This Migrant Earth is Rolando Hinojosa's re-casting into English of the novel that is the basis of the modern Chicano literary movement: Tomas Rivera's ... y no se lo trago la tierra. Rivera's memorable book was awarded the first national award for Chicano literature in 1970 and has since become the standard text in U.S. Hispanic literature courses throughout the country. Three years after Rivera's death, his friend and fellow novelist Rolando Hinojosa captured the spirit and poetry of Rivera's original for an English-language audience.

This is a joint publication of Berkeley and Floricanto Presses. "Migrant Earth" very eloquently documents the travels and travails of a family of Mexican migrant workers as they wander the Western United States in the nineteen forties and fifties. These are poignant tales that paint the life and death struggle of a family living on the periphery of a dominant white culture that simultaneously loathed and needed them. They owned but the clothes on their backs and lived in rat infested, dilapidated agricultural labor camps throughout the Pacific Northwest. They worked from sunup to sundown in pesticide laced fields under scorching, unrelenting summer suns. While wandering the countryside working the fields-White society was too genteel to harvest-they dreamed of better times and the safety of a piece of land they could call home. Ultimately they were able to save enough to purchase a small thirty acre farm in Eastern Washington. But just when the hard life seemed over, his padres divorced and mama with nine children in tow was sent back on the migrant labor circuit. Senor Ledesma's writes passionately about a hard as nails papa he feared but who taught him to love the land and respect hard work. He credits his mama for teaching him the transformative nature of dreams. If he took them seriously, she explained a thousand times, they would save him from the brutal life that tragically killed his four older siblings. Migrant Earth is historical and hopeful. Until now Senor Ledesma's stories have been too painful to talk about. His stories lie quietly in the shadows of a middle class life with no resemblance to where his family began or what they experienced. This book is about how those experiences shaped what he and his siblings became. These stories talk about the long journey of hope that brought them out of those desperate times. The voice you hear throughout the book is that of a frightened child living a life no child should live, trying in vain to make sense of who he was, where he was and what he saw . . . fearful he would never make it out of the camps alive. In our country's present, contentious debate over immigration policy, Migrant Earth is helpful in bringing to light the subculture of the migrant workers in America. Through education comes understanding and understanding can lead to a more humane view of those of us who have sacrificed health and life to bring our nation's food to our tables. Ramon Ledesma again invites readers into the world of his youth as a migrant worker through evocative poetry and prose. In stories both heartbreaking and bursting with joy, Ledesma deftly shares his family and life experiences in imagery so vivid and words so powerful you will feel like you were there. The visit into his world is a journey well worth taking. -Laura Gjovaag, "Daily Sun News" -Reporter Senor Ledesma was born in Toppenish, Washington, into a family of sixteen brothers and sisters. He spent his formative years living and working in migrant labor camps throughout the Pacific Northwest. He is a Vietnam veteran. He attended Eastern Washington State College, now Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, earning a BA with majors in history and sociology and a minor in anthropology. He also earned a master's in counseling. He worked as a mental health therapist for thirty-eight years before retiring in 2012. He now devotes himself to writing. He lives with his wife, Kendra, a high school mathematics teacher on ten acres in rural Sedro Woolley, Washington.

Every generation or so, we are served a compelling reminder of migrant farmwork and of the men, women, and children whose daily hardships put the food on our tables. Now to the ranks of John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange, James Agee, Walker Evans, and Edward R. Morrow, add Nancy Buirski. Nancy Buirski traversed the country for four years to create this book, a sensitive portrait of a forgotten society. Her subject is the unique lives of those she has photographed: migrant farmworker children. They are the children caught in a life of poverty and backbreaking work whose moves from place to place leave them lacking in self-confidence and lagging behind in school. at sunrise, many can be found in the fields, where they are exposed to dangerous pesticides as they work. At day's end, exhausted, they go home to substandard shacks. The children in these pages are appealing and heroic and not easily forgotten. It is not often these days that pictures can make us think. Buirski's elegant and interpretive photographs show us the private realities as well as the social realities of these unchampioned children and let us see what is happening to the thousands of underage youngsters working today in America's farms.--From jacket flap

For use in schools and libraries only. Examines in English and Spanish the lives of migrant workers moving from south Texas up through the Plains, and the experiences of all ages and sexes

"What makes this book so important is that it allows us to see into the lives of those who do the stoop labor to put that lovely salad on our tables. With These Hands is a unique and valuable documentary work that skillfully presents the voices of laborers and others, helping us to understand our connection to the world of America's farmworkers."—Studs Terkel

ñI tell you, God could care less about the poor. Tell me, why must we live here like this? What have we done to deserve this? YouÍre so good and yet you suffer so much,î a young boy tells his mother in Tomàs RiveraÍs classic novel about the migrant worker experience. Outside the chicken coop that is their home, his father wails in pain from the unbearable cramps brought on by sunstroke after working in the hot fields. The young boy canÍt understand his parentsÍ faith in a god that would impose such horrible suffering, poverty and injustice on innocent people. Adapted into the award-winning film ƒand the earth did not swallow him and recipient of the first award for Chicano literature, the Premio Quinto Sol, in 1970, RiveraÍs masterpiece recounts the experiences of a Mexican-American community through the eyes of a young boy. Forced to leave their home in search of work, the migrants are exploited by farmers, shopkeepers, even other Mexican Americans, and the boy must forge his identity in the face of exploitation, death and disease, constant moving and conflicts with school officials. In this new edition of a powerful novel comprised of short vignettes, Rivera writes hauntingly about alienation, love and betrayal, man and nature, death and resurrection and the search for community.