Francisco's family illegally crosses from Mexico into the US by digging under a barbed wire fence at night.

An immigration officer arrives at school and removes Francisco from his eighth-grade class during a lesson.

The immigration officer grants the Jiménez family three days to prepare before reporting to the border at Nogales.

Francisco and Roberto are sent back to California alone on a bus while their family remains in Mexico.

The Jiménez family reunites at the Bonetti Ranch barracks when the parents and younger siblings return from Mexico.

Papa and a partner take out a bank loan to start their own strawberry farm despite Papa's chronic back pain.

A blight destroys the entire strawberry crop, devastating the family financially and permanently breaking Papa's spirit.

Papa gives Francisco his own Saint Christopher medal as a gift at Francisco's middle school graduation ceremony.

Francisco enters high school and counselor Mr. Kinkade initially assumes he will pursue a vocational program.

Miss Bell assigns The Grapes of Wrath and Francisco identifies deeply with the struggles of the migrant Joad family.

Francisco wins election as student-body president, then returns home to find Papa has injured his hand on a power saw.

Roberto introduces his girlfriend Darlene to his parents and asks their blessing before becoming engaged.

Francisco collapses on the first day of his senior year and is later diagnosed with mononucleosis.

Papa strikes Francisco during an argument about college; teacher Mr. Osterveen later visits and persuades Papa to approve college attendance.

As Francisco steps to the graduation podium to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, he sees his parents enter the auditorium.

The narrative begins when the Jiménez family secretly crosses the US-Mexico border, seeking escape from poverty, but Francisco's childhood fear of deportation comes true when immigration officers pull him from school at age fourteen. After the family is forced back to Mexico, Francisco and his older brother Roberto return alone to California to work and study, until their parents eventually rejoin them at the Bonetti Ranch. Papa's doomed attempt to run an independent strawberry farm leads to financial ruin and his permanent emotional decline, placing the economic burden squarely on his teenage sons. Despite these hardships, Francisco thrives academically, wins election as student-body president, and earns his middle school diploma before suffering a breakdown from exhaustion during his senior year. After a fierce argument and reconciliation with his father over attending college, Francisco earns acceptance to the University of Santa Clara and achieves his lifelong dream of escaping the cycle of poverty through education.

The headline events that drive Francisco's journey from illegal immigrant to college student.

The immigration officer tells the Jiménez brothers that one of their own people reported the family's illegal status.

During the Greyhound bus journey through the Mexican desert, Mama sees hope in the cacti while Papa sees suffering.

Mary O'Neill treats Roberto and Francisco to a steak dinner, introducing the brothers to formal American dining customs.

Thieves break into the barracks and steal the brothers' hidden cash savings from beneath their mattress.

Francisco lip-synchs an Elvis Presley song during a school skit and earns admiring applause from his classmates.

Francisco visits Peggy's middle-class home, meets her parents, and is hurt when Peggy soon begins avoiding him at school.

Ito witnesses Francisco throwing a rotten berry at Roberto; Mama creatively mistranslates Ito's remark to protect Francisco from Papa's anger.

Francisco and Trampita plan a goldfish stand but discover a neighbor is already selling fish at a lower price.

Francisco's gym sneakers are stolen from his school locker; salvaged dump sneakers cause a lasting case of athlete's foot.

Roberto falls in love with Susan, but her parents grow cold and end the relationship upon learning Roberto is Mexican.

Francisco visits the Cal Poly campus and notices that none of the students there look like his friends from Bonetti Ranch.

The Spanish Club collects forty-one bags of groceries for needy families; Mama unknowingly receives one of the Salvation Army boxes.

Francisco is unexpectedly asked to speak at a Rotary Club luncheon and humiliatingly lapses into Spanish mid-sentence.

Francisco parks the battered family DeSoto far from school to hide his shame; Roberto discovers this and begins driving him in the Buick.

