50 Fun Facts About Esperanza Rising

The heroine's name in the novel Esperanza Rising is also the Spanish word for what?

Hope is the meaning of esperanza, and the title was only settled once the whole story was written, picked from several the author weighed up with her editor.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Cebollas chapter, which fairy-tale name does Marta mockingly call Esperanza?

Cinderella, or La Cenicienta, is Marta's jeer when the former rich girl cannot work a broom on the camp platform. Miguel later shows her how to sweep.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Higos chapter, Abuelita says the family is like which creature of legend?

A phoenix, the bird reborn from its own ashes, is Abuelita's image for the family once the ranch has burned. She had rebuilt her own life as a girl, after leaving Spain for a new country.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Guayabas chapter, what had young Miguel let out of his pocket to fool the thieves?

A mouse ran out from under the bed, so the intruders blamed it for the noise Esperanza made when a pin jabbed her. Hortensia retells the story to steady her nerves on the night they flee.

In Esperanza Rising, what do Alfonso and Miguel secretly carry in a damp oilcloth all the way to California?

Papa's roses survived the fire below ground, so father and son dug up cuttings and wet the cloth at every train stop. Replanted behind the cabin, they give Esperanza a piece of home.

Esperanza Rising ends with Esperanza passing on Abuelita's crochet advice: 'Do not ever be afraid to' do what?

Start over is what Esperanza tells Isabel as she unravels the girl's crooked stitches in the book's last line. Abuelita gave her the same words a year earlier, on the night Papa failed to come home.

In Esperanza Rising, what does Esperanza give Isabel when another girl wins the school honor?

Her doll from Papa, the last present he ever chose for her, is the one fine thing she still owns. The author calls the gift a turning point and one of her favorite scenes.

In Esperanza Rising, where had Miguel secretly gone with the savings missing from Esperanza's valise?

He went back to Mexico to fetch Abuelita, slipping her out past the spies Tío Luis had set to watch her. Miguel steps off the bus calling her his proof that things will get better.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Ciruelas chapter, which lung disease may take Mama six months to beat?

Valley Fever comes from spores in the soil that settle in the lungs. The author once tested positive for it herself, having breathed the same air while growing up nearby.

The heroine of Esperanza Rising takes her name and her story from which relative of the author?

Her grandmother, Esperanza Ortega, made the same move from a Mexican ranch to a California farm camp. She went on to marry the man Miguel is based on.

In the opening scene of Esperanza Rising, Papa has six-year-old Esperanza lie on the ground to hear what?

The land's heartbeat reaches her as a soft thump once she stops fidgeting, in time with her own and Papa's. At the end of the story she teaches Miguel the same trick on a California hilltop.

In Esperanza Rising, who kills Papa as he mends a fence on the ranch the day before Esperanza's birthday?

Bandits ambush him at the edge of the ranch, part of the lingering anger at big landowners after the Mexican Revolution. Papa had in fact given land to many of his own workers.

In Esperanza Rising, which mishap in the garden does Esperanza take as bad luck on the eve of her birthday?

A thorn prick draws blood as she cuts flowers for the party, and she thinks at once of bad luck. Papa, who had promised to meet her there, never comes home.

In Esperanza Rising, which of Papa's belongings in Tío Luis's hand shows something is badly wrong?

His silver belt buckle was one of a kind, so nobody can pretend it belongs to another man. A ranch hand had brought it to Tío Luis, whose sudden pat on Esperanza's shoulder only frightens her more.

In Esperanza Rising, which birthday song does Esperanza expect Papa to sing under her window?

Las Mañanitas is the serenade she only dreams she hears on the morning after Papa dies. A year later real voices sing it outside her cabin, and this time she smiles.

In Esperanza Rising, which fruit, ordered by Papa for the party, arrives the morning after his death?

Papayas arrive with Señor Rodríguez, and Esperanza has to tell her best friend's father that Papa is dead. Their ripening smell still reaches her room nights later, as she grieves.

In Esperanza Rising, Tío Luis wants the respected Mama as his wife to help him win which office?

