BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ryan, Pam Munoz. 2000. ESPERANZA RISING. Scholastic Press: New York. ISBN: 0-439-12041-1.
PLOT SUMMARY
Esperanza lives like a princess at El Rancho de la Rosas with her family and their servants. Esperanza’s father is unexpectedly killed, and her uncles swoop in and are determined to seize the family ranch from Esperanza and her mother. Esperanza and her mother are forced to flee Mexico and accept an uncertain fate. Along with family friends, Esperanza and her mother move to the United States and work in the labor camp picking fruits and vegetables. Esperanza is forced to learn how to work and endure the conditions of the camp. When a dust storm makes her mother sick, Esperanza learns the importance of contributing and taking care of one’s family. After a lengthy hospitalization, Esperanza’s mother returns to the camp to find Esperanza has matured and put aside many of her selfish ways. An unexpected twist leads to Esperanza and her mother being reunited with Abuelita, Esperanza’s grandmother who had to remain in Mexico. As the novel closes, Esperanza finally understands Abuelita’s words “Do not ever be afraid to start over.”
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
ESPERANZA RISING is a tale of historical fiction. The Author’s Note at the end of the novel provides excellent background for the readers. Pam Muñoz Ryan based this story on the life of her grandmother. She includes family ancestral information and historical information for the readers. This adds authenticity to an already realistic tale. Readers know that this tale isn’t just a possibility; someone actually survived many of these events.
The plot is an intricate web of events and interactions. The events follow a natural and realistic turn of events. When Esperanza’s father is killed, her life is turned upside down. She must leave the life she has known and start over. Readers empathize with Esperanza and her mother’s plight. Descriptions of their life events are straightforward and detailed. They follow an expected progression. The drama builds as the pair find themselves in the labor camp. When Esperanza’s mother becomes ill, Esperanza makes mature decisions and begins to grow up. The actions climax as Esperanza’s mother comes home from the hospital, and Esperanza discovers that the money she has been saving to bring her grandmother to the United States has been stolen. However, the readers soon see that the money is taken for a noble reason. It was used to bring Abuelita from Aguacalientes, Mexico. This is an unexpected and dramatic twist that ends the book.
The character development in the story is wonderful. All of the characters are multi-faceted and appealing. Esperanza and her mother live a pampered life. They have servants and an extravagant lifestyle. Once Esperanza’s father is dead, they drastically alter their lifestyle. Esperanza is shocked at the courage and strength her mother reveals as she is thrust into the work camp lifestyle. She never knew her mother had this side.
Esperanza’s reaction to these life changes is believable and compelling. At the beginning of the story, Esperanza is selfish and spoiled. She acts as if she has accepted the family’s new “position” however, she does minor things to show that she has not. When she and her mother are on the train to the United States, she will not allow a young girl to touch her doll because she is dirty. Later, she questions why her mother is sharing their life story with a stranger, who is a “peasant”.
As the story progresses, Esperanza seems to grow up; she is left in charge of two babies while the mother works in the camp. Despite this apparent growth, readers will see another incident of Esperanza’s inability to cope and accept her lack of status. When it is bath time at the camp, Esperanza is confused when she is expected to bathe herself. She is used to her servant Hortensia undressing and bathing her. Ms. Ryan has masterfully created a flawed but sympathetic character. Esperanza is torn between wanting to please her mother and the life she remembers.
Once her mother is hospitalized, readers see the true maturation of Esperanza. She begins to work her mother’s job at the camp so that she can earn money to pay the hospital bills and to bring Abuelita to America. She becomes disciplined and sacrificing. Her greatest act of kindness is when she gives Isabel, a girl whom she lives with at the camp, the doll her father gave her. This act represents Esperanza’s final transformation.
Ms. Ryan does an excellent job creating well rounded characters that avoid stereotypes. All of the characters the readers meet are Mexican. Yet, they are not the “same Mexican”. Their appearances are distinctive and unusual. Descriptions are more than “brown hair and brown eyes”. These characters are also from different socioeconomic status. This shows that not all Mexicans are “poor, dirty laborers”. Esperanza and her family were wealthy land owners. They lived a charmed life. It is important to realize that class distinctions exist in all cultures. In fact, it is revealed that Esperanza’s family was not liked by many of the Mexican peasants because they represented an “oppressive force”. Mexicans are not all complacent farm workers happy for any job. There is a variety in attitude and opinion, just like in any culture.
