A biography of writer Tomás Rivera--just right for beginning readers

Tomàs Rivera quite possibly has been the most influential voice in Chicano literature. Besides his masterpiece, ƒy no se lo tragÑ la tierra / ƒAnd the Earth Did Not Devour Him, included here is the sum total of his published works, in English and Spanish, as well as many that never made print in his lifetime.

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

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.

Tomàs RiveraÍs The Searchers: Collected Poetry, edited by Juliàn Olivares, contains the twenty-six poems the late author published and an equal number which the editor discovered among the authorÍs literary papers. In The Searchers, in taut but impassioned lyrics, Tomàs Rivera celebrates the common experience of humanity and renews his search for the encounter of the self, community, the past and the continuity of the dead through the living. Tomàs Rivera is the author of the now classic Chicano novel ƒ y no se lo tragÑ la tierra/ƒ and the earth did not devour him and the short story collection The Harvest.

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 novel, originally written in Spanish, explores the lives of young Mexican American migrant workers as they struggle to find hope for a brighter future.