A moving and powerful portrait of the life of a poor Mexican American boy and his migrant farm worker family as they struggle to adjust to life in American society. Adapted from the novel (…y no se lo tragó la tierra) written by Tomás Rivera and published in 1971, the film is a feature-length drama produced for AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE, PBS’s weekly drama series. The film presented for the first time in theaters and on American television, the perspective of migrant workers as told by one of their own. The author, Tomas Rivera, was himself a migrant worker as a child, and later went on to become the highest ranking Mexican American in higher education as the Chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. Told through the eyes of Marcos, a twelve-year-old boy, the film emphasizes Marcos’ desire to educate himself. Through its many human stories of growing up as a Mexican American, the story exposes the rich cultural traditions which have given shape to life in the American Southwest.