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Farmworker’s Daughter:
Growing Up Mexican in America

Rose Castillo Guilbault

Trade Paper, ISBN: 1-59714-034-1, $11.95

A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005

When Rose Castillo Guilbault was five years old, she and her recently divorced mother crossed the border from Nogales, Sonora, to Nogales, Arizona, and boarded a Greyhound bus that would carry them to California’s Salinas Valley and a new life.

In this affectionate memoir, Guilbault invites us into her girlhood, revealing what it was like to grow up as a Mexican immigrant in a farming community during the turbulent 1960s. With openness, courage, and charm, she recalls her early struggles to learn English, to fit in with schoolmates with their Barbie dolls and cupcakes, to win approval, and to bridge the tensions between home life and the public world to which she was drawn.

As her mother dreams of owning a house with her new farmworker husband, Rose perfects her English and writes for the school newspaper, nurturing dreams of her own that will eventually take her far from her life as a farmworker’s daughter.

Reviews:

"A memoir bursting with bright, crisp observations."—San Francisco Chronicle

"It’s an affectionate story and a compelling one, full of poignant, powerful description."—Christian Science Monitor

"Rose Castillo Guilbault’s touching and inspiring coming-of-age story offers valuable insights into difficulties common to Mexican children who navigate between two worlds: their Mexican world at home and their American world at school. Without bitterness or resentment, the author relates painful experiences dealing with poverty and cultural stereotypes… Writing talent sustained Rose Castillo Guilbault during her school years. It is this same talent that makes this work a joy to read."—Francisco Jiménez, author of The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child and Breaking Through

“From its evocative opening…to its last heartfelt phrase, Guilbault is gentle but honest, giving us unaffected, direct prose.…Inspiring and delightful, Guilbault’s narrative shines a necessary light on a darker aspect of life in a western paradise.” —BookPage

About the Author:

Rose Castillo Guilbault was born in Sonora, Mexico, and grew up in the Salinas Valley of California. She was a columnist for Pacific News Service and the San Francisco Chronicle, was editorial director for KGO-TV (ABC San Francisco) and creator of the television series "Profiles of Excellence." She is currently vice president of corporate affairs at AAA of Northern California, Nevada, and Utah, and is the chairwoman of the Board of Governors for the Commonwealth Club of California. This is her first book. Website: www.farmworkersdaughter.com