Subjects:  1. Gleaning   2. United States   3. Migrant agricultural laborers   

Subjects:  1. Ethnology   2. Sri Lanka   3. Naeaegama   4. Sex role   5. Caste   6. Archaeology / Anthropology   7. Social Science   8. Women's Studies - General   9. Anthropology - Cultural   

Subjects:  1. Migrant labor   2. Fiction   3. Negroes   

Subjects:  1. History: World   2. Sociology   3. Social Science   4. Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies   5. Canada - General   6. History   

Subjects:  1. Migrant agricultural laborers   2. Lake States   3. History   4. Alien labor, Mexican   5. Puerto Ricans   6. Agricultural Occupations   

Customer Reviews (6)

Running Scared.
THE MALDONADO MIRACLE is a story about a fourteen year-old boy named Jose who becomes an illegal immigrant to the United States to meet up with his father. Jose's mother died four months before the story began and Jose's father, Maldonado, has gone to the U.S. to find work and a place to stay. After getting settled in, he sends for Jose.

Jose is forced to sell everything he has, except for his dog Sanchez, to make the illegal trip across the border. When he arrives at the place he is supposed to meet Maldonado, he learns that his father has been sent elsewhere and will not be back for sometime. Jose is then sent to a migrant worker camp to await until his father returns. While there a man attempts to rape Jose, but is severely wounded by Sanchez. Afraid that they will shoot his dog, Jose flees. He recieves a puncture wound along the way and spends the night in an old church, not realizing that his blood had dripped upon a statue of Jesus. Jose leaves the next morning, but soon all of Southe-western California is flocking to the mission at San Ramon to see the miracle. When Jose learns of this, is forced with a decsion to tell the truth and possibly be deported or let many people live in a lie.

THE MALDONADO MIRACLE is not a spectacular piece of work. However, the plot is good and the characters of Jose, Giron, and Father Lebeon are fairly well developed. The story seems to move slowly, but in fact it does not. It is written in a style that Hispanics actually live life, slow and steady with no rush. The book raises some issues about illegal aliens and their treatment in and outside of this country and it also has something to say about faith.

Overall, not too bad of a book that has some important messages to say. Reading THE MALDONADO MIRACLE is a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon.

The Maldonado Miracle
Maldonado lives in Mexico. His friend and himself try to get across the boarder to Mexico. While trying to get across the boarder his friend, his dog, and himself have to crawl through a small passage way to get to the other side without being caught by the guards at the boarder. After he gets pass the boarder safely, he gets back into the truck and drives to a shack and they stay they for several nights. I would not recommend this book to other for many BAD reasons. The book was very boring and I thought that everything in the book was very stupid.

Beautiful Reality
This is real life for some children. I thought this was a fantastic book, very realistic.

I would recommend this book to all of my students. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Illegal aliens   2. Fiction   3. Mexicans   4. United States   5. Migrant labor   6. Taylor, Theodore   7. Children's 9-12 - Fiction - General   8. Juvenile Fiction   9. Ethnic - Hispanic & Latino   10. Social Situations - Runaways   11. People & Places - Mexico   12. Social Situations - Homelessness & Poverty   

Features

• Large Prin

Subjects:  1. Mexican Americans   2. Juvenile fiction   3. Large type books   4. Fiction   5. Migrant labor   6. Fiction - Romance   7. Romance - General   8. Romance - Historical   

Subjects:  1. Women   2. Employment   3. Thailand   4. Migrant labor   5. Social conditions   6. Sociology   7. Social Science   8. Women's Studies - General   9. Asia - Southeast Asia   10. Labor & Industrial Relations - General   11. Labor   12. Business & Economics   

Customer Reviews (2)

Just wonderful!!!!!!
I loved the book! Both of my parents and grandparents moved to "DEEtroit" from Kentucky to work in the car factories. I saw a great deal of my family and self in the pages of this book. The personal accounts of the "hillbillies" jumped off of the page at me! Sounds corney....but "this book spoke to me!" I never knew that such a massive amount of people (hillbillies) came north to escape the poverty of the south and how they struggled in the north. I grew-up thinking it was something unique to my family. My family came from Clay and Knox counties KY! The south did rise again...and no one noticed! Thank you for writing this book!

