Summary. Esperanza is about to celebrate her birthday. The daughter of a wealthy Mexican land owner has her world turned upside down when her father is killed. Because of her evil uncles, she and her mother flee their home with the servant family that once worked for her father. In a new country she must learn how to restart her life without the luxury she once knew.
Impressions
I have
heard about this book for a while and am glad I finally got a chance to read
it. It is one of the favorites among the
students in my middle school. The
opening Mexican proverbs provide a good indication on what this book is
about. Someone who has money learns how
to be rich without it. Also reading the
beginning and how Esperanza loved her father so much, I could not help think, “Okay,
when is he going to die”. Another given is the relationship between Esperanza
and Miguel. When is she going to realize
that he is wothy of her friendship and love? Despite
all that, I enjoyed the story. It is a
wonderful depiction of a Hispanic family and the 1930’s depression era.
Reviews
At times Esperanza Rising, although it takes place in
Depression-era Mexico and the United States instead of Victorian England, seems
a dead ringer for Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess. Both are
dramatic riches-to-rags stories about girls forced to trade fancy dolls and
dresses for hard work and ill-fitting hand-me-downs after their beloved fathers
die. Thirteen-year-old Esperanza even possesses a touch of Sara Crewe's
romantic spirit. The daughter of an affluent Mexican rancher, she had been
taught by her father to believe that the "land is alive," that she
could lie down beneath the arbors in her family's vineyards, press her ear to
the ground, and hear a heart beat. Yet can this still hold true for Esperanza
when she no longer reigns as queen of the harvest but labors in the fields of a
foreign country, picking grapes on someone else's land for pennies an hour? The
transition does not come easily for her, and thus her story ultimately diverges
from The Little Princess's fairytale script to become a poignant look at the
realities of immigration. Political as well as personal history inform the
sometimes florid narrative (loosely based, we are told in an afterword, on the
experiences of the author's grandmother). Esperanza's struggles begin amidst
class unrest in post-revolutionary Mexico and intersect with labor strikes in
the United States, which serve to illustrate the time period's prevailing
hostility toward people of Mexican descent. In one of the more glaring
injustices she witnesses, striking workers, who were born American citizens and
have never set foot on Mexican soil, are loaded onto buses for deportation.
Through it all, Esperanza is transformed from a sheltered aristocrat into
someone who can take care of herself and others. Although her material wealth is
not restored in the end, the way it is for Sara Crewe, she is rich in family,
friends, and Esperanza-the Spanish word for hope. C.M.H.
Christine, M. H. (2001).
Esperanza rising. The Horn Book Magazine, 77(1), 96-96. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/199260872?accountid=7113
The author of Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride (1999) and Riding
Freedom (1997) again approaches historical fiction, this time using her own
grandmother as source material. In 1930, Esperanza lives a privileged life on a
ranch in Aguascalientes, Mexico. But when her father dies, the
post-Revolutionary culture and politics force her to leave with her mother for
California. Now they are indebted to the family who previously worked for them,
for securing them work on a farm in the San Joaquin valley. Esperanza balks at
her new situation, but eventually becomes as accustomed to it as she was in her
previous home, and comes to realize that she is still relatively privileged to
be on a year-round farm with a strong community. She sees migrant workers
forced from their jobs by families arriving from the Dust Bowl, and camps of
strikers--many of them US citizens--deported in the "voluntary
repatriation" that sent at least 450,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans
back to Mexico in the early 1930s. Ryan's narrative has an epic tone,
characters that develop little and predictably, and a romantic patina that
often undercuts the harshness of her story. But her style is engaging, her
characters appealing, and her story is one that--though a deep-rooted part of
the history of California, the Depression, and thus the nation--is little heard
in children's fiction. It bears telling to a wider audience. (author's note)
(Fiction. 9-15)
Esperanza rising. (2000).
Kirkus Reviews, (19) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/917074786?accountid=7113Suggestions
In
the book Esperanza talks about her future Quinceañera. Many of the Hispanic girls talk about their Quinceañera. You can discuss the traditions, festivities,
and meaning of a Quinceañera
ReferencesRyan, P. M. (2000). Esperanza rising. New York: Scholastic Press.
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