Esperanza Rising

“Esperanza preferred to think, though, that she and her someday-husband would live with Mama and Papa forever. Because she couldn’t imagine living anywhere other than El Rancho de las Rosas.’”

At the beginning of the novel, Esperanza naively assumes that her future will unfold in an orderly fashion. She has no idea what fate holds in store for her. At a later point, she bitterly confides to Miguel that she saw her life laid out in straight rows. She eventually learns to value a different course for her future.

“At first, they stayed only a few hours, but soon they became like la calabaza, the squash plant in Alfonso’s garden, whose giant leaves spread out, encroaching upon anything smaller.

Much of the imagery in the novel consists of references to fruits and vegetables. This seems fitting given the agricultural occupation of the characters. In this instance, Esperanza describes her greedy uncles as predatory plants that steal sustenance from anything too weak to resist.

“My father and I have lost faith in our country. We were born servants here and no matter how hard we work we will always be servants [...] The work is hard in the United States but at least there we have a chance to be more than servants.”

At other points in the story, Miguel will utter these same sentiments. Mexico’s social order is based on a European feudal model. Those who are born servants can never own land, and they will remain in that station for life. Unlike Esperanza, Miguel sees America as his one opportunity to break out of that repressive mold.

“Esperanza, do you remember the story of the phoenix, the lovely young bird that is reborn from its own ashes? […] We are like the phoenix, […] Rising again, with a new life ahead of us.”

Because Abuelita has lived a long life, full of peaks and valleys, she isn’t afraid to start over. She tries to impart this wisdom to Esperanza, but the latter is far from ready to understand the message. She is still clinging to her past. In contrast, Abuelita is ready to embrace the future, no matter what it might hold.

“Look at the zigzag of the blanket. Mountains and valleys. Right now you are in the bottom of the valley and your problems loom big around you. But soon, you will be at the top of a mountain again.”

Abuelita is now using the analogy of crochet stitches to help Esperanza understand the cyclic nature of life. By giving Esperanza the blanket to stitch, she is also establishing a connection with her granddaughter. The blanket is tangible proof of Abuelita’s promise to return to her family someday.

“Esperanza had never been so close to so many peasants before. When she went to school, all of her friends were like her. When she went to town, she was escorted and hurried around any beggars. And the peasants always kept their distance. That was simply the way it was.”

Throughout the novel Esperanza demonstrates her inflexibility. She is used to things being a certain way and assumes they always will be that way. It never occurs to her to question whether it is good or bad that peasants must keep their distance. Adjusting to life among peasants in California gives her a whole new perspective on her relationship to others.

“When you scorn these people, you scorn Miguel, Hortensia, and Alfonso. And you embarrass me and yourself. As difficult as it is to accept, our lives are different now.”

Ramona is rebuking Esperanza for her rudeness to the peasants on the train. Even though Ramona also came from a life of privilege, she is much more astute than her daughter. She realizes that she owes her liberty to her own servants and expresses the proper gratitude. Like Abuelita, Ramona tacitly understands that one must adjust to the ups and downs of life with grace.

“I hear that in the United States, you do not need una palanca. That even the poorest man can become rich if he works hard enough.”

“Una palanca” can be translated as leverage. Miguel is explaining to Esperanza why going to America is so important to him. Even though the two have grown up together, they exist in different worlds. Miguel had no chance to better himself in Mexico because of his humble birth. For Esperanza, everything in Mexico was perfect as it was.

“The rich take care of the rich and the poor take care of those who have less than they have.”

Miguel makes this comment to Esperanza after she is surprised that a peasant woman would give money to a beggar. He is able to see the bigger picture in a way that she can’t. Esperanza’s wealth has insulated her from the plight of the poor. Her experience in the migrant camp will offer an important lesson in empathy.

“She listened again, but the heartbeat was not there. She tried one more time, desperately wanting to hear it. But there was no reassuring thump repeating itself. No sound of the earth’s heartbeat. Or Papa’s. There was only the prickly sound of dry grass.”

This is the second time in the story when Esperanza tries to hear the heartbeat of the earth. She is now in California and fails to find the comforting sound. Her inability to hear the earth breathing is not because the ground is any different but because of the inner turmoil she is experiencing. Esperanza has become lost in the past and is incapable of responding to life in the present moment.

“Those people are from Oklahoma. They live in Camp 8. There’s a Japanese camp, too. We all live separate and work separate. They don’t mix us.’ ‘They don’t want us banding together for higher wages or better housing,’ said Marta.”

Isabel and Marta are explaining the camp set-up to Esperanza. Marta emphasizes the need for all the workers to band together to get better conditions. Ironically, she separates herself from anyone who doesn’t agree with her union viewpoint. She and her group also threaten those whose sense of unity derives from their families.

“Esperanza, if we had stayed in Mexico and I had married Tío Luis, we would have had one choice. To be apart and miserable. Here, we have two choices. To be together and miserable or to be together and happy. Mija, we have each other and Abuelita will come. How would she want you to behave? I choose to be happy. So which will you choose?”

Ramona is trying to teach her daughter a critical lesson about the nature of happiness. It is a choice, and she has chosen to make the best of her circumstances. Esperanza chooses to focus on all the material benefits she lost along with her father. It will take the rest of the story to convince her to shift her focus to hope and away from despair.