Berry combines interviews, research
This book is designed for the scholar, the student and the discriminating, intellectually curious reader. The oral histories which Berry has recorded and published bring these people seeking a better life into sharp focus. He couples their stories with exhaustive research and statistics to give a well-rounded view of the white migration from the south to the more industrialized (and more upwardly mobile) north and midwest. This book counters some of the myths surrounding these southerners. They are definitely not lazy, shiftless, stupid or immoral. They simply are seeking the "American dream." In the process they helped transform this nation. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Migration, Internal   2. Southern States   3. History   4. 20th century   5. Middle West   6. Sociology   7. Social Science   8. Sociology - General   9. Emigration & Immigration   10. United States - 20th Century   

Subjects:  1. Tywoniak, Frances Esquibel,   2. 1931-   3. Mexican American women   4. California   5. Biography   6. Biography / Autobiography   7. Ethnic Studies - General   8. Women   9. Ethnic Cultures - General   10. Social Science   11. Biography & Autobiography   

Customer Reviews (4)

Dr. Jo Banks becomes a motel doctor in NJ
Dr. Jo Banks takes off leaving her Manhattan practice after she misdiagnoses a young girl and she dies. She has no destination in mind. She stops at a motel in remote New Jersey for the night. That night she is called up to treat a woman at the motel. The next morning she finds out they left the hotel in the dark of night without paying their bill.

The next morning Paul Nelson, the motel owner, offers Jo a job as a motel doctor. The motels have to have a doctor on call for emergencies, much like the previous night. She immediately turns down his offer.

After driving around, picking up a young girl who was hitchhiking - Becca, and finding herself back at the motel that evening, she finally decides to accept his offer. It takes her a little over a week to find someone to take over her office and get her ex-boyfriend to find someone to sublet her apartment.

Jo and Becca have become good friends, but her family is quite different. Jo believes their boarders are none other than the Milacs, the couple from her first night at the motel, and sets about trying to find out more about them.

She has run into Tom Canby, and keeps running into him. He even assists her in her investigation as she doesn't know the area as well.

When Becca mysteriously leaves town with her aunt, Jo is concerned something more sinister is going on. She steps up her investigation and ends up in danger.

Jo is a terrific character. I can just see her tooling around New Jersey on her motorbike. She is great with Becca and has fit right into life in remote New Jersey, but still misses Manhattan at times. I like the relationship with Tom as well. She is constantly putting him off but isn't quite sure why.

As Jo is finding herself and getting her self-confidence back, she is getting to know everyone and even has Thanksgiving dinner at the Nelson's. Their son took off some time ago. The not knowing is taking its toll on them.

This remote location in New Jersey is a terrific setting for a mystery.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the next one! I got to meet Robin Hathaway last night. I gained additional insight into both of her series. Please read my review of her other new book "The Doctor Dines in Prague."

The first volume in the Dr. Jo Banks murder mystery series
   Robin Hathaway is the author of three Doctor Andrew Fenimore novels: The Doctor Digs a Grave (1999), which won her an Agatha Award for Best First Novel); The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call (2001); and The Doctor and the Dead Man's Chest (2001).

   Dr. Fenimore, a thirtysomething bachelor, is an old-fashioned Philadelphia physician who still makes house calls and, often accompanied by Nurse Doyle, his assistant sleuth, dabbles in criminal investigation.

   With Scarecrow, Hathaway launches a new murder mystery series featuring Dr. Jo Banks, a female version of Doctor Fenimore. An almost-thirty-year-old woman, Jo is running away from the flotsam and jetsam of a botched career and a tired love affair. She abandons her practice in New York City when she misdiagnoses Sophie Miller, a young girl who dies of spinal meningitis.

