Francisco Jimenez Inspires Local Children

Napa County Read’s featured author this year is Francisco Jimenez, who will speak about “the American Dream.” Francisco Jiménez emigrated from Tlaquepaque, Mexico, to California, where he worked for many years in the fields with his family. He received both his master’s degree and his Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now chairman of the Modern Languages and Literature Department at Santa Clara University, the setting of much of Reaching Out. He is the award-winning author of The Circuit, Breaking Through, La Mariposa, and his newest novel, Reaching Out.

Jiménez stories chronicle his humble beginnings and struggles to complete his education as the son of migrant workers in California, to his challenges while attending college, to his ultimate success as a writer and an academic.

Currently he is working on a research project on Mexican American community builders from the 1960s to the nineties. This will become an oral history archive documenting the lives of community builders, whose activism in pursuit of social justice issues shaped the development of the Mexican American community of San Jose. These interviews will be transcribed, placed in a historical context, and edited into an oral history monograph.

Jiménez will give a presentation in English on Tuesday, November 3rd at 7:00 pm, at the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater. Tickets are $10, student tickets are FREE

Tickets are available at http://lincolntheater.org, or by phone at (707) 944-9900, or at the Napa Valley Performing Arts Center at Lincoln Theater box office at 100 California Drive in Yountville, California. The box office is open between 11am and 3pm, Tuesday through Saturday.