This book is an autobiography, which is a sequel to The Circuit. The Circuit covers the younger years of Francisco Jimenez and Breaking Through starts when he is around 13 years old until after his high school graduation.
Francisco, his older brother Roberto, and their parents left their small village near Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico when Francisco was four years old. They entered the United States illegally and settled in California. They were hoping to leave behind their life of poverty in Mexico, but ended up living in poverty in California. When Francisco was 14 years old, their illegal status was discovered and they were sent back to Mexico. Since the three younger siblings were born in California, it was only Francisco, Roberto and their parents that had to apply for citizenship to live in California. Fortunately, that was one thing in their lives that they were able to make happen, but when they were cleared to return to California, only Roberto & Francisco went. Their father had significant back pain and he decided to remain in Mexico until he could heal, since he wasn't able to work the fields in California anyway due to his pain. Roberto & Francisco attended school, worked before and after school, and sent as much money back to Mexico as possible to help out their family. Within the year, the family was reunited in California.
What was most impressive to me was Roberto, Francisco, and eventually Trampita's (the oldest of the younger kids) work ethic. They worked their tails off to help support their family, and they never complained about it. They were honest, hardworking, reliable, and quite honestly, "obedient" to their parents, teachers and employers. Francisco definitely understood the importance of learning English, getting good grades and finding a way to get an education post high school. It was really remarkable how hard he worked at everything. He is an excellent example of someone learning to empower themself to rise out of the poverty they were born in. He also didn't let other people's prejudices against Mexicans stop him from succeeding.
Wendy's Rating: ****