Cajas de Carton

Jimenez is the main character and narrator of the collection. He is originally from El Rancho Blanco in Jalisco, Mexico, where he was raised on a poor farm selling milk to trucks who passed by on distant crossroads. Jimenez dreams of living in a city of in mythic, wealthy California. When he is young, his parents illegally cross the border, and he, Roberto, Mama and Papa begin to live as undocumented migrant workers in a tent city near a strawberry farm in southern California.

Jimenez is a good-natured, sometimes naive, and hard-working boy. He dreams of being as diligent a worker as his father, and is upset when he witnesses injustices. He doesn't always understand the circumstances in which his family finds itself, but slowly grows to understand that as an undocumented Mexican, he is different from the other children in California. Jimenez loves animals, and expressing himself creatively; he enjoys math, loves reading, and is dedicated to his education, though he doesn't often get to attend school because he is working with his family in the fields or in the process of moving. Jimenez is also a skilled artist, and dreams of playing the trumpet.