicans living in insecurity and distrust. In the story, the teachers in Santa Maria did their best to help their pupils’ families. Hence, Mr. Sims, the principal of Main Street School, helped Roberto in finding a part-time job realizing the calamity his family lived. Due to Robert’s conscious feeling of responsibility, the job was a real treasure for him since it allowed him to contribute to the welfare of the family (Jimenez, 1997, p. 125). Consequently, the priority was always left to the family relationships and family virtues. Additionally, the story itself embraces all the family values and learns how to avoid the feeling of inferiority and frustration.
In Moving Still, Francisco Jimenez showed what is like to be a child and hide from the “green” officers to stay in the country. With no permanent schooling and no hope for a diligent education, the Panchito tried to be involved in the learning process and study his favorite subjects. Besides, apart from school, he was forced to do some farm work and plant carrots and lettuce so that the family could have some additional savings. In school, he tried to fit all the requirements of the teachers and to get better marks. Returning to Santa Maria, Francisco and his brother enjoyed the study in school because it was the only place where they could feel equal. Like all children, Francisco was not deprived of curiosity and was always eager to explore his knowledge by constantly asking numerous questions. However, his rigorous desire to teach was due to his striving for stability since knowledge was the only thing that stayed with him forever. Despite moving from one place to another, knowledge empowered him with a feeling of possessing something that nobody could take from him so that learning and school symbolized the stability that he and his family lacked so much.
The human rights of Mexican immigrants are ignored
Moving Still also discloses a desperate faith of Mexican people in the equality of human rights. In the story, Jimenez tells about the way Panchito was to learn by heart the issues from the American constitution. Overwhelmed with his plans for the future and inspired by the lines from the Declaration of independence, Francisco was confident that their family would finally gain their home. The statements of the American Declaration only emphasized the rigid social superiority of Americans over Mexican farm workers whose children were forced to learn about the “inalienable rights” for “the pursuit of happiness”. Those phrases constitute the gap between the two cultures and prove the Mexican calamitous situation. The end of the story shows that these words are not destined for ordinary Mexican workers. Instead, the migrated people feel the alien atmosphere where there was no opportunity to achieve the desired happiness, home.
The conditions of life were one more reason for the migration process. The detailed description of Mexico dwellings make to think over the actual states of living of Latin-Americans:
“The barracks were still the same. Mr. Bonnetti, the owner, continued to ignore them. Looking like the victims of war, the dwellings had broken windows, part of the walls missing, and large holes in the roofs. Scattered throughout the ranch were old, rusty pieces of farm machinery” (Jimenez, 120).
The writer chose the term “dwelling” but not “home” or “house” for the places the family lived thus showing this miserable existence of Mexican people and approving their need for a real home. The story helped to capture the disastrous conditions of life in Santa Maria. The writer wanted the reader to have a better idea of Mexican family life based on collaboration and fidelity to the home. Therefore, the main goal of the story lied in the depiction of a layer of society that was outrageously ignored.
Conclusion
In general, the migration process in California was framed as the result of the economical instability of the undeveloped countries and the labor market of America. In this respect, the migrated people were considered as effective agricultural labor but not as the people who suffered from pain and humiliation and who were restricted in their human rights (Waldinger et al. p. 231). In particular, the Mexican immigrants were not accepted by the native population and thus were neither heard nor seen. The illegal status of immigrants allowed treating them as subordinates but not as equals that were subjected to the pejorative attitude and constant persecutions.
Reference
Jimenez, F. (1997), “Moving Still.” The circuit: stories from the life of a migrant child. US: UNM Press.
Waldinger, R. D., and Litcher, M. I. (2003). How the Other half Works: Immigration and Social Organization of Labor US: University of California Press.