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Title: Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, 2000. Hardcover. $15.34, ISBN 978-0-439-12041-8
Genre: Fiction/Historical Fiction
Subjects: The Great Depression, Immigration, Mexican-Americans, California, Farm Laborers
Reading Level/Interest Level: 6.2/Grades 5-8
Awards: Pura Belpre Author Award 2002, ALA Notable Children’s Books 2001
Similar Titles: Breaking Through by Francisco Jiminez. Local News by Gary Soto.
Esperanza Ortega lives a life of privilege in Mexico as the daughter of a respected and wealthy land owner. Pampered, adored, and learning all the skills she will need as an upper class bride after her long anticipated quinceañera , in 2 years time, her father also teachers her how the land is part of her, how it has a heartbeat that unites all those that depend and live upon it, like her family. Little did they know that on the eve of Esperanza’s 13th birthday, their world would be turned upside down as Esperanza’s beloved father is murdered while tending to the land he so loved. The future she once thought was so certain, has changed forever.
Forced to flee the country, Esperanza and her mother travel with their former ranch hands in railroad cattle cars, penniless and afraid, to the agricultural fields of California to seek work and start a new life. Unaccustomed to cramped, drafty and poor fieldworker’s quarters, as well as the manual labor that keeps them housed and fed, Esperanza has a difficult time adjusting to the new life she refuses to accept. That is, until her mother becomes gravely ill and nothing becomes more important to Esperanza than earning enough money to retrieve her Abuelita, her grandmother, from Mexico, her mother’s sole wish. Can she conquer her feelings of inadequacy to be come the strong independent young woman she will need to be to survive the grueling labor, social and economic upheaval in her new country? Can she rise above her circumstances, save her mother and find the heartbeat of the land once more?
Besides learning the value of determination, perseverance, a strong work ethic, education and the ability to adapt to suit the challenge, tween readers may find themselves with more in common with Esperanza than initially thought. The demands of a modern world and the effects of tragedy often have consequences which force children to grow-up faster than they anticipated or may have wished, much like Esperanza. They see how she is focused on dresses and parties, friends and gifts at the beginning of the story, like many contemporaries her age , but then they can see how shallow those pursuits appear as her priorities shift as she becomes a young adult under a heavy burden. They learn the importance of family, both by blood and by bond.
Tales of hardship show readers of all ages what good character can be, of what the human animal is capable of, both good and bad, and of how people develop, grow and change in body, attitude and ethics by age and experience. Learning about stories, like Esperanza’s, which mirror many of the experiences of the immigrant agricultural workers of the 1930’s, is essential, not only to understand what issues we faced as a nation 80 years ago, but of how much that occurred back then (poverty, prejudice, fighting for a fair wage, immigration policy, English as a second language, education gaps, and unionization, to name a few) is still relevant and controversial today. We cannot come to clear and equitable solutions for these issues today until we can learn from the experiences of our predecessors and what did and did not work in the past, and how far we still have to go.
~”Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”~ –George Santayana
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