Esperanza Rising

Amur - Esperanza Rising “Did you know that when you lie down on the land, you can feel it breathe? That you can feel its heart beating?” Drawing on her own family history, Pam Munoz Ryan tells the story of a young Mexican girl, Esperanza, living during the time of the Great Depression in America. She is the spoiled daughter of a wealthy ranch owner, and lives a life of luxury and ease until political unrest and the greed of her own step-uncles rob Esperanza of both her father and her wealth, and send her fleeing to California with her mother for safety. Esperanza quickly learns that America is not the answer to all her problems. Nor does it provide the new life Miguel, her friend and former servant, hopes for. There is still the vast divide between rich and poor, only now those inequalities are coupled with differences in language and race. Ryan handles these issues well. They never become oppressive or political. She keeps everything true to what Esperanza sees and experiences. Esperanza is the perfect representative for the troubles of the poor laborer. She was incredibly wealthy before her troubles began, so she experiences what it means to be poor for the first time, and we see it through her eyes. It is a rag to riches story in reverse. And it does not end with an easy answer. Only the reassurance that life’s most important riches are family, friends, the fruit of the land, and the power of hope can help her through her struggles. Esperanza Rising is a beautiful book. The characters are vividly portrayed; their emotions full of meaning. I could relate to several of the characters in the book, in different ways. Mexican culture is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Esperanza's pain felt very near to my own heart, and her personal growth through it was refreshing.

Starred review from September 11, 2000
Told in a lyrical, fairy tale - like style, Ryan's (riding Freedom) robust novel set in 1930 captures a Mexican girl's fall from riches, her immigration to California and her growing awareness of class and ethnic tensions. Thirteen-year-old Esperanza Ortega and her family are part of Mexico's wealthy, land-owning class in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Her father is a generous and well-loved man who gives his servants land and housing. Early in the novel, bandits kill Esperanza's father, and her corrupt uncles threaten to usurp their home. Their servants help her and her mother flee to the United States, but they must leave Esperanza's beloved Abuelita (grandmother) behind until they can send for her. Ryan poetically conveys Esperanza's ties to the land by crafting her story to the rhythms of the seasons. Each chapter's title takes its name from the fruits Esperanza and her countrymen harvest, firs in Aguascalientes, then in California's San Joaquin Valley. Ryan fluidly juxtaposes world events (Mexico's post-revolution tensions, the arrival of Oklahoma's Dust Bowl victims and the struggles between the U.S. government and Mexican workers trying to organize) with one family's will to survive - while introducing readers to Spanish words and Mexican customs. Readers will be swept up by vivid descriptions of California dust storms or by the police crackdown on a labor strike ("The picket signs lay on the ground, discarded, and like a mass of marbles that had already been hit, the strikers scattered?"). Ryan delivers subtle metaphors via Abuelita's pearl's of wisdom, and not until story's end will readers recognize how carefully they have been strung. Ages 9-14.

October 1, 2000
Gr 6-9-Ryan uses the experiences of her own Mexican grandmother as the basis for this compelling story of immigration and assimilation, not only to a new country but also into a different social class. Esperanza's expectation that her 13th birthday will be celebrated with all the material pleasures and folk elements of her previous years is shattered when her father is murdered by bandits. His powerful stepbrothers then hold her mother as a social and economic hostage, wanting to force her remarriage to one of them, and go so far as to burn down the family home. Esperanza's mother then decides to join the cook and gardener and their son as they move to the United States and work in California's agricultural industry. They embark on a new way of life, away from the uncles, and Esperanza unwillingly enters a world where she is no longer a princess but a worker. Set against the multiethnic, labor-organizing era of the Depression, the story of Esperanza remaking herself is satisfyingly complete, including dire illness and a difficult romance. Except for the evil uncles, all of the characters are rounded, their motives genuine, with class issues honestly portrayed. Easy to booktalk, useful in classroom discussions, and accessible as pleasure reading, this well-written novel belongs in all collections.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2000
Gr. 5-8. Moving from a Mexican ranch to the company labor camps of California, Ryan's lyrical novel manages the contradictory: a story of migration and movement deeply rooted in the earth. When 14-year-old Esperanza's father is killed, she and her mother must emigrate to the U.S., where a family of former ranch workers has helped them find jobs in the agricultural labor camps. Coming from such privilege, Esperanza is ill prepared for the hard work and difficult conditions she now faces. She quickly learns household chores, though, and when her mother falls ill, she works packing produce until she makes enough money to bring her beloved "abuelita "to the U.S.. Set during the Great Depression, the story weaves cultural, economic, and political unrest into Esperanza's poignant tale of growing up: she witnesses strikes, government sweeps, and deep injustice while finding strength and love in her family and romance with a childhood friend. The symbolism is heavy-handed, as when Esperanza ominously pricks her finger on a rose thorne just before her father is killed. But Ryan writes movingly in clear, poetic language that children will sink into, and the books offers excellent opportunities for discussion and curriculum support. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2000, American Library Association.)