Books: Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza Rising is the story of a young girl who is forced to immigrate to California with her mother.

I used to have a book blog. Every year on Valentine’s Day, I would post about a book I absolutely loved as my Valentine to readers. I thought I’d do that again this year, seeing as tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.

This year's book is Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

I first read Esperanza Rising for a Children's Literature class I took online. Even as an adult, I love great children's literature, and I fell in love with this book. It is written for children about ages 10 and up, but I assure you that you will enjoy it, too.

SPOILER ALERT: Because this is a children’s book that I am recommending to adults for their children, this review contains spoilers so you can get a full sense of this book and its beauty.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan is the story of a young Mexican girl from a wealthy family whose life is turned upside down when her father is murdered. She must escape to California with her mother to start a new life as impoverished immigrant farm workers.

The metaphor “there is no rose without thorns” applies to Esperanza’s life as she is forced to endure hardships which transform Esperanza into a beautiful young woman who is generous and kind rather than selfish, who is humble and proud rather than haughty, who appreciates the people in her life and the things she still has rather than taking them for granted, and who is strong and courageous in the face of great difficulties.

Like her father’s roses, which she transplants in California with the help of her friend Miguel and his father, it is unclear at first whether the trauma they experienced in Mexico was too much to overcome, or whether they will be able to adapt to a new place. But in time, both Esperanza and the roses blossom into something beautiful, strong and enduring.

In the novel’s opening, Esperanza and her father share the experience of lying down on the ground to listen to the heartbeat of the earth. Esperanza seems to hold on to this experience as proof of security, continuity, and stability.

In California, when she is at first unable to recreate the experience, she feels unstable and insecure, as if she has nothing to hold on to and is free-floating above the earth, with nothing to anchor her. Later, when she shares the experience with Miguel and they both hear the heartbeat of the earth, she feels secure and confident. She seems to have learned that, although her father is no longer with her, the lessons he has taught her remain with her and live on in her. Although she is far from the home she and her family shared in Mexico, the earth is still with her and still nurtures her and her family with its sustenance. Now, it is with the crops of the field, which provide both food and work for her and her loved ones.

Before leaving Mexico, Esperanza once hurt Miguel’s feelings when she told him that a “deep river” ran between them. She was talking about the fact that they were from different classes in society. She was the daughter of a wealthy landowner, while Miguel was the son of one of her father’s employees. Although they played together and were friends on one level, Esperanza was very aware of the divide between them, that Miguel belonged to a different class, a class that she considered to be beneath her own.

When they traveled to California, there was no longer a river or a divide between them. The class difference was erased—in California, they were both immigrants struggling to survive and to find their place in a new world. Esperanza learns to depend on Miguel in a new, more symbiotic way, as a true friend rather than as a servant. She also learns to respect him as a human being and to appreciate him.

After a dust storm, Esperanza’s mother, Ramona, is the only one in the cabin to contract Valley Fever. She is not used to working in the fields at all, and she is especially not used to working in the San Joaquin Valley, where the spores which carry a fungus that makes people ill reside in the soil, so she has not built an immunity to the disease. Presumably, her immune system has been weakened as well —she lost her husband and her home, became impoverished, and had to relocate to a strange place and leave her mother behind. All the while, she had to put on a brave face for her young daughter, Esperanza. She was depressed but could not show it, and the illness was the final blow to her weakened spirit.

When her mother becomes ill, Esperanza has to become la patrona of the family. She has to rise to the occasion and grow up quickly. The illness forces her to look outside herself and to focus on others, especially her mother. She agrees to cut the eyes out of potatoes to earn money to send for her grandmother, her Abuelita, so that she can give her mother some hope that things will be okay one day.

Near the end of the novel, during a heated argument, Miguel repeats the words her father once said to her, “Wait a little while and the fruit will fall into your hands.” These words relate to the chapters in the book which are named for the particular fruit, vegetable, or nut which was in season during that part of the story.

Over time, Esperanza learns to live by theses seasons, in harmony with the earth. She learns patience, she learns that the passage of time heals, and she learns to depend on the earth and its bounty. She learns that the seasons continue to come, one after another, over and over as the years unfold, and that this is something on which she can rely.

When she finally recounts all that has happened to her Abuelita, she does not tell the passage of time by the names of the months, or by the regular seasons, like winter or summer. Instead, she tells the passage of time by the seasons of fruit or vegetables—she has now embraced and accepted her new life.