Governor is the prize, and Tío Luis reckons Mama's influence would win him the election. The family lawyer warns her that he is a dangerous man to refuse.

In Esperanza Rising, what does Esperanza picture running between herself and Miguel, the housekeeper's son?

A deep river is her image for the gap between a rancher's daughter and a servant's son, and telling Miguel about it cools their friendship. In her final vision the two sit on the same bank.

In Esperanza Rising, what do the zigzags of Abuelita's crocheted blanket stand for?

Mountains and valleys are what the stitches rise and fall into, and Abuelita promises they will meet again once Esperanza has lived through many. The stitch is real: the author has made many blankets with it.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Higos chapter, what does Mama pretend to do to buy time to escape?

She pretends to accept Tío Luis's proposal, asking only that he begin rebuilding at once so the servants keep their jobs. Meanwhile a neighbor's deliveries of figs cover the real planning.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Higos chapter, where does the injured Abuelita go to recover when the family flees?

A convent takes her in because her own sisters are nuns there, and they also supply fresh travel papers for Mama and Esperanza. Her ankle, hurt in the fire, rules out the long journey.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Higos chapter, where does Tío Luis threaten to send the defiant Esperanza?

A boarding school, he says after she screams that she hates him, will teach his new 'daughter' some manners. She is in tears when the uncles leave, but Mama quietly tells her she has a plan.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Guayabas chapter, how do Mama, Hortensia and Esperanza leave town without being seen?

Under a wagon's false floor the three lie flat while guavas are heaped on the boards above them. To anyone on the road it looks like a farmer and his son hauling fruit to market.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Guayabas chapter, what reward had young Miguel asked Papa for?

A train ride was all he wanted, so Papa took the eight-year-old and little Esperanza on a day trip in first class. They ate in a dining car laid with white linen and crystal.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Guayabas chapter, what does Carmen give Mama in return for three lace doilies?

Two chickens change hands as the new friends part. Carmen says she has all she needs in her children, her garden and her faith, and Mama, once so proper, confides in her freely.

In Esperanza Rising, Miguel says the rich take care of the rich, but who cares for those with less?

The poor do, Miguel says, after Carmen hands a coin and tortillas to a beggar whom well-dressed travelers ignore. He adds that in Mexico those with the fairest skin tend to be the wealthiest.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Guayabas chapter, in which city does the fleeing family board a train for the border?

Zacatecas lies two days away by back roads, safely out of her powerful uncles' sight. Esperanza last saw its station at five, traveling in style with Papa; this time she sits on a wooden bench.

In Esperanza Rising, why does Marta say the growers keep workers from different places in separate camps?

To stop them uniting, Marta explains: crews who never mix cannot bargain together for higher pay or better housing. Isabel has just pointed out the separate groups working the fields.

In Esperanza Rising, the company farm camp where Esperanza and Mama settle lies in which California valley?

The San Joaquin Valley's fields stretch so flat and far that Esperanza feels dizzy at her first sight of them. The author grew up there, and her relatives had lived in the very camp she describes.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Cebollas chapter, what does Isabel want in return for teaching Esperanza housework?

Tales of her rich past are the price: the eight-year-old loves hearing about the parties and fine things at the ranch. Esperanza has just shown she cannot even wash a diaper.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Cebollas chapter, Mama says they can be together and miserable, or together and what?

Happy is the choice Mama urges, reminding Esperanza that her uncle would have split them up had they stayed. She sings as she unpacks in a cabin her daughter compares to a horse stall.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Cebollas chapter, to which city does Miguel go looking for work on the first morning?

Bakersfield is also where Mama is later treated in hospital. The author of the story was born and raised in the same city.

In Esperanza Rising, which job does train-loving Miguel dream of doing in California?

Railroad mechanic is the dream, since Miguel has a gift for engines, and Papa had promised to help him into such a post. In the United States, he has heard, a man needs no connections to be hired.

In Esperanza Rising, whose shrine stands in the little garden behind the cabin where Esperanza prays?

