I will unbutton the buttons you cannot reach and you will help Isabel, yes? Josefina, we need more hot water in these tubs. Andale , hurry. Esperanza stared up at the ceiling, searching her memories. Papa set up the nativity on a bed of moss in the front hall. And Hortensia cooked for days. There were empanadas filled with meat and sweet raisin tamales.
You would have loved how Abuelita decorated her gifts. She used dried grapevines and flowers, instead of ribbons. Then we came home in the middle of the night, still smelling of incense from the church, and drank warm atole de chocolate , and opened our gifts. Esperanza looked at her hands covered in the greasy green lotion and remembered when Mama used to sit like this, after a long day of gardening or after horseback rides with Papa through the dry mesquite grasslands.
They felt better, but still looked red and weathered. She took another avocado, cut it in half, swung the knife into the pit and pulled it from the flesh. Because they were the hands of a poor campesina. Esperanza lay in bed that night and listened to the others in the front room talk about the sweeps and the deportations. They will reorganize and they will be stronger. There will come a time when we will have to decide all over again whether to join them or not.
On the morning of her birthday, Esperanza heard the voices coming from outside her window. She sat up in bed and listened. And smiled. Esperanza lifted the curtain. Isabel came over to her bed and looked out with her, clutching her doll.
They both blew kisses to the men who sang the birthday song. Then Esperanza waved them inside, not to open gifts, but because she could already smell coffee coming from the kitchen. Irene and Melina came, too, with their family.
And Miguel. Esperanza Rising. Plot Summary. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. But that doesn't mean we can forget where she came from.
Back in Mexico, Marisol is Esperanza's best friend. But after her move to the U. Do you think the two girls would still be friends if they met later in life? Marisol's dad is also a friendly guy. Another wealthy landowner, he's the only one of Papa's neighbors willing to help the family after Papa dies.
In fact, he's the one who helps Mama and Esperanza sneak out of town by hiding them under a pile of guavas. When we first meet Hortensia and Alfonso, they are servants in the Ortega household. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Every other week, Esperanza takes money she has saved and gets a money order from the market. The doctor tells Esperanza that Mama has pneumonia, and must have no visitors for the next month, to avoid other infections.
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. On their way home, Esperanza and Miguel see Marta with her mother, Ada. 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.
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. 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 officers, coming to find workers who are in the country illegally.
Miguel and Esperanza have played together since they were babies. Esperanza once declared, "I am going to marry Miguel! Eventually, though, Esperanza realized that she and Miguel could never get married , because she was the daughter of the ranch owner, and he was the son of a housekeeper.
Even though the book Esperanza Rising is fiction which means it is a made-up story , it is based on her grandmother. She moved from Mexico to California, just like the characters in the book. The book's main character, Esperanza , is based on what Pam thinks her grandmother might have been like. Sixto Ortega, or 'Papa' was Esperanza's father. He was a wealthy ranch owner who was generous to his workers. Papa was killed by bandits while mending a fence. Esperanza is not particularly thrilled to see Miguel , but agrees to go anyhow.
When Esperanza sees Miguel she asks if he has brought back what he stole. He says he did not, but he did bring something better. Esperanza looks past him and sees Abuelita. Esperanza grows and matures in several ways. At the beginning of the novel, she is a wealthy girl without a trouble in the world and is largely ignorant to the problems of people around her.
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