“ This Migrant Earth” denotes Rolando Hinojosa's interpretation in English of the book which is the foundation of the contemporary Chicano fictional movement: ... y no se lo trago la tierra by Tomas Rivera. The memorable novel of Rivera was given the initial nationwide prize for Chicano writings during the year 1970 and has ever since turned into the typical text in America Hispanic literature programs across the nation. Three years following the death of Rivera, his acquaintance and fellow author Rolando Hinojosa caught the essence as well as the poetry of the original of Rivera for the English-language readers (Jason, 2000). Hinojosa restructured every vignette and interpreted every word with respect for rhythms and nuances of the informal Texan Spanish of Rivera’s book.
The story opens with the presentation of the repeated, anonymous boy character in the novel. The boy is struggling to accept a lost year, counting how and when it started (Lee, 1997). He is feeling sleepy, not certain if he is dreaming or awake, and encountering a flood of images and memories. The first-person narrative centers on a youngster from a migrant household in the North trekking home from school. The boy has merely been exorcized for beating a white lad who mocked him and attacked him first. The boy is afraid of saying to his family what transpired for the reason that learning is critical to them. The boy is certain he would be beaten. The young male reflects on several things, counting the way he hates how the schools handle him, demeaning him from time to time. The nurses in school have required him to stay nude to be checked for lice, though he understands the reason they feel like that regarding his community members: “On Sundays, they sit out in front of the chicken coops picking lice from each other's heads. And the gringos, passing by in their cars, looking and pointing at them. Dad is right when he says that they look like monkeys in the zoo” (Rivera, 1987). The boy panics about his forthcoming day since his dad wishes him to be a phone operator just as he once watched in a film. The boy deliberates regarding how to clarify his school predicaments to his family thinking, "It is embarrassing and it hurts simultaneously."
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The boy lives with Dona Bonny and Don Laíto, friends of his household. The duo is prevalent with whites and migrants similarly, selling toys, clothes, and foodstuff, and then giving away things they can’t sell. The duo is friendly to the boy initially, nourishing him properly but with foul meat which made him unwell. While there, he must sleep in an overfilled warehouse, making him uncomfortable. The boy discovers they steal some stuff downtown and the duo wishes him to thief flour, however, the boy declines since it is immoral (Calderón, 2004). The boy is placed to labor in the farm, and more is required of him and his foodstuff worsens.
In the book “This Migrant Earth,” a youthful Mexican-American boy provides the main viewpoint of the book, and every chapter contributes to the compound portrayal of the Texan boundary society of the 1940s and the 1950s. The two crucial notions in Rivera’s book are, first is the concept of time in addition to the lad’s “lost year,” a time where the boy retreats into his personal realm after seeing numerous mishaps, accidents, and, diseases. Another crucial component of the book is the author’s consideration to what makes up a home, enabling the audience entry into the agricultural and domestic context of the boundary area as well as Midwest, in which the migrant agriculturalists go each year. A “home” denotes a place in which the farmhands reside in any single picking period, and it denotes the society’s vision in addition to its common spaces. At least fifty percent of the chapters happens in the vehicle heading “up North” or in a cramped chicken coop which provides little shelter elements (dirt, rain, heat, cold) in the course of the 7 months out of every twelve months that the migratory workforce cultivates and harvest produces (Dasenbrock, 1988).
In a historical setting, the novel “This Migrant Earth” functions as the social observation regarding the severe conditions of living of the Mexican-American's harvesting grains, fruits, cotton and fruit. Within one chapter, the reader witnesses a lad who is thirsty for water plus a manipulative employer who won’t allow the young worker to refresh himself. The house of Don Laito and Dona Bonny is a warehouse for entire canned foodstuffs, clothing, and secondhand goods which they get rid of or sell: “And you should have seen it! Well, you couldn’t there being no light, see? It was jam-packed, tight, and close, on account of smell. Full of all kinds of stuff, boxes of God-knows-what and empty bottles, old calendars, piles of clothes” (Rivera, 1987). The house turns into the crime scene after the Mexican laborer engages in a sexual affair with Dona Bony. She along with her hubby name the Mexican “mojado” (implying wet back), and she understands that the Mexican is by himself within the neighborhood with no relative. The duo kills the Mexican. They also compel the young boy to dig the graveyard for the Mexican. Offended, lonely, and frightened, the lad pursues the sole relaxation he has: “I wanted to go home” (Rivera, 1987). The duo visits the boy 2 months later and grants him the ring of the Mexican as the reminder to the lad to maintain his silence.
In spite of the sufferings in the farms, the sordidness, the isolation the boy goes through in school, in addition to endless worries about finances, the Mexican-American barrio gives certain comforts to every household. The community members assemble, share narratives, help each other, and celebrate crucial instances in life, for instance, the wedding mentioned the subsequent passage: “That back yard was all worker over; decked out in Texas Pecan branches, Indian paintbrush, wild lilies, hollyhock, and then (careful, now) the tamping down all around the tarp; smooth as glass it was. And water. They watered it down some more. There. Hard, smooth, there, that’ll hold the dust in time for the dance” (Rivera, 1987).
The farm doesn’t devour for one day; the land has produced its fruits and flowers. The hardness of the earth, typically a drain to the workers, now makes allowances for communion, a room to celebrate, a room to dance. The picture of the Mexican-American households celebrating on the ground, rather than being buried in it or digging it, is a sign of reclamation. The land belongs to the Mexican-Americans as it was prior to the existence of the enforceable boundary and the Agreement of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Calderón, 2004).
One of the most outstanding themes is that of education, where Rivera highlights the significance of education as a key to an improved life, a basic standard of most Americans dreams. The storyteller states, "All that my parents desired was for me to finish school so I could find me some job that wasn't so hard" (Rivera, 1987). Another remarkable theme is that of racism. Rivera lists numerous practices of discrimination faced by his Latina and Latino characters in their daily work and life. The main character narrates a number of events in school where he is ill-treated due to his ethnicity as well as migrant status. The minute the migrant employees' kids enter the school in the North, they are every time inspected for lice, which demeans them. The boy also claims that he was bullied for being a Mexican, where a learner tells him "I don't like Mexicans because they steal." And an administrator states of the characters' society, "they could care less if I expel him … They need him in the fields" (Rivera, 1987).
The author concludes the book with an affirmation; the lad who has gone through “lost year” rebellions against the ground by kicking up the soil and cursing God. The boy had searched for comfort in the house of a neighbor; however, he arises to ascend a tree, an action that counters the overall employees’ movement, which entails dragging themselves along the dirt. At this novel level, the lad stretches his hands to wave a person who is not really there. However, whether there exists any person there isn’t as vital as a point that the lad has emerged above the ground rather than being shattered by it via work or buried by it.
References
Calderón, H. (2004). Narratives of Greater Mexico: Essays on Chicano Literary History, Genre, and Borders . University of Texas Press.
Dasenbrock, R. (1988). An Interview with Rolando Hinojosa. Translation Review , 27 (1), 3-8.
Jason, P. K. (2000). A Conversation with Rolando Hinojosa. Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe , 25 (3), 298-305.
Lee, J. G. (1997). Rolando Hinojosa and the American Dream (No. 5). University of North Texas Press.
Rivera, T. (1987). This Migrant Earth . Arte Publico Press.
