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Esperanza Rising
Pam Muñoz Ryan

Study Guide

Summary

Summary
Chapter Summaries

Summary Chapter Summaries

Introduction: Aguascalientes, Mexico,

1924

We first meet Esperanza Ortega as a six-year-

old girl walking with her father, Sixto, whom she
calls Papa, through a vineyard in the valley
where they live in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Papa
describes the valley as a living thing with
breath and a heartbeat. He tells Esperanza that
when a person lies down on the ground, they
can feel the land breathe and hear its heart
beating. Esperanza giggles as they lie down to
listen, and says she can’t hear it, but Papa tells
her to be patient. After a few moments,
Esperanza can hear and feel the land beneath
her.

Chapter 1: Las Uvas (Grapes), six years

later (1930)

Esperanza is the only child of Sixto and

Ramona Ortega. Sixto is the wealthy owner of
El Rancho de las Rosas. Everyone at the ranch
is preparing for the year’s grape harvest,
including Esperanza’s family, their servants,
cowboys, and field workers. It is also almost
Esperanza’s thirteenth birthday. While gathering
roses, Esperanza pricks her thumb on a thorn,
and believes it is a sign of bad luck. Papa has
not returned from the fields, and Esperanza
and her mother are worried. Papa had been
warned about bandits in the area who were
angry with wealthy landowners like him. Papa
has given some workers their own plots of land,
but there are still many who own nothing.

Mama sends two workers, Alfonso and his son,

Miguel, out to find Papa while she waits with
Esperanza and Esperanza’s grandmother,
Abuelita, and their housekeeper, Hortensia,
who is Alfonso’s wife and Miguel’s mother.
Miguel is sixteen. He and Esperanza have been
friends since they were children. But one day
she told Miguel that because his family worked
for hers, there was a river between them that
couldn’t be crossed. Now Miguel calls
Esperanza his queen.

Abuelita and Esperanza crochet to take their

minds o! worrying about Papa. Esperanza’s
work is lopsided compared to Abuelita’s, but
Abuelita tells her not to be afraid of starting
over. Esperanza’s uncles, Tío Luis and Tío
Marco, arrive at the house. Tío Luis is the bank
president and Tío Marco is the town’s mayor.
They are Papa’s older stepbrothers. The men
bring bad news: a ranch worker has found
Papa’s silver belt buckle. Abuelita, Hortensia,
and Mama begin to pray for Papa’s safety.
Alfonso and Miguel finally arrive in a wagon,
carrying the dead body of Esperanza’s father
covered in a blanket. Esperanza falls to her
knees, crying.

Chapter 2: Las Papayas (Papayas)

Esperanza learns that Papa and his workers

were attacked and killed by bandits. She tells
the story to Señor Rodriguez, her friend
Marisol’s father who has brought the papayas
Esperanza’s father had ordered for Esperanza’s
party. Papa’s funeral services last for three days,
and people leave the family food and flowers.
Esperanza doesn’t want to open her birthday
presents, but Esperanza’s mother says that her
father would have wanted Esperanza to do so.
Esperanza receives several gifts, including a
porcelain doll from Papa.

Tío Luis and Tío Marco visit the family every

day, becoming more frustrated as Esperanza’s
mother continues to grieve for Papa. A lawyer
tells Mama that Papa left the ranch house to
her and Esperanza, but he left the land to Tío
Luis. Luis wants to buy the house, and makes
an o!er that Esperanza’s mother does not think
is fair. Luis then o!ers to marry her so she can
continue to live in the house. Mama refuses this
o!er as well, and Luis warns that he will make
her life hard.

While Mama, Abuelita, and Hortensia discuss

what can be done, Esperanza meets Miguel
outside. They talk about the rose bushes Papa
planted for each of them, side by side. Miguel
tells her that his family will leave for the United
States soon to look for work rather than work
for Luis, but they will stay for a while to help
Esperanza’s family. Esperanza is grateful, but
determined that she will never leave her home.

Chapter 3: Los Higos (Figs)

Esperanza is woken by her mother screaming.

Their house is on fire. They struggle to leave
while Miguel runs inside the house for Abuelita.
Abuelita is injured and cannot walk, but she still
holds her bag of crocheting. Esperanza, Mama,
Abuelita, Hortensia, Miguel, and Alfonso watch
as the fire destroys the house.

