Taking Hold

Francisco Jimenez stole my heart when I read The Circuit, his memoir about his childhood spent as a migrant worker alongside his parents.  

As I read about in two subsequent memoirs, I continued to root for him, knowing that since he was the author of these memoirs, Jimenez would eventually find success.

Now, in Taking Hold Jimenez continues his memoir in a fourth installment.  

Moving across the country to attend Columbia for graduate school, Francisco  is away from his family and girlfriend for the first time. He encounters a world different from the one he left, yet his work ethic (developed from his days spent as a migrant worker) makes success possible.

As years unfold and Jimenez works toward a PhD, he also marries and starts a family of his own.

Taking Hold is an important book by a writer with talent who can speak to the Hispanic population of success in this country while overcoming staggering odds.

I can hardly wait to follow Jimenez further into his life story, and am awaiting a fifth installment anxiously.