The family accompanies Francisco to the University of Santa Clara; Mama falls asleep from exhaustion while Papa grimaces in pain.

While the main plot carries Francisco from poverty to college, a series of vivid secondary moments reveal the texture of his daily struggle and growing awareness. Early episodes—learning that a neighbor betrayed the family to immigration officers, watching cash savings stolen in a burglary, and discovering American customs at a steak dinner—paint a picture of two brothers navigating an unfamiliar world with ingenuity and resilience. As Francisco progresses through school, he encounters the quiet sting of prejudice when Peggy's parents cut off their friendship and when Susan's father ends Roberto's romance, forcing Francisco to recognize a repeated pattern of discrimination against Mexicans. His entrepreneurial failures, stolen gym shoes, and humiliation at a Rotary Club luncheon show the personal costs of living on society's margins. Yet warmth persists throughout: a creatively mistranslated compliment saves Francisco from Papa's anger, a food drive circles back to benefit his own family, and Roberto's loyalty over the DeSoto quietly illustrates the unspoken bond between brothers. The pool closes with the family's emotional drive to Santa Clara, both parents asleep and exhausted, a quiet image of a lifetime of sacrifice.

The smaller but memorable moments that color Francisco's daily life and shaped his path.

Papa sternly warns young Francisco never to reveal his Mexican birthplace to anyone in the United States.

Mama senses Francisco's despair about missing school and suggests he accompany Roberto to California so both can work and study.

Roberto hides the family's earnings inside a chipped ceramic bust of Jesus Christ that the boys salvaged from the city dump.

Papa kisses Francisco on the forehead for the first time ever when the family reunites after returning from Mexico.

Francisco challenges his father's belief in a Mexican curandera's cure for his back pain, sparking a faith-versus-science debate at home.

Francisco scores 99% on a US Constitution test and earns an A+ on a creative fantasy research project about exploring the solar system.

Francisco and Roberto begin attending dances at the Veterans Memorial to practice American social customs and meet new friends.

Francisco realizes Roberto has been held back in school because he never started a school year before January due to the crop-picking cycle.

Francisco tells counselor Mr. Kinkade he wants to become a teacher and learns for the first time that scholarships can fund a college education.

Miss Bell reads Francisco's autobiographical essay about baby Trampita nearly freezing outside a tent and tells him he will succeed.

Francisco follows the Kennedy-Nixon election and is outraged to learn that some voters oppose Kennedy solely because he is Catholic.

Childhood friend Manuelito tells Francisco that everyone at Bonetti Ranch will be proud, cementing his decision to run for student-body president.

Francisco overcomes stage fright at the Junior Scandals talent show when Roberto shouts encouragement from the back of the bleachers.

Francisco breaks down crying alone in a work bathroom mirror, overwhelmed by exhaustion and beginning to understand his father's despair.

Francisco leaves a handwritten thank-you letter and his copper pyrite rock under Trampita's pillow before departing for college.

This pool traces the internal turning points that quietly determine who Francisco becomes, beginning with Papa's fearful warning at the border and Mama's pivotal suggestion that Francisco return to California with Roberto. Small but significant revelations accumulate—that Roberto was held back by the crop-picking calendar, that a ceramic Christ statue can safeguard the family's earnings, and that an A+ on a fantasy project proves Francisco's imagination belongs in a classroom—each one reshaping his sense of what is possible. His growing cultural confidence shows in the Veterans Memorial dances, his debate with Papa about faith and science, and his outrage at anti-Catholic election bias, which he directly connects to the prejudice his own family has endured. At his lowest point, Francisco breaks down crying in a work bathroom, finally understanding the despair that has consumed his father, but Mama's steady faith and encouragement pull him back toward hope. The pool ends with Francisco leaving behind a letter and his lucky copper pyrite rock for Trampita—a gesture that reveals how fully he has internalized his family's values of sacrifice and gratitude as he steps across the threshold into a new life.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that transform Francisco's character.