Luis and Marco express sorrow for another

tragedy so soon after Papa’s death, and Luis
wonders what the family will do if more
accidents happen. He o!ers again to marry
Mama, and she says she will consider his
proposal. Esperanza is furious, and tells Luis
that she hates him. The family and friends
agree that Luis will destroy more of the ranch
unless Mama marries him. Hortensia tells
Mama that her family is going to the United
States to live and work on a big farm. There will
be jobs for everyone. Mama asks if she and
Esperanza can go with them. Abuelita will
come later, after her injuries have healed. Until
then, she will stay with her sisters at a nearby
convent.

The group discusses the di"culties of crossing

the border into the United States. Abuelita says
that her sisters at a convent will get the correct
papers for Esperanza and her mother. Abuelita
reminds Esperanza not to be afraid of starting
over. She gives Esperanza the bag of
crocheting and tells her to finish her work.
Mama tells Luis she will accept his proposal,
but he must rebuild the ranch, and send a
wagon so she can visit Abuelita at the convent.
Luis is surprised but agrees.

A few nights later, Esperanza and her mother

escape. Esperanza leaves with a bag
containing clothes, tamales, and her new doll.
She looks back at the ranch, but Mama tells her
that Papa’s heart will find them wherever they
go.

Chapter 4: Las Guayabas (Guavas)

Esperanza, her mother, and Hortensia hide

inside the back of the wagon so they won’t be
seen as they escape from Aguascalientes.
Esperanza is scared of being in the tight space,
but Hortensia distracts her with memories from
when they once hid from thieves inside the
ranch house by crawling under a bed. After two
days, the group boards a train car full of people
Esperanza calls peasants. Many are dirty,
carrying animals, and wearing old, torn clothes.
A little girl stares at Esperanza’s porcelain doll,
but Esperanza yanks it back when the girl
reaches for it, making the girl cry. Esperanza’s
mother apologizes for Esperanza’s bad
manners, and has Esperanza help her make a
yarn doll for the girl.

At every stop, Miguel and Alfonso step o! the

train to add water to an oilcloth package.
Esperanza is irritated by Miguel’s happiness at
being on the train, but Miguel tells her that he is
going to try to work on the railroad in California.
He has always wanted to work on trains, and
Esperanza’s father had promised to help him
find a job. Miguel tells Esperanza that in the
United States, even the poorest man can
become rich if he works hard enough.

After four days and nights on the train,

Esperanza meets Carmen, an egg seller who
tells the group that even though she is poor,
she is rich because she has her children, her
garden, and memories of the people she loves.
When she leaves the train, Esperanza and
Miguel watch as Carmen gives a beggar on the
train platform some money and food. Miguel
tells Esperanza that the poor take care of those
who have even less than they do, while the rich
only take care of each other.

Chapter 5: Los Melones (Cantaloupes)

The train reaches the California border. The

police frighten Esperanza, but Mama shows
that their papers are good and that they have
come to the United States to work. The group
boards another train, to Los Angeles. They are
met by Alfonso’s brother Juan, his wife,
Josefina, and their children, Isabel and the
babies Lupe and Pepe. On the way to the farm,
Isabel tells Esperanza that she wants to learn
English in school this year.

When the group stops for lunch, Esperanza

tries to hear the land’s heartbeat, as Papa
taught her to do. She can’t hear or feel anything,
and she cries before she has the sensation of
flying high, then falling back down. Esperanza
faints, and wakes to find Miguel standing above
her.

Marta, a worker from another camp, joins the

group. Isabel tells Marta that Esperanza’s father
owned a ranch, and Miguel worked for
Esperanza’s family. Marta asks if Esperanza is a
princess who has come to be a peasant. Miguel
and Isabel defend Esperanza, explaining that
her father died and a fire destroyed her home.
Marta tells Esperanza that her own father died
fighting in the Mexican revolution against
wealthy landowners. Esperanza tries to explain
that her father was a good man, but Marta
doesn’t care.

Isabel shows Esperanza the camps of workers

from the Philippines, Oklahoma, and Japan.
Marta explains that the land owners don’t want
the groups to live and work together. As long as
all groups think the others are living the same
way, no one will care. But if one group receives
better treatment, then other groups will strike.
Miguel and Marta discuss the jamaica fiesta
happening in camp on Saturday night. When
the truck arrives at the Mexican camp, Marta
taunts Esperanza, saying no one will be her
servant there.