   Numbed and anesthesized, Jo flees to Bayfield, a small town in the boondocks of southern New Jersey, about fifty miles from Philadelphia and in near the marshlands of the Cohansey River.

   Jo checks in at the Oakview Motor Lodge, a two-star motel owned and operated by Paul and Maggie Nelson. She soon meets a teenage girl named Becca Borovy; Ema, Becca's eccentric aunt; and (the plot thickens) a tall, dark, and handsome "Robin Hood" named Tom Canby.

   You know you're in the boonies when the nearest Wal-Mart is no closer than twenty miles away. South Jersey abounds in names such as Polecat Corner, Snakeskin Road, Crab's Neck Road, Possum Hollow Road, the Blue Arrow Diner, and the Lenape Trailer Park.

   Bayfield's one claim to fame is a nuclear power plant. Black against the sky, its cooling tower is a giant chimney spewing clouds of steam. Flashing lights circle its gaping mouth, warning airplanes to keep away.

   Immediately on her arrival in Bayfield, Jo treats a woman who becomes suddenly ill, and is offered a deal to become a "motel doctor," a person on call to serve the medical needs of various motels in the area.

   Having fallen in love with small-town life and the people of Bayfield, Jo accepts the offer. Breathing a sigh of relief to have escaped the urban rat race. Zooming around Bayfield on her newly purchased motorcyle, Jo is happy to have found a place so peaceful and serene, far from the violence of big-city life.

   But when a dead man is found disguised as a scarecrow in found in a local farmer's field, Jo discovers a serpent in the pastoral Eden. And, one can see it coming, she places her own life in jeopardy by playing the dubious role of "lone woman who courageously, but foolhardily, investigates a dark and deserted house." Like the scarecrow in her favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, Jo desperately needs a brain.

   Scarecrow is an easy and enjoyable read. The chapters are short and the plot moves quickly. The dialogue is snappy, and the heroine, Dr. Jo Banks, is an engaging and likeable character. Above all, the author writes with a delectable sense of humor that will cause you to smile, chuckle, and laugh out loud.

A charming work of escapist fiction.

Worse than the Dr. Fenimore series
If you think that Robin Hathaway's Dr. Fenimore series books seem like they're written by an 8th grader, wait until you read this one...and the "plot"--a doctor who lives in a motel in exchange for taking care of guests' illnesses??????? Give me a break--and give yourself one by not reading this book! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Women physicians   2. Fiction   3. Migrant agricultural laborers   4. Crimes against   5. New Jersey   6. Fiction - Mystery/ Detective   7. Mystery & Detective - General   

Subjects:  1. Books and reading   2. Fiction   3. Libraries   4. Migrant labor   5. Mexican Americans   6. Children's 4-8 - Picturebooks   7. Juvenile Fiction   8. Social Situations - General   9. School & Education   10. Ethnic - Hispanic & Latino   

Subjects:  1. Migrant agricultural laborers   2. Arizona   3. History   4. 20th century   5. Oklahoma   6. U.S. History - Depression And New Deal (1929-1938)   7. Migrant Workers   8. History - General History   9. Political Science   10. Labor & Industrial Relations - General   11. United States - 20th Century/Depression   

Customer Reviews (13)

Beautifully written
The book, Under the Feet of Jesus, is a juxtaposition of the beautiful landscape of California and harsh life of a migrant worker. This story focuses on one migrant family who went through much turmoil. The mother, Petra has to live with the fact that her first husband abandoned his family, leaving the family to look for back breaking work in the country side. The father, Perfecto is much older than Petra and is struggling to do as Petra's first husband did, to abandon the family and go back to his hometown. The main character in the story, Estrella is a fourteen year old girl who works long hours under the unforgiving sun, is looked down by her teachers, and learns the meaning of sacrifice and love when she loses her first love, Alejo.

