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The award-winning autobiographical book, “The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child,” chronicles the young life of author Francisco Jiménez — also known as Panchito — as he and his family navigate emigrating to California to become migrant farm workers.
San Antonio actor and musician José Rubén De León will bring the story to life through free one-person readings at the Little Carver Civic Center this week.
A dramatic English-language reading will take place Sept. 25 at 7 p.m. A Spanish-language version will be performed Sept. 26 at the same time and place. RSVPs are encouraged and can be made by calling (210) 219-4639.
Texas Public Radio's Marian Navarro spoke to De León about his upcoming performance. He begins with how he first heard about the award-winning book.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
DE LEÓN: It was a friend of mine, Rita Urquijo Ruiz. She's a professor of Spanish at Trinity University. She came up to me one time and asked if I had read it and I'd never heard about it. I'd never heard of the author either. But she said the title is “Cajas de Cartón,” and that stayed with me for a long time. That evening when I went home, I ordered it and I got it the next day. So, I started reading it that evening. I read it in Spanish, because he wrote the story, “The Circuit,” in Spanish back in 1977. So, it doesn't get published in English until 1997.
I was so taken by the language, the images, the life of a four-year-old out in the fields taking care of his little brother, who is sleeping in the car while his parents are out in the field working, really impressed me.
It reminded me of a family that that used to live across the street from me in Laredo, and they were migrant workers. They would disappear in the middle of the year, and then they would appear all of a sudden on the campus of school. I was always wondering where they went and why I wouldn't see them for extended periods of time. It wasn't until I was older and a teenager that I learned that that's what they were doing.
So it really impressed me and at that very moment, I thought, “I would love to turn this into a one-man show.” So, I looked up Francisco Jiménez. I found his email. I emailed him. He emailed me back within a couple of days, he said, "I'm so happy that you're reaching out to me. I would love for you to do this.”
And so, within a matter of a week, it was all agreed that I would do a one-man performance of “The Circuit.” I would adapt it. I would play all the parts. Then I send them a proposal and they agreed to it. I said I would do it for free for the general public.
At the same time, I'm applying for a grant with a city for original work. I was granted the grant, and so it all just started rolling in the right direction. And I thought, “Okay, this is where I need to be going with this piece.”
NAVARRO: Even the title in Spanish, "Cajas de Cartón,” boxes of cardboard, is what that translates to. That's very indicative of the life of Francisco Jiménez in the story, right? He would pack up all his belongings into these cardboard boxes and move as a migrant farm worker.
DE LEON: And that was something that stuck with me because I've only moved a few times here in San Antonio from one apartment to the next, and it's such a chore. So, I couldn't imagine coming home from school and all of a sudden, you walk into your tent or whatever it is that he was living in and see all your boxes packed because you're going to go to another location. You're not going to go back to school, you're not going to go see your friends. You're moving. You're traveling that circuit and moving on to the next.
Something I think that was so particularly interesting and impactful about the stories, like we've mentioned, it is from the eyes of Francisco Jiménez as a child. From early age to when he starts to go into middle school. You can see that in the book. You see him have these childlike thoughts of watching a goldfish and wanting to play with his friends and wanting a soccer ball for Christmas, all the while experiencing very adult things.
He's struggling with learning and adapting to a new language in California of English, and then the fear of La Migra, Border Patrol, coming for his family and for himself. So you're seeing the childlike aspect of his life at the time, also with these very adult themes and these very adult worries. Why was this perspective so important for you to want to highlight?
DE LEÓN: The story is just so contemporary even though this was back in the '40s, when he's experiencing all this. With all that I see and hear about immigrants, there is so much in the story that is so current. Every morning that I wake up, I think of the families that have been torn apart. I pray for those children who are in detention centers without parents. I think of all the people that have lost their jobs because they were out in the fields and they're no longer picking our fruits and vegetables and the food that we put on our table.
He experienced all of this. But there was so much hope, and he also had a lot of people that encouraged him and were supporting him and knew that he had a passion for reading and learning. I think that was the light that kept pulling him from all the misery, and all the tragedy that surrounded him. I think that once all these vignettes play out in front of the audience, they're going to get something out of one story or the other.
NAVARRO: And “The Circuit” is itself a collection of stories from Francisco Jiménez. Talk to me a little bit about how you adapted this into a one-person reading and how you have decided to use these stories, and how it'll be presented?
DE LEÓN: So, I read it several times, and then I had to go back and just go in and get to the heart of the story, of each story, because there's 12. Then I went straight for the dialog — that's what helped me shape the stories. So, I will be reading as the narrator, as Francisco, but then I'm going to switch voices to play the father, the mother, the brother, the teachers, all those different characters. So, that's what I've been spending a lot of time on, just making those inflections, making sure that people understand that there's a different voice.
That took a lot of time and that takes a lot of time to just try to shrink that story to get to the meat of it. But also, not to lose the beauty of his writing because I do nothing to his writing other than just delete what is not needed. If it were a movie, everything that I deleted would just be playing out in a cinematic form, but here it has to go straight to the people's heart. And so that's the focus — that I'm being true to the writing.
NAVARRO: And you have the English performance as well as the Spanish performance. Tell me a little bit more about the details. When and where can people go to watch this?
DE LEÓN: Yes, this is going to take place at the Little Carver Civic Center, which is right behind the Carver Cultural Center on Hackberry. It is free. There will be projections, so we'll have some projections and some moving videos created by Ray Santisteban. There are going to be 12 of those to accompany each scene.
I'll also have a live guitarist who will be providing music, interludes, and underscoring some of the scenes. So that'll be on the 25th of September. The English version will be presented then at 7 p.m. Then on Saturday the 26th, I will present the Spanish version at 7 p.m. as well.