Chapter 6: Las Cebollas (Onions)

Marta joins a group of girls, gossiping with

them in English about Esperanza. Isabel points
out the building with the camp toilets, and
Miguel leads Esperanza and her mother to the
group’s cabin. Alfonso has told the landowners
that Esperanza and her mother are his cousins,
so they will live as a family in one cabin.
Esperanza complains that they are living like
horses, but her mother tells Esperanza to be
grateful for what they have.

Esperanza and Isabel will watch the babies

while the others work in the fields. Esperanza’s
main job will be to sweep the wooden platform
in the middle of the camp every afternoon.
Isabel shows Esperanza the platform and
brooms before they meet Isabel’s best friend
Silvia and two women, Irene and Melina. Melina
tells Esperanza she knows about how she
came from Aguascalientes. When Esperanza
wonders how people know about her already,
Isabel tells her that everyone in the camp
knows each other’s business.

Isabel is surprised to learn that Esperanza

doesn’t know how to wash clothes. Isabel
reminds Esperanza that next week she will go
to school, and Esperanza will be alone with the
babies. Isabel asks if Esperanza knows how to
sweep, and Esperanza assures her that she
does. But when it is time for her to sweep the
platform, she ends up making a bigger mess.
She notices some women watching her and
laughing, including Marta, who calls her
Cinderella. Humiliated, Esperanza runs back
inside the cabin. That evening, Miguel shows
Esperanza how to sweep. She thanks him, and
Miguel again calls her his queen. Later, Isabel
asks about Esperanza’s life as a queen, and
Esperanza agrees to tell her about her life in
Aguascalientes, if Isabel will teach her how to
do laundry and take care of the babies.

Chapter 7: Las Almendras (Almonds)

Miguel leads Esperanza and her mother behind

the cabin to a makeshift shrine to Our Lady of
Guadalupe. Miguel has planted rosebushes
there that he dug from the burnt ground of the
ranch. He and Alfonso kept the cuttings wet
during the journey from Mexico. Miguel has
placed Esperanza’s rose beside a trellis,
allowing it to climb. Mama reminds Esperanza
that Papa’s heart would find them wherever
they went.
The following night is the jamaica fiesta.
Esperanza is nervous about facing the others in
camp, and asks about Marta. Isabel tells
Esperanza that Marta knows English because
she and her mother were born in the United
States. Isabel’s father doesn’t like it when Marta
comes to the jamaicas, because she talks too
much about workers striking.

At the fiesta, Esperanza notices a group

gathered around Marta and her friends. Marta
yells that the workers are being treated like
kittens, meek animals who have no choice.
Marta’s group is planning to strike in two weeks,
at the height of the cotton season. They want
others to join them so everyone’s lives can get
better. Marta and her friends are ordered to
leave the camp. Later, Josefina explains that
Marta and her mother are migrant workers.
Migrant camps have no protection and very
little pay. Josefina tells Esperanza that
Mexicans cannot risk striking, because the
landowners will hire other workers from
Oklahoma or elsewhere.

Late that night, Mama tells Esperanza that she

is proud of all that Esperanza is learning.
Esperanza says that she will light a candle for
Papa at church the next day, and pray for a
railroad job for Miguel, for help with the babies,
and for Abuelita to get well. Mama says that
she will pray too for Esperanza to be strong, no
matter what happens.

Chapter 8: Las Ciruelas (Plums)

On her first day alone with the babies,

Esperanza mashes ripe plums for them to eat
before they nap. When they wake, both babies
have made a terrible mess in their diapers.
They have been sick from eating too much.
Esperanza remembers that when she was sick
as a child, Hortensia would make her drink rice
water. Esperanza prepares rice water for the
babies, feeding them small amounts until
Isabel comes home. Isabel tells her she did the
right thing, because raw plums are too hard on
babies’ stomachs.

Esperanza spends time with Irene and Milena.

The women talk about how this is the day of
the strike, before a hot wind blows across the
field, and the sky goes dark. There is a vicious
dust storm coming. The women hide in the
cabin with the children as dirt and dust fly
outside. Irene and Melina leave after the storm
settles, and Esperanza waits for Isabel and the
others to come home.

Once home, the family members take turns

washing their bodies and clothes. Esperanza’s
mother is coughing hard from the dust. At the
table, the family discusses how the strike did
not happen because of the storm. The cotton
pickers now have no jobs because the storm
covered the crop in dirt, but the others will go
back to work tomorrow, because the grapes
are ready.

