Agribusiness Chronotopes: Farmworker Experiences of Exploitative Time and Space in Rigoberto González’s Crossing Vines

igoberto González’s 2003 novel, Crossing Vines , depicts a day in the life of several migrant farmworkers in the fictionalized Caliente Valley, a stand-in for Coachella Valley, located in Southern California’s Colorado desert region. The centrality of the region is apparent from the author’s book dedication: “This is dedicated to the grape farmworkers of the Coachella Valley, California. It is dedicated to my pop and my grandma María.” 1 This dedication is effectively the novel’s first statement, after the title, and as such, it immediately foreshadows the central role of this agricultural space and the real farmworkers who inspired the work. Following the dedication, González credits Tomás Rivera’s groundbreaking novel, . . . y no se lo tragó la tierra (1971), 2 as the literary inspiration behind Crossing Vines. Rivera’s Tierra famously offered a portrayal of the material realities of migrant farmworkers in Texas through multiple stories and vignettes that cohere at the end through one main character’s memories. 3 For its part, Crossing Vines portrays collective farmworker realities in early 2000s California. Rather than presenting one protagonist-centric storyline that coheres the narrative thread, the novel provides chapters or vignettes that focalize around any one of the twenty-five farmworker characters, with time, place