They discuss the possible reasons for Trine’s walks, which puzzle them. The next section is a dialogue between a group of unnamed workers, who work alongside Don Trine. He walks through the fields every afternoon, and he prefers to do this alone, becoming angry if anyone tries to accompany him. Then the main character, Don Trine, is introduced. The unnamed narrator, a migrant farm worker, thinks this is the best time of year because the work is nearly over and he and his fellow workers will soon be able to return to Texas. It is set somewhere in the Midwest at the end of September and the beginning of October. “The Harvest” is divided into seven short sections. Rivera was working on a second novel, The People’s Mansion, when he died of a heart attack in Fontana, California, on May 16, 1984. The couple had three children: Ileana, Irasema, and Florencio Javier. Rivera married Conceptiόn Garza, on November 27,1958. In 1980, he served on the presidential commission that reported on the nation’s educational problems. He was also a member of the board of the National Chicano Council on Higher Education. He was a member of the board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1976 and the Board of Foreign Scholarships (which directs and administers the Fulbright program). Rivera’s administrative abilities earned him recognition and honors. He then became executive vice-president at the University of Texas at El Paso before accepting the position of Chancellor at the University of California, Riverside, in 1979. Rivera became associate dean of the college of multidisciplinary studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio, and later vice president for administration. These include the short story “The Harvest” (1989) and The Searchers: Collected Poetry (1990). Some of Rivera’s works were published posthumously. Rivera was also a poet, and he published Always and Other Poems (1973), as well as nonfiction essays in scholarly journals on topics such as Chicano literature. It had already been awarded the Premio Quinto Sol in 1970. In 1971, Rivera published the novel for which he is best known. He immediately became associate professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, a position he held until 1971, when he became professor of Spanish at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 1968, he became an instructor in Spanish at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, and the following year, he received a doctorate in romance languages and literature from the University of Oklahoma. This degree made him eligible for college teaching, and in 1965 he became an instructor in English, French, and Spanish at Southwest Texas Junior College, Uvalde, until 1966. After graduating, he became a teacher of English and Spanish in the public schools of San Antonio, Crystal City, and League City, Texas, from 1957 to 1965.Ĭontinuing his education, Rivera was awarded a masters degree in education from Southwest Texas State College in 1964. He graduated from Southwest Texas State College (now Southwest Texas State University), with a bachelor of arts degree in English in 1958. During that time, Rivera lived and worked in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Dakota, but his parents also ensured that he had sufficient time to attend school. Rivera accompanied his family in the migrant labor stream that traveled from Texas to many parts of the Midwest. and Josefa (Hernandez) Rivera, who were migrant workers. Tomás Rivera was born on December 22, 1935, in Crystal City, Texas, the son of Mexican immigrants, Florencio M. Through his example, one of the young workers discovers this connection for himself, leading him to a new appreciation of the earth and the cycle of the seasons. It shows how one old migrant worker regularly renews his feeling of kinship with the land. “The Harvest” is a story that illustrates this love. Rivera wrote that, in spite of the hardships of their work, the Chicano migrant workers kept their spirits up by what he described as their love of the land. Housing provided for them is often inadequate, and they are frequently treated as aliens in the communities where they work, even though many are American citizens. workers and they often work long hours in difficult conditions. Migrant workers are among the lowest paid of U. He therefore knew firsthand the difficult lives such workers had to endure, and still do today. Rivera, who was the son of Mexican immigrants, had been a migrant worker in his youth, at various times living and working in Iowa, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio. Rivera was the first writer to document the experience of Mexican American migrant farm workers who each year traveled north from Texas to the Midwest to find seasonal work. “The Harvest” (Arte Público Press, 1989) is a short story by Mexican American writer Tomás Rivera.
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