The setting for this story is in Mexico and then in a Mexican work camp. The characters speak Spanish. There are isolated Spanish words and phrases intermingled into the text. The Spanish words included add to the richness to the text. If the meaning cannot be derived from the text, Ms. Ryan provides a translation for the Spanish words with the English counterpart. Jamaica is translated; it is a fiesta style party held on Saturday evenings at the camp. However familiar Spanish words such as tamales or vaqueros are not directly translated. Cognates are not translated either. Meaning is not lost using this method.
Another interesting point is that Esperanza laments the fact that she does not know English and that she wants to learn it. Often when text is written in English, readers never stop and think that the characters may not speak English but that the text is written in English for the reader. Esperanza’s discussion of learning English points out that she does not know English, and that the entire book is a translation.
The names of the characters are common Spanish names such as Esperanza, Isabel, Miguel, Josefina, Juan, and Marta. The names are unique but culturally accurate. Readers are not inundated with several characters named José and Maria. No character yells “Aye Caramba” or any other stereotypic phrase. Esperanza shows the love she has for her mother, father, and grandmother by how she refers to them. She refers to her father as PAPI in the first chapter. Six years pass between chapters one and two so she begins to refer to him as PAPA. Her mother is MAMA, and her grandmother is ABUELITA. These references show affection; they are not stiff.
The importance of family and extended family is an important theme in the Mexican culture. It is also the theme of ESPERANZA RISING. Esperanza and her mother leave Mexico because her mother is going to be forced to marry a cruel man who is going to take over her family’s ranch and send Esperanza to a boarding school. They flee so that they can be together. Esperanza’s mother works at a grueling job so that she can make money so that she and Esperanza can survive. When her mother is hospitalized, Esperanza takes on many new responsibilities so she can care for her mother. Miguel, a family friend, also shows his love for Esperanza and the importance he places on family when he returns to Mexico to bring Abuelita to the camp. Love of family is a driving force behind many characters’ actions in this tale.
Ms. Ryan creates an exquisite tale of love, triumph, and hope with this story. Readers will feel the pain of Papa’s death, the sting as Esperanza discovers life as a peasant, the fear as Mama’s sickness worsens, and the joy as the family is reunited.
REVIEW EXCERPTS
Pura Belpre Award Winner 2002
Julia Lopez Memorial Award Winner 2001
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award
From PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: "With a hint of magical realism, this robust novel set in 1930 captures a Mexican girl's fall from riches and her immigration to California."
From HORN BOOK MAGAZINE: “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.”
From VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES: “Fruits and vegetables serve as chapter titles, effectively contrasting the life of wealth in Mexico and the working life in California. An author's note indicates that the story was inspired by events in the life of Ryan's grandmother. Details of existence at the migrant work camp, agricultural strikes and violence, discrimination, and the Mexican repatriation are realistic, based on historical facts in this readable, believable, and inspirational story.”
From SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: “Easy to booktalk, useful in classroom discussions, and accessible as pleasure reading, this well-written novel belongs in all collections.”
CONNECTIONS
Students will study the historical events during which ESPERANZA RISING is set. Students will create a presentation of factual material to be presented. Students should include information comparing and contrasting historical information in the text with factual information.
Great Depression
http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blyindexdepression.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
http://www.42explore2.com/depresn.htm
Mexican Migration in the 1930s
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/mexican6.html
http://www.farmworkers.org/immigrat.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-04-04-1930s-deportees- cover_x.htm
** (this is an interesting article about aftermath of the events of the 1930s)
Students will engage in a detailed author study on Pamela Munoz Ryan. Resources are provided at the following sites.
www.pammunoz.ryan.com
http://www.pammunozryan.com/arthorstudy.html
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/ryan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Munoz_Ryan
http://www.kidsreads.com/authors/au-ryan-pam-munoz.asp
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