Francisco Jiménez
Reading The Grapes of Wrath at 15, he saw his own family in Steinbeck's Joad family: people working in the fields, struggling to survive. From the cotton fields of Corcoran to a department chair at Santa Clara University, Francisco Jiménez traversed an amazing American odyssey. An esteemed educator and an acclaimed author of a California classic—The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child—Dr. Jiménez became the sixteenth recipient of the Steinbeck Award on September 28, 2016, before an overflow crowd at the Student Union Theater. Featuring an interview moderated by political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, the Jiménez event was a benefit for the Cesar E. Chavez Community Action Center and a highlight of National Hispanic Heritage Month.
