Customer Reviews

Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it's beautiful, descriptive passages. It is a very touching personal story, told through the eyes of a young Mexican-American girl, as she struggles to assimilate into a new culture and new life in California. Please read this book to better understand the Mexican-American experience, and to appreciate the sacrifices and struggles made by people trying to assimilate into another culture. I know you will love this book as much as I did!

I read this lovely book in one evening; I could not put it down. Castillo Guilbault writes with obvious affection of her childhood in Mexico and in California, and the book (like Francisco Jimenez's popular "Breaking Through") gave me new insights into the Mexican-American experience, especially in California (very interesting to me as a native Californian and a college instructor who has taught courses in Californian Literature and the California Dream). I am considering ordering this book for my beginning English students to read next semester, as I think many of them will relate to the story and that all of them will enjoy it.

This book intimately shares the life and observances of a young girl who is growing up in America while straddling two cultures. It's a poignant tribute to the everyday lives of hardworking family members who continue to celebrate their Mexican roots while pursuing the American dream - a compelling read!

Teens will be moved and inspired by Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir, "Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America" (Heyday Books, $11.95 paperback). The chapters in this richly detailed book arose from a series of essays first published in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Guilbault is best known as an award-winning broadcast and print journalist who now is vice president of corporate affairs at the Automobile Association of America of Northern California. Her memoir recounts the intellectual, cultural and emotional trek from her youth in the border town of Nogales, Mexico, to growing up in California's Salinas Valley. Guilbault fights bigotry, economic hardship and sexism. She eventually finds success in the world of words -- although the phrase "I can't" has no place in her vocabulary. [This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

A book must capture my attention on the first page and keep my interest throughout. The Farmworker's Daughter: Growing Up Mexican in America did just that and more! The author captured her young life on paper in an amazing manner! I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I was heartfelt! This is an easy read and one that I will pick up again and again just to relive the charm. WONDERFUL BOOK!!

Wanda Raney, Hayes, VA

The story of Rosela begins in Mexico, in a dry land where people need much and many times do not have enough. She and her mother take the journey up, to unknown lands with so much uncertainty...but with an incredible desire to see their lives amount to something other than a shunned, divorced mother and her fatherless daughter. Mexico will remain Rosela's identity throughout her memoir, sometimes she loves this fact, others ( like when she was a teen in the 60's she wishes it were not so) she wishes she could be, and especially look more like her blond American friends. She lives in time when immigrants lives were even more uncertain than they are today, a time when the Vietnam war was full force, and the excitable 60's and 70's were rolling through. I enjoyed reading about how this impacted her as a foreigner, and what the feelings were towards her during this time.

Rosela does not set the goals that would be acceptable for her to reach (as an immigrant in a small town), but she longs for dreams that will satisfy her, and fulfill her purpose. She grew up an outsider, but not only an outsider when she was in California, but also when she went on trips back to Mexico. Life is not easy, and mistakes are made, but Rosela's story is one of hope, dreams and much courage. I was honored to read Rose Castillo Gibault's memoir, the lessons she learned are not only for her situation, but I found them completely relatable. Because I could easily relate to this feeling of not fitting in very well, or depending on other's mercy to feel "at home", Farmworker's Daughter was that book that just feels right. Not pretentious, preachy or condemning, but just the right blend of truth, reality, and life.

The writing of Farmworker's Daughter was really great, I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the little girl, then adolescent, then college age woman. It had really good follow through and lead me on right to the end of the book very smoothly. I loved reading this book, check it out!



Here are some quotes ( I love quotes so I always have to include them!!):

"As a teenager I once asked my mother why she had left since she always talked about the greatness of Mexico. Maybe she had given up too much to come here, I suggested. She thoughtfully considered what I knew to be an impudent comment, and I immediately felt guilty. She shook her head sadly and looked into space, as if her gaze could travel back in time and pinpoint the precise moment she had made that momentous decision. [...] "There was nothing to loose. There was nothing for you and me.""(p. 23).

" Once I stepped outside my door, I was all alone and had to fend for myself. The only thing I feared more than school was disappointing my mother, so I hid my anxieties" (p. 48).

"One of the most memorable episodes during my years in Mrs. Rojas class was the day our class picture was taken and Mrs. Rojas announced that the prettiest and most photogenic person in class was Ramona--a shy Mexican girl. The blondes were shocked, Ramona blossomed with new self-confidence and the rest of us were struck by the notion that a Mexican could be considered beautiful" (p. 86).

"It was great to be popular in Mexico by acting out being an American, because in the United States I certainly didn't feel like one" (p. 112).

" Those Americans found Mexicans in Mexico charming, but those same Mexicans, it seemed, quickly lost their "charm" once in the United States. My cousins were proud, and being snubbed left them with little desire to explore beyond the small-town prejudices. They did not return" (p. 114).

Rose Castillo Guilbault's memoir is a great addition to the narrow field of autobiographies by Mexican American women! Well written and honest, this memoir will help readers, teens and adults, experience what it was like to grow up as a working class Mexican American girl in Arizona and California in the 1950's and 60's. In spite of our cultural differences, after reading this book I feel a kinship to this author. I believe that Rose and I could have been friends if we had gone to school together. I look forward to her next memoir because I sense there is much more of her life story that needs to be told.

It really gives you insight as to what it was like to grow up as a young Mexican immigrant girl in California.

I got this book as a gift. As a guy, I thought it would be a girlie book that I would not enjoy. As a Mexican-American, I found that I was not alone in what I experienced growing up: caught between two cultures, farmworker parents that never really assimilated into Americanisms, and the isolation sometimes felt because of this --- all this, even though I was born in the states. The book itself started off slow and didn't really get interesting until about 50 pages into it when the storytelling started to magically retell the author's memories. However, the book unfortunately ends abruptly during her early years of college. We, the readers, unfortunately are left wondering what happened to her parents (papa is left off on a very bad note), how she ended up becoming the successful woman that she is, or for that matter, how she finally met her husband and started a family. This book would have been much better if an epilogue were added... even if it was to say that there were many more stories, but no time left to tell them. Otherwise, I recommend this book for those who may be looking for insights into what it means to be Mexican-American... we really don't fit with people on either side of the border, and most people don't understand this.

We haven't read the book yet, but our eleven-year-old, grand daughter did. She liked it so much, that she patterned her school report about her grandmother on it.