USA The ghost of Tom Joad - parallelozero.com · The extraordinary journey of the Joad family, the main character of John Steinbeck’s novel “The grapes of wrath”, runs along

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U S A

The ghostof Tom Joad

Oklahoma, El Reno. A museum on the Route 66

The extraordinary journey of the Joad family, the main character of John Steinbeck’s novel “The grapes of wrath”, runs along the remains of the glorious Route 66, through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, up to the coast of California: the promised land of the Okies, the refugees and workers from Oklahoma dispossessed of their belongings by banks during the Great Depression and then forced to leave their lands. Today the West Coast is still the American Dream of the less fortunate, such as the many Mexicans who live and work there often in a condition of semi-slavery. Traces of that epic literary journey today try to tell metaphorically the different stages of a trip aimed at the realization of a project of redemption and freedom.

The initial section of the trip is described, often quoting the poetry of Steinbeck, as an inhospitable and alien starting place, a complex human dimension where the urge to run away is clear; in the middle we see America (Americanland), defined and broken by significant solitudes, large empty spaces filled with silence and deep distances; the arrival portrays instead a more reassuring humanity, represented by the stories of some Mexican migrants, who arrived in the United States to implement the project of a better life, suspended between memory and future.

Their condition proves to be very difficult, since for them America becomes a “jaula de oro” (golden cage), a place where, once inside, everyone is trapped without being able to return to their country of origin. A place where people are forced to harvest fruits and vegetables seasonally in the fields of rich California.

Oklahoma, Bethany. The local church

Oklahoma, Elk City. A motel room

Texas, Vega. A crossroad on the highway 40

Texas, Amarillo. The Mexican restaurant “Acapulco”

New Mexico, Albuquerque. A bus

stop in town

New Mexico, Albuquerque. An abandoned lounge along the Route 66

New Mexico, Gallup. Some Navajo paintings hang on the wall of a motel

New Mexico, Albuquerque. Streetlife

New Mexico, Albuquerque. Carlos, a Mexican man who lives and works in the Usa

New Mexico, Albuquerque. Two children of Mexican origin play in the garden of their house, just outside town, where they live with their parents

Arizona, Flagstaff. A parking lot of the Starlite lanes bowling

Arizona, Fagstaff. A restaurant in Flagstaff

Between California and Arizona. The Amtrak train

California, Bakersfield. The National Cemetery

California, Bakersfield. Of of the many house with private garden

California, San Francisco. San Francisco Bay Trail

California, Daggett/Barstow. The desert market along the Route 66

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