My life as a child was much more bitter than it is now.

Introduction: In this tape-recorded story of a Mexican peasant family as told by three of its members--Pedro Martinez, the father; Esperanza, his wife; and Felipe, the eldest son--I hope to convey to the reader what it means to be a peasant in a nation undergoing rapid cultural change: how peasants feel, how they think, and how they express themselves.

Prologue: Anyone who is a man of ideas is that way from birth.