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Summary —
The Pura Belpré Award-winning novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan tells the tale of Esperanza Ortega, the only daughter of a wealthy Mexican land-owner who faces several challenges after her father is killed by bandits. Their house catches on fire and Esperanza and her mother are forced to flee Mexico with almost nothing but the clothes on their back. They rely on the assistance of Alfonso and Hortensia, who had been servants in her father’s ranch; Alfonso has family in California and now that the ranch is in ashes, their family plans to migrate North. Esperanza’s mother is tries to make the best of a bad situation and encourages Esperanza to be grateful for what they still have: each other. At first, Esperanza takes care of the children while her mother works in the California farm fields. But after her mother gets sick, Esperanza has to shoulder the responsibility of her mother’s medical costs, so she joins as a farm hand. Alone and apart from her grandmother, Esperanza grows up a lot throughout the course of the book. At the beginning of the book, she is a spoiled and sheltered rich girl who is afraid to let grubby little peasant children touch her favorite doll. But by the end of the book, she has learned humility and the value of family, hard work, and generosity. At one point in the novel, she gives her prized doll and last gift from her father to Isabel to distract her from the disappointment of not winning Queen of the May because she was a poor Mexican girl. She also gives away a piñata that she had planned to give to her mother to a group of poor children whose parents were planning to go on strike. She recognizes that as hard as she may have it, there are always those who have it worse. At the end of the novel, her mother and grandmother are reunited with Esperanza, her mother released from the hospital after a long stay and her grandmother escorted from Mexico by Miguel, Alfonso and Hortensia’s son.
Lucien’s thoughts —
This was a very pleasant book to read since the main character undergoes such a great amount of change as she faces more and more adult challenges in her life. The story maintains a sense of hope through adversity, and Esperanza is able to hold on to hope that her grandmother will one day rejoin them. She works hard to achieve that goal and her struggle is rewarded at the conclusion of the book. I also thought it was interesting that the titles of the chapters are named after the Spanish words for significant produce that are part of that chapter’s story. It helps ground the narrative in way field workers tell time: by the agricultural product of the seasons rather than the names of the months. One thing that I did find a bit annoying was the repeated use of Spanish words followed by their English meanings. I know Ryan was just trying to capture some of the cultural flavor of life of a Mexican immigrant, but I found the practice slightly off-putting. That’s a minor quibble for an otherwise interesting book that highlights the difficult conditions that existed for Mexican farm workers in California during the time of the Great Depression.
Librarian’s use —
I think this novel would be a great springboard for a talk on the farm labor movement and the history of farm unions. Perhaps the librarian could collect other books that are thematically linked to Cesar Chavez and the founding of the National Farm Workers Association. While Chavez’s work comes from a later point in time, its roots can be traced to the strikes alluded to in Esperanza Rising.
Another possible idea is to gather together books about the Dust Bowl era and the migration of many people from Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri to California. This book touches on the waves of the desperately poor who went out West to California in search of jobs in the 1930s; it wasn’t just Mexicans who looked for farm labor.
Other reviews —
Burke, L. (2000). Esperanza rising. Reading today, 18 (2), 32.
When her mother falls seriously ill and the economic reality of the Depression threatens her already tenuous ability to earn a living, Esperanza realizes that if she is ever going to thrive she must stop coveting her past and be willing to embrace the riches that lay within her grasp: love, respect, and the chance to create a future of her own design. Written with an uncommon understanding of the plight of Mexican farm workers, this passionate novel gives a human face to an issue that has historically been discussed in terms of the price of fruits and vegetables instead of the cost of human lives.
Freeman, J. (2000). Esperanza rising. Instructor, 110 (4), 20.
Born into a prosperous ranching family in Mexico, Esperanza lives a life of privilege and plenty until the eve of her 14th birthday in 1924, when her adored Papa is murdered by bandits… Mama accepts gratefully the help of two former servants to cross the border into California to work on a farm. They escape by wagon and train, proper Esperanza horrified as she observes the poor, dirty peasants with whom they are traveling. She is even more appalled at her new home, a company camp of cabins that remind her of horse stalls, and a new life spent picking crops in the San Joaquin Valley. Based on the life of the author's grandmother, this moving and involving novel deals with the overwhelming hardships faced by Mexican migrant workers-and the love and pride that helps them survive.
Stevenson, D. (2000). Esperanza rising. Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 54 (4), 160.
Though the piquant riches-to-rags element will draw readers, there's no authorial condescension towards Esperanza's campesino fellow workers, and Esperanza's gradual shedding of her own prejudices towards them is perceptively delineated. The discussion of the strike isn't one-sided, though the book does support Esperanza's decision to keep working, and there's some edifying information about the heterogeneousness of the Latino population in the workforce and their forced repatriation and even migration (some U.S. citizens were sent to Mexico as well). Wide-eyed but thoughtful Esperanza makes an attractive agent for these discussions, and her inevitable pairing with Miguel (who took her saved money in order to bring her beloved grandmother from Mexico to join the family) provides both a touch of romance and an illustration of what Esperanza has gained by coming north.
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