Saturday, November 27, 2004

Topic 5: Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan *one page number illegible on copy, will be updated on Monday.

Ryan, Pam Munoz. 2000. Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN: 0439120411.

ESPERANZA RISING by Pam Munoz Ryan is a novel following a young woman as she leavers her life at her family’s ranch, El Rancho de las Rosas, to travel to the Mexican farm worker camps in California. The book opens in 1924, but most of the story takes place in 1930, during the height of the Great Depression. Following a tragic reversal of fortune, Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their home and Abuelita, her grandmother, and travel with three of their former servants to California where they are promised work on a farm. Esperanza, who had previously been brought in a life of wealth and privilege, must learn how to cook, take care of babies and even how to sweep. As the story moves on through the year, Esperanza’s mother falls ill, protestors strike in the fields, and Esperanza learns what it means to be poor.

Ryan writes compelling story full of images beautiful and poignant. One of the scenes repeated through the novel has Esperanza laying on the ground, quiet and still, trying to hear the heartbeat of the earth. “She stared at Papa, not wanting to say a word. Not wanting to lose the sound. Not wanting to forget the feel of the heart of the valley.” (Ryan, 3.) She also uses two types of dolls in her story to illuminate the difference between the campesina (farm workers) and the lady of the rancho. The last gift that Esperanza’s Papa purchased for her birthday was a fine doll. She opened this present after her father was killed. “Finally, she opened the box she knew was the doll…the last thing Papa would ever give her. …She hugged the doll to her chest and walked out of the room, leaving all the other gifts behind.” (Ryan, 28.) Ryan also includes a doll made of yarn, which was available to the immigrant workers. Esperanza measures time differently to relate her story to Abuelita. “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 field-worker, in spans of fruits and vegetables and by what needed to be done to the land.” (Ryan, 246.)

“Set against the multi-ethnic labor-organizing era of the Depression, the story of Esperanza remaking herself is satisfyingly complete, including a dire illness and a difficult romance.” (Goldsmith, 171.) The imagery and easy language of Ryan’s storytelling adds a realistic edge to the dilemma that faced both the Mexican immigrants and the victims of the Depression. The social issue of the Mexican Repatriation and the Deportation Act of 1929 is approached realistically and humanly enough to show the effects of the racial prejudice that occurred at the time. Ryan explained in the author’s note how people that she talked to held no grudges as a result of that prejudice. “When I asked about prejudice I was told, ‘Sure there was prejudice, horrible prejudice, but that’s how things were then.” (Ryan, 261.) “Ryan fluidly juxtaposes world events… with one family’s will to survive—while introducing readers to Spanish words and Mexican customs.” (Publisher’s Weekly, XX.) This story was selected to be a Texas Bluebonnet book in 2002.

Reference List:
Ryan, Pam Munoz. 2000. Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic Press.
Goldsmith, Francesca. 2000. Review of Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. School Library Journal Vol. 46 number 10 (October), 171.
2000. Review of Review of Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Publisher’s Weekly. Vol. 247 number 41 (9 October), XX.