Under the WireSpanish words: When you encounter Spanish words, keep reading. Their meaning will be made clear in context. Below are a few examples. Run your cursor over the words.
la frontera the border , El Rancho Blanco name of a town , Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México The National Railroad of Mexico , mi'jo dear , Dios lo quiera God love him , la migra immigration police , viejo old one (used as a term of endearment)
*Cantinflas ~ a very famous Mexican comedian who often played the role of an impoverished campesino, or slumdweller.
Map of Mexicali. Note that Calexico is on the other side of the border.
Prepare the following questions for class discussion.
1. Where does the story begin? Describe the Jimenez family's life there. You can guess or infer this from Fito's words.
2. How is older cousin Fito's life different now? Why?
3. What did Francisco like about living in El Rancho Blanco? From this information, what can you assume conclude or believe about their family?
4. What decision did Papá make? Do you think it was a risky possibly dangerous decision? Explain your answer.
5. What was young Roberto's belief about life in California? Where did he get this idea? What was his father's reaction?
6. Once they arrived at the labor camp, how long was it before they could work? Who helped them and how did they live in the meantime?
7. What did Roberto and Francisco enjoy doing? What surprise did they get one Sunday? Why do you think Roberto exclaimed, "See, it DOES come from California!"
8. A simile is a figure of speech, or a literary way of speaking or writing to create an image in the mind of the listener or reader. A simile compares one thing to another using the word like or as. Explain the title "Under the Wire" and identify the simile the author used to describe their experience (page 8).
9. Find two other similes at the end of page 2 and on page 3. Do you think they create good images? Why?
10. Both present (-ing) and past participles (-ed) are frequently used as adjectives. Fill in the participles that describe the loud noises of the train whistle and brakes on page 3: "[...] its whistle and its brakes."
Word Bank for Chapter 1: While reading each story in the book, highlight words that are new to you. then create a word bank listing the new word, its part of speech, the phrase it appears in with page number, and then the meaning of the word as it is used in the phrase. Study the examples below and use them as a guide for completing a word bank for each chapter.
1. nestled (adj part of speech ) - "[ ...Use three dots in brackets for words you are omitting from the quote. ] a small village nestled on barren, dry hills" (1) page number . - located or positioned meaning of word on hills (Click to open the explanation for the three dots).
2. poverty (Noun) - "[... ] leave our poverty behind" (1). - condition of being poor
3. sparkled (Verb) - "[...] Papá's eyes sparkled" (1). - shone past form of shine brightly
4. underneath (Preposition) - "[...] Papá spotted a small hole underneath the fence" (5). - beneath, under
Add your own new words to the list on binder paper and follow the directions for maintaining a word bank for each of the stories you read. Keep your word banks in the vocabulary section of your three-ring binder.
Writing Option: What do you think?
Do you think the father made a good decision to cross the border the way they did? Why or why not? Explain your answer with your own predictions about their future.