The book opens with a description by the author and protagonist, Francisco Jiménez (a.k.a. “Panchito”) of the fear he recalls when he, his older brother, Roberto, and their parents leave their home in El Rancho Blanco, Mexico in the late 1940s in order to escape poverty. They dig a hole under the barbed wire fence at the border at night in order to avoid detection by “la migra,” the immigration officers, and they “[…] wiggled like snakes under it to the other side” (1). The family, who eventually are reunited with four younger children, work as migrant crop pickers for the ensuing ten years in California. Their lives become a bit less arduous when they secure year-round work picking strawberries at the Bonetti Ranch and rent housing in a decrepit former Army barracks on the property. Roberto finds a part-time janitorial job at the local high school, and he and Francisco both work in the fields to help support the family while attending school.

Francisco’s worst fears are realized when, as an 8th grader, he is mentally preparing to recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence in class.