A month later, Mama is still coughing, and she

is weak and feverish. A doctor trusted by the
field workers comes and tells the family that
she has Valley Fever. Dust spores from the
storm have infected her lungs. It is not
contagious, but brings fever, pain, and
coughing. Even with medicine, it could be six
months before Mama is well—if she survives at
all.

Chapter 9: Las Papas (Potatoes)

Esperanza takes care of her mother while Irene

and Melina look after the babies. Mama is not
getting worse, but she is also not getting better.
She calls out for Abuelita, and asks Esperanza
to give her the crocheted blanket Abuelita had
started before they left Aguascalientes. As her
mother sleeps, Esperanza attempts to finish the
blanket.

Winter comes, and Mama has trouble

breathing. The doctor says that she is weak and
depressed, and must go to the hospital.
Hortensia tells Esperanza that her mother has
lost so much, and her strength is gone.

Esperanza goes with Hortensia and Josefina to

cut potato eyes for three weeks. If she is a good
worker, Esperanza might be hired to do more.
Esperanza learns how the older women
complete their tasks and stay warm in the shed
where they work. One woman is Marta’s aunt,
who says that the strikers are organizing now
for the spring. She worries that the strikers will
lose their cabins in the migrant camp and be
sent back to Mexico. She warns that Mexicans
who continue to work while others are striking
may be harmed. Marta’s uncle has told her that
she cannot stay with them if she strikes,
because they cannot risk losing their jobs.

A few nights before Christmas, Isabel asks

Esperanza about how the holiday was
celebrated in Aguascalientes. Esperanza
describes the sights and sounds, and
remembers that she was happy. For Christmas
this year, she wants her Mama to be well again,
and to keep working. Esperanza visits her
mother in the hospital on Christmas Day, but
Mama does not wake from her sleep.
Esperanza leaves her a gift of a small stone
similar to one Abuelita carried in her coat, and
tells her mother that she will take care of
everything.

Chapter 10: Las Aguacates (Avocados)

Esperanza’s life continues with work during the

days, helping with the babies at night, and
visiting Mama in the hospital on weekends.
Every other week, Esperanza takes money she
has saved and gets a money order from the
market. She hides the money orders in her bag,
hoping to save enough for Abuelita’s travel
costs.

The doctor tells Esperanza that Mama has

pneumonia, and must have no visitors for the
next month, to avoid other infections.
Esperanza asks to see Mama for a short time,
and braids her mother’s hair before telling
Mama that she loves her. Unable to visit her
mother, Esperanza is sad. Miguel convinces
Esperanza to go with him to a Japanese market
where the owner is kind to Mexicans. At the
market, Esperanza buys another money order
and a piñata for her mother.

On their way home, Esperanza and Miguel see

Marta with her mother, Ada. Ada tells
Esperanza that she has been praying for
Esperanza’s mother. Marta asks Miguel to take
them to the farm where she and her mother are
currently living. The farm is messy, with several
families living in tents or cars. A family comes
begging for food because the father lost his job
after striking. Esperanza gives the father some
beans and gives the children the piñata. Marta
tells Miguel and Esperanza that the strikers are
more organized now, and will shut down fields,
roads, and the railroad during the asparagus
season. Marta warns that they could be in
danger if they do not join the strike.

A few nights later, Miguel brings news that he

has found a job in the railroad’s machine shop.
It may be temporary, but Miguel’s father
Alfonso is sure that Miguel’s work will be so
good that the railroad will keep him.

Chapter 11: Las Espárragos (Asparagus)

On the first day of the asparagus season, the

workers are protected from the strikers by a
man with a gun, but the gun frightens
Esperanza as well. The strikers, including Marta
and Ada, chant and threaten the workers all
day. Alfonso and Juan tell the women that the
same things are happening in the fields. One
day, Josefina pulls asparagus from a crate to
find a rat, and later, a woman sees snakes
coming out of another crate. Other workers find
razor blades and pieces of glass in packing
crates.

One day, Esperanza notices that the shouting

has stopped. She and Hortensia see that the
strikers are gone, and then notice several vans
and police cars moving toward the shed.
Josefina tells Esperanza that they are
immigration o"cers, coming to find workers
who are in the country illegally. Josefina
explains that the strikers will be deported back
to Mexico even if they are citizens of the United
States, because they are causing trouble for
the government.

Esperanza goes to the shed to gather bands for

the asparagus bundles, and finds Marta hiding
there, begging Esperanza not to let her get
caught. Esperanza remembers how unkind
Marta has been to her, but also knows that