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the figure Esperanza visits each day, praying for Mama and Abuelita and, after the strike is broken, for Marta and her mother too.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Almendras chapter, what is the 'jamaica' that the women bathe and get ready for?

A camp party with music and dancing fills the lit-up platform, and workers from other camps join in. Esperanza nearly stays away for fear of meeting Marta there.

In Esperanza Rising, which dessert of Josefina's tempts Esperanza out for the evening despite Marta?

Almond flan wins her over, made with the nuts she and Isabel shelled earlier that day. Josefina makes it again for Esperanza's next birthday.

In Esperanza Rising, where was Marta, the strike organizer who mocks Esperanza's past, actually born?

The United States is her birthplace, and her mother's too, so both are citizens who have never set foot in Mexico. Her father crossed the border during the Mexican Revolution.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Ciruelas chapter, which cure of Hortensia's does Esperanza give the sick twins?

Rice water settles the babies after the plums she fed them for lunch upset their stomachs. Isabel praises the choice, and nobody at supper mentions the burnt beans.

In Esperanza Rising's Las Ciruelas chapter, what ruins the cotton crop and wrecks the planned strike?

A dust storm turns the sky brown and buries the cotton, leaving the strikers no work to walk out on. The vines stand higher off the ground, so Esperanza's family is back picking the next day.

Which Mexican American author wrote the novel Esperanza Rising, drawing on her own family's history?

Pam Muñoz Ryan spent about a year writing it, interviewing relatives who had lived in the same farm camp. After a run of picture books, her editor at Scholastic had encouraged her to try a novel.

Esperanza Rising follows a family seeking farm work in California during which period of hardship?

The Great Depression sent hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans west to compete for the same field work. Its deportation drives also swept up many people who were citizens by birth.

After the opening scene, every chapter of Esperanza Rising takes its Spanish and English title from what?

Fruits and vegetables in season mark each stage of her year. The author hit on the idea late in rewriting; her working titles had been plain labels such as The Fire and The Escape.

In Esperanza Rising, what does Esperanza do when she finds Marta hiding in the packing shed?

She disguises her as a worker, handing over a dirty apron and a bundle of asparagus to carry. The thought of Marta being parted from her mother decides it, and Marta at last says sorry.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Aguacates chapter, what is the paste of mashed avocado and glycerine for?

Soothing her swollen hands is the idea, after weeks of tying vines in the cold have left them cut and sore. The green paste reminds Esperanza of Mama resting after a day in the garden.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Duraznos chapter, which school honor does straight-A student Isabel pray to win?

Queen of the May goes each year to the girl with the best grades, yet Josefina warns that a blonde, blue-eyed girl is always picked. The year before, a Japanese girl with top marks was passed over.

In Esperanza Rising, which spring crop's harvest do Marta's strikers choose for their big walkout?

Asparagus season brings pickets with '¡Huelga!' signs to the shed doors, and a man with a gun rides on the workers' truck. Rats, snakes and razor blades turn up in the crates.

In Esperanza Rising's Los Aguacates chapter, why does the family shop at Mr. Yakota's distant market?

He treats Mexicans with respect, Miguel explains, while other shopkeepers take them all for dirty and uneducated. Fairness is good business too: his shelves hold Mexican goods beside Japanese ones.

In Esperanza Rising, when may Mexican families use the swimming pool at the new camp being built for newcomers?

The afternoon before cleaning, one day a week, is all the Mexican workers are offered. Esperanza bristles at the hint that her people are thought dirtier than everyone else.

Which American Library Association medal did Esperanza Rising win?

The Pura Belpré, named for the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library, honors Latino writers and artists whose books for young readers portray their culture. The author later won it again, for The Dreamer.

In Esperanza Rising, which crop does Esperanza cut into pieces for planting in her first winter job at the sheds?

Potatoes are cut so that each chunk keeps two eyes to sprout from. Esperanza takes the job to earn money while Mama is in hospital, bundled in borrowed wool against the cold.