“Esperanza liked being with all of them in the tiny room, talking and laughing, and rinsing each other’s hair. Josefina and Hortensia talked about all the gossip in the camp.”

The women are getting ready for the camp fiesta, and Esperanza is beginning to respond in a positive manner. When she first arrived, all she could do was criticize the cramped two-room cabin where ten people lived. Her positive mood about her peasant companions represents a subtle shift in the right direction.

“So many Mexicans have the revolution still in their blood. I am sympathetic to those who are striking, and I am sympathetic to those of us who want to keep working. We all want the same things. To eat and feed our children.”

One of Esperanza’s coworkers utters these sentiments. The Mexican Revolution that ended the country’s dictatorship wasn’t over until ten years before the events in the story. This helps explain Marta’s bitterness toward all the rich landowners who wanted to keep the peasants enslaved. However, Marta fails to see the practical reason why some migrants would rather choose food over revolution.

“The mountains and valleys in the blanket were easy. But as soon as she reached a mountain, she was headed back down into a valley again. Would she ever escape this valley she was living in? This valley of Mama being sick?”

After her mother becomes ill, Esperanza turns to the crochet project for comfort. Although Abuelita meant the mountains and valleys of the design to give hope to Esperanza, the girl doesn’t have her grandmother’s perspective on life to guide her. Abuelita knows from experience that all valleys lead to mountains. Esperanza has yet to learn this lesson.

“If it was true that the strikers would threaten people who kept working, they might try and stop her, too. Esperanza thought of Mama in the hospital and Abuelita in Mexico and how much depended on her being able to work. If she was lucky enough to have a job in the spring, no one was going to get in her way.”

This quote indicates Esperanza’s transformation from a passive child into a determined adult. She has taken on the responsibility of keeping her family together. Rather than fearing Marta’s threats and joining the union, Esperanza will do what her family needs her to do, which is to continue working.

“Esperanza stared into the dark. Isabel had nothing, but she also had everything. Esperanza wanted what she had. She wanted so few worries that something as simple as a yarn doll would make her happy.”

Esperanza is beginning to realize that material wealth doesn’t guarantee happiness. Isabel is content to have a collection of rag dolls that contrast with Esperanza’s former collection of expensive porcelain dolls. Significantly, Esperanza finds that she wants the intangible joy that Isabel can create out of nothing rather than an artificial joy in material riches that can be taken away.

“Esperanza tucked the blanket around her, hoping that the color from the blanket would slowly seep into Mama’s cheeks. She put the stone on the night table and kissed Mama good-bye. ‘Don’t worry. I will take care of everything. I will be la patrona for the family now.’”

While an earlier quote demonstrates Esperanza’s determination, this quote shows that she is consciously aware that she is stepping into a new role in her family. In this context, la patrona means the female head of a Spanish estate. La patrona provides for those who depend upon her. At the same time that she utters these words, Esperanza tucks the crocheted blanket around her mother, thus reaffirming the family connection among Abuelita, Ramona, and Esperanza.

“Living away from town in the company camp had its advantages, she decided. The children all went to school together: white, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone because they were all poor. Sometimes she felt as if she lived in a cocoon, protected from much of the indignation.”

Because Esperanza lives in a migrant camp, she is untouched by much of the prejudice that immigrants endure in the larger American society. While the camp is restrictive in some ways, it is protective in others. This is yet another reason why Esperanza and her friends are not eager to disrupt the camp’s status quo by joining the union.

“She wanted to tell them that she did not want anyone’s children to starve. But she knew it would not matter. The strikers only listened if you agreed with them.”

Esperanza is walking past a line of picketers. Her inner thoughts reveal her conflict over the issue of unionizing. She is sympathetic to the cause, but she needs to keep working to reunite her family. While Esperanza can see both sides of the issue, Marta and her allies are incapable of understanding any viewpoint but their own. Their ideals are out of sync with reality.

“Her thoughts jumped back and forth. Some of those people did not deserve their fate today. How was it that the United States could send people to Mexico who had never even lived there?”

The author is using Esperanza’s perspective to express her own viewpoint about the unfair mass deportation of Mexicans. This is a little-known event in American history when thousands of migrants who had become American citizens were sent back to Mexico. Esperanza is appalled that citizens could be deported just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most Americans today would agree with her.

“In Mexico, I was a second-class citizen. I stood on the other side of the river, remember? And I would have stayed that way my entire life. At least here, I have a chance, however small, to become more than what I was. You, obviously, can never understand this because you have never lived without hope.”

Miguel is lecturing Esperanza about the opportunities America holds while she can see only deprivation. His words about hope are particularly ironic since “Esperanza” literally means “hope” in English. At this point in the novel, Esperanza has very little hope left that life can improve for her. Yet, as Abuelita predicted, she will emerge from the valley of her despair before the story is over.

“When Esperanza told Abuelita their story, about all that had happened to them, she didn’t measure time by the usual seasons. Instead, she told it as a field-worker, in spans of fruits and vegetables and by what needed to be done to the land.”

At the very beginning of the novel, Esperanza’s father establishes her connection to the land by teaching his daughter how to hear the earth’s heartbeat. This connection was severed when Esperanza lost the world she knew in Mexico. Now that her journey of self-discovery is nearly complete, she has found that connection once more. She describes the passage of time to her grandmother in relation to the cycles of nature.