An applicant recently shared this book with me as one of her and her mother's favorites. "We read it together!" she said. "I just love historical fiction." Well, with that statement, I just had to read it myself. Author Pam Munoz Ryan weaves a fascinating tale based on her family history. The em... more

An applicant recently shared this book with me as one of her and her mother's favorites. "We read it together!" she said. "I just love historical fiction." Well, with that statement, I just had to read it myself. Author Pam Munoz Ryan weaves a fascinating tale based on her family history. The emotional drama is very real and intensely portrayed. I admire her sense of genealogy, history, and narrative drama. The riches to rags story details the plight of a wealthy Mexican ranch family turned poor, their migration north to California during the Great Depression, and their new life, with its many trials and tribulations. The bonds between la patrona and her servant-laborers becomes the key to their successful migration to the U.S. and to the re-establishment of their community. The author weaves social history with the political and economic challenges that faced communities during the Great Depression when the U.S. government "re-patriated" thousands of Mexican Americans back to Mexico. Issues of race and class form the backdrop throughout the story. Although the author does not make the connection, the unresolved issues of farm laborers depicted in this story set the stage for Cesar Chavez's farm labor movement of the 1960's.