As the story goes on, the family moves a lot to find work.

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They were picking cotton in another part of California called Corcoran in the fall, but now that its January his family has moved near Santa Maria to pick strawberries.

The narrators Mam, Pap, and older bro Roberto all cant wait to travel to California.

Roberto gets extra amped up after visiting his cousin, Fito, in Guadalajara.

Fito has some modern amenities like running water and electricity, and Roberto cant wait to have those things too.

Finally its time for the trip.

Wahoo. The narrator and his family hop on a train to California.

Eventually the train reaches its destination: Mexicali (a.k.a.

California border).

Theres just one problem: a humongous barbed wire fence patrolled by guards with guns.

Yep, thats border patrol and this family is going to have to find a way around them.

Pap pays a woman to drive them to Guadalupe, a coastal town where theyre hoping to find work as laborers.

The good news is that the camp foreman lends them a tent to sleep in, but the bad news is that they cant start picking strawberries for another two weeks.

So heres how they spend the next two weeks while they wait to start work: Mam is a resourceful lady and she finds a way to cook outside on a stove she whips up herself, while Pap hunts for small wild animals for Mam to cook up.

Roberto and Panchito watch the train come by at noon every day, which they think is pretty fun.

Plus the conductor always waves at them, and once he even drops a bag of fruit and candy out the window as a gift, which is actually pretty cool.

Chapter 2 Looks like this family found work because theyre off to pick cotton.

Well, everyone except Panchito and his baby brother, Trampita, whom he has to babysit in the car.

After his parents and Roberto come back for their lunch break, Panchito is by himself again.

So he basically ditches Trampita in the car and picks cotton instead.

By the end of the day, our narrators cotton pile is smalllike really smallso he mixes in some dirt so that itll weigh more and be worth more money.

Hes all set to make his parents proud, which means we know that his parents are going to be seriously ticked off.

And they are. His mom is mad that Trampita wet his diaper and broke his bottle, and his dad is mad about all the dirt Panchito tried to cheat with.

Chapter 3 Its time for the first day of school, and our main man is nervous.

You see, hes never been to school before and Roberto has some scary stories, like how everything is in English, which he and his family dont speak.

Our narrator and his bro will be starting in the middle of the year.

Cajas De Carton Summary