Four undocumented Mexican American students, two incredible teachers, are the focal characters of this novel. Along with them one robot-building contest and a major motion picture play a vital role.
In 2004, four Latino adolescents landed at the Marine Advanced Technology Education Robotics Competition at the University of California, Santa Barbara. They were born in Mexico however brought up in Phoenix, Arizona, where they went to an underfunded public secondary school. Nobody had ever proposed to Oscar, Cristian, Luis, or Lorenzo that they may add up to a lot - yet two motivating science teachers had persuaded these devastated, undocumented children from the desert who had never at any point seen the sea that they should attempt to fabricate an underwater robot.
And create a robot they did. Their robot was not pretty, particularly contrasted with those of the competition. They were going toward probably the best collegiate engineers in the nation, including a group from MIT supported by a $10,000 award from ExxonMobil. The Phoenix young people had figured out under $1,000 and constructed their robot out of rummaged parts. This was never a level competition - but then, despite seemingly insurmountable opposition... they won!
But, this is the ideal start for these four, whose story - which turned into a key motivation to the DREAMers movement - will proceed to incorporate first-generation college graduations, extradition, bean-picking in Mexico, and administration in Afghanistan.
Joshua Davis' Spare Parts is a tale about conquering outlandish chances and four youngsters who demonstrated they were among the most devoted and capable Americans in this nation - even as the nation attempted to show them out.