Each character undergoes their own personal battles when they meet Alejo. Alejo is a migrant worker boy who becomes engulfed in poisons by a crop duster as he picks peaches in a field. Estrella's family takes him under their care out of pity. They become strained as they have to both work and nurse Alejo. Nothing that they do can help Alejo, as his conditions diminishes everyday. It is at this time Estrella falls in love with Alejo. Days go by and Alejo becomes critically ill. Estrella is faced with the horrible situation that her family will have to abandon Alejo because they simply cannot take care of him. Out of this struggle, Estrella comes out even stronger, knowing both the joy and pain that comes from love.

The author Vermonters challenges us to look beyond our perceptions of others, especially the lower classes of society. There is so much more to these people then their poverty. They are real people with families and emotions, trying to go by on what little they have. This story illustrates grim life of the immigrant workers and then glorifies them by showing their struggle and triumphs over their problems. These people are able to go beyond what society labels them and their poverty by forging their own identity. Through their sacrifices and their unity in spirit, they can break free of the word poverty and find meaning in themselves.

Review
The book, Under the Feet of Jesus, is a juxtaposition of the beautiful landscape of California and harsh life of a migrant worker. This story focuses on one migrant family who went through much turmoil. The mother, Petra has to live with the fact that her first husband abandoned his family, leaving the family to look for back breaking work in the country side. The father, Perfecto is much older than Petra and is struggling to do as Petra's first husband did, to abandon the family and go back to his hometown. The main character in the story, Estrella is a fourteen year old girl who works long hours under the unforgiving sun, is looked down by her teachers, and learns the meaning of sacrifice and love when she loses her first love, Alejo.

Each character undergoes their own personal battles when they meet Alejo. Alejo is a migrant worker boy who becomes engulfed in poisons by a crop duster as he picks peaches in a field. Estrella's family takes him under their care out of pity. They become strained as they have to both work and nurse Alejo. Nothing that they do can help Alejo, as his conditions diminishes everyday. It is at this time Estrella falls in love with Alejo. Days go by and Alejo becomes critically ill. Estrella is faced with the horrible situation that her family will have to abandon Alejo because they simply cannot take care of him. Out of this struggle, Estrella comes out even stronger, knowing both the joy and pain that comes from love.

The author Vermonters challenges us to look beyond our perceptions of others, especially the lower classes of society. There is so much more to these people then their poverty. They are real people with families and emotions, trying to go by on what little they have. This story illustrates grim life of the immigrant workers and then glorifies them by showing their struggle and triumphs over their problems. These people are able to go beyond what society labels them and their poverty by forging their own identity. Through their sacrifices and their unity in spirit, they can break free of the word poverty and find meaning in themselves.

^_^
The scorching hot midday sun beats down upon the bare necks of migrant Mexican workers, ready to do back-breaking work for meager wages. One of the characters of the story, Perfecto, observes the scene described in wonderful detail: clouds ready to burst like cotton plants, an old decaying barn nearby, and a silence interrupted only by the wisps of wind that ruffle the peach trees. As he observes these images, reality quickly sinks in: "The silence and the barn and the clouds meant many things. It was always a question of work, and work depended on the harvest, the car running, their health, the conditions of the road, how long the money held out, and the weather, which meant they could depend on nothing" (4). Set in the harsh, poverty-stricken world of the migrant Mexican worker, Under the Feet of Jesus, by Helena Maria Viramontes, is a story about a Latino family in California, trying to get by in a society that turns a cold shoulder to their every woe. As the characters endure hardship upon hardship throughout the book, the author's own ideology manifests itself in their slow loss of faith. Religion is no substitute for gritty human spirit in times such as these. By the end of the novel it seems clear that Perfecto's observation holds partly true: they can depend on nothing but themselves.
The novel centers primarily around Estrella, a young girl on the verge of womanhood, and her relationship with Alejo, another migrant worker of the same age. Throughout the story, the characters are confronted time and time again with hardships they must endure, each time further questioning their faith. After Alejo is poisoned by a crop duster and falls ill, the family takes care of him, spending what little money they have for his treatment. Alejo, no stranger to harsh reality in his life, bleakly ponders if this is some sort of punishment from God. As his condition deteriorates and things look grim, Estrella curses God, thinking He "did not care," and that now renouncing Him, she "was alone to fend for herself" (139). At the end of the novel, in a scene that perhaps represents Viramontes' ideology the best, Estrella is perched on a rooftop, "on the verge of faith," yet she does not let herself fall (176). She doesn't trust "blindly" anymore, instead choosing to "trust the soles of her feet, her hands, the shovel of her back, and the pounding bells of her heart" (175). In the end, Estrella has learned that it is her own strength she must trust in, not God's, to carry her through the hardships she faces.

Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes, is at its heart, a novel that reveals to the reader through vivid metaphorical detail, the harsh world of the Mexican migrant worker. The book pulls its characters away from grasping blindly at faith in a benevolent God, and brings them to take comfort in the only constant that is rooted in their ever-changing environment: their own spirit to go on. Perhaps reflective of Viramontes' own ideology, this novel provides an excellent view of the loss of religious faith, replaced by gritty human spirit that can overcome any hardship. Inspirational and beautifully written, I highly recommend Under the Feet of Jesus to anyone! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Migrant agricultural laborers   2. Fiction   3. Mexican American families   4. Mexican American women   5. Mexican Americans   6. Popular American Fiction   7. Hispanic American Novel And Short Story   8. Fiction - General   

Subjects:  1. Political participation   2. Mexico   3. Mexico City   4. Rural-urban migration   5. Poor   

Subjects:  1. Family   2. Lesotho   3. Alien labor   4. South Africa   5. Social conditions   6. Cultural And Social Anthropology   7. Social Conditions Of Labor   

Customer Reviews (4)

A very thoroughly researched, well written book
The topic of Japanese Brazilian migrants in Japan is one that very few people outside of Japan or Brazil know about. I'm glad to see that there was a book written about this issue, especially since it involves the complexity of race vs. ethnicity and issues dealing with feelings of isolation, sense of belonging and cultural acceptance, something which we all strive for. Mr. Hotaka Roth did an excellent job of researching the experiences of these migrant workers and presented them in a very honest way. You could tell that he dove into this project fullheartedly by the fact that he made an effort to not only learn Japanese and about Japanese culture, but that he also learned Portuguese and the different nuances of Brazilian culture. Unlike a lot of research books, this book was not dry and did not drag on forever. It was quick paced and easy to read and understand. It keeps the reader interested and each chapter presents itself with new themes.

Good overview of today's "multiethnic" Japan
Here is a short, simple book examining the role and place of the ever-growing Japanese-Brazilian population in Japan. Overall, it is a well written piece of work that I found helpful in my reseach. Although it is not the most comprehensive book on Japan's new ethnic minoritiy population,the Brazilians, Roth's work is worthwhile nonetheless.

Dekaseki
It's a very good book, good analysis of Nikkei life in Japan.

I read this book and I found that it was more than a simple academic book with statistics, and numbers...It's a realy good view of what is a migrant life in Japan . ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Brazilians   2. Japan   3. Alien labor, Brazilian   4. Ethnic relations   5. History - General History   6. History   7. Asia - Japan   8. Emigration & Immigration   9. Social Science   10. Anthropology - Cultural   

Subjects:  1. Women agricultural laborers   2. Chile   3. Fruit trade   4. Employees   5. Seasonal labor   6. Employment Of Women   7. Migrant Workers   8. Business / Economics / Finance   9. Business & Economics   10. Development - Economic Development   11. Women & Business   12. Agriculture - General   13. Labor   

Subjects:  1. Slavery   2. Virginia   3. Public opinion   4. History   5. 19th century   6. Emigration And Immigration   7. Sociology   8. Social Science   9. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Histor   10. United States - State & Local - General   11. Europe - General   

Subjects:  1. Scottish Americans   2. Chesapeake Bay Region (Md. and   3. History   4. 18th century   5. Scotland   6. Elements In The U.S. Population   7. History - General History   8. United States - State & Local - General