Esperanza Rising

“Don´t be afraid to start over.”All immigrants need to know this. Being an immigrant can cause many challenges, you have to leave your old life behind and your memories. Esperanza Ortega in the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan was an immigrant from Mexico. She had a lot of challenges as an immigrant. Before she immigrated to America she was a wealthy young girl in Mexico with servants. A series of tragedies forced her and he mama to move to America. This leads her to not be able to anything that a servant would do. Learning how to do chores was one of her challenges. In addition, she had two other challenges they were Mama getting Valley Fever, and the Mexican immigrants facing discrimination.

The first challenge Esperanza faced as an immigrant was Mama getting sick with Valley Fever from the dust storms. Dust storms often happen during this time period. If someone like Mama is not immune to the dust they get sick.

One challenge Esperanza faced was she did not know how to do daily chores because she had always had a servant. Her servant cleaned for her, did her laundry, and even gave her a bath. They made her bed and laid out her cloths for her, did her laundry. The servants did her chores which kept her from learning how to do things. On page

Esperanza is the protagonist of the story. She is very wealthy and gets everything she wants. She struggles through her father’s death and moving to California. Throughout the story she becomes very mature, determined, and a hard worker. She really shocked me because she was a very spoiled princess who became a very strong migrant worker. Ramona Ortega also known as Mama is Esperanza’s mother. They are always together and she helped Esperanza stay strong. Throughout the story she is very strong but becomes very ill and depressed. Miguel was Esperanza’s best friends when they were little kids. He is the child of two servants that work for the family. He wants to become a mechanic and is very determined to reach that goal. They still look after eachother, even though they aren’t very close due to their social status. In the end he is able to bring back Abuelita back from Mexico. Hortensia was a servant that took care of their family. She always looked after Esperanza and was almost like a second mother. She was a Zapotec Indian. She was Alfonso’s wife and the mother of Miguel. Alfonso was a field worker and a very close friend to Papa. He loved the land and took care of the rose garden. He is the main person who helped everyone get to California. Isabel is the daughter of Juan and Josefina. She is only 9 years old but can clean, do laundry, and change diapers. She was the one who taught Esperanza how to do housework. She becomes very close friends with Esperanza. Isabel is the only one who goes to school to learn to read, write, and speak

Esperanza and her mother made the choice to leave Mexico and go to California to work and escape Tio Luis, which I believe to be a good decision. Before going, Esperanza was spoiled, rich, and quite full of herself, living in a high social class family, and in general thought of herself better than others. At first, she was against leaving everything she knew and loved, but in the end, found herself liking California. Esperanza made new friends, in particular, Isabel, who taught her many things, even though she was younger. She taught her how to appreciate what she had, and how to get a job done. She taught her how to deal with the fact that

She was born in Chicago, Illinois. Cisneros grew up in a Latino family around the 1950s and 1960s. She had a Mexican father and Chicano mother. Cisneros was encouraged by her mother to read and was not insisted with spending all of her time performing classic “women’s work”. Cisneros welcomes her culture with open arms, but acknowledges the unjustness between the genders within. Having experience growing up in a poor neighborhood in a working class family while facing the difficulties created by racism, sexism, and her status, Esperanza longed to leave the barrio. Later, she finds her capability to succeed individually and find a “home with herself”; she worked to recreate some Chicano stereotypes for her community. Cisneros didn’t want to

With all of the bad things going on around Esperanza, she was very optimistic and made the best of everything she could. For example, in chapter one, Esperanza explain how she and her family had always grown up poor and that they always had dreams of one day owning a big beautiful house like the ones that they saw on television. One with a back yard and a basement. When Esperanza's family was forced to move her parents had purchased the first house that they could afford so they wouldn't have to continue paying rent. The house was nothing like what they had spoke of or dreamt about. But Esperanza states, "I then knew I had to have a house. One I could point to. But this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama said. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.." Within this paragraph it shows that Esperanza isn't exactly happy about where she is living but she is going to make the best of it and do what she has to do to get out of there and have a house of her own. One that she can point to.

The main character of the book, Esperanza Rising, is a young girl named Esperanza. The story begins in Aguascalientes, Mexico on a beautiful ranch owned by Esperanza’s father. However, Esperanza and her family are forced to immigrate to America. Throughout the journey, Esperanza reveals several of her personality traits. All of these traits can be represented by symbols.

Mexican immigrants faced challenge such as discrimination for their skin color, Low wages, and being replaced for those who would work for less. In the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza had to go through everything every immigrant had to, and only because she was mexican made it worse. She had to go through chores she did not know how to do, discrimination, and many more problems. Esperanza's life was full of challenges, but he main three challenges that she faced were dealing with her chores, discrimination, and her mother's upcoming sickness.

Esperanza is able to look at her great grandmother and realize what she does not want to become, but also she realizes what she does want: to become a strong, independent woman.

Esperanza has hopes far beyond the stereotypical expectations of Chicanos within society at the time but her status and mindset does not match those goals. As far as her status, she is apart of the lower class class family who were dreamers and fed unrealistic concepts into their children minds of one day having this “dream” house but in all actuality, they knew it would never happen. For example, on page 4, Esperanza

The drawing I chose was the making of the blanket by Esperanza, I believe this blanket represented such a huge cultural identity of who Esperanza and her family really are. The blanket was given to Esperanza from her grandmother Abuelita before they left Mexico to come live in California, this way they can escape Romona’s marriage to the mean uncle. “Look at the zigzag of the blanket. Mountains and valleys. Right now you are in the bottom of the valley and your problems loom big around you. But soon, you will be at the top of a mountain again. After you have lived many mountains and valleys, we will be together.”(51) This blanket was such a huge emotional support mechanism for Esperanza during all her trials in California. So in this paper

When one visualizes Latino culture, the prevalent images are often bright colors, dancing, and celebrations. This imagery paints a false portrait of the life of many Latino’s, especially those that are forced to leave their home countries. Latinos often face intense poverty and oppression, whether in a Latin country, or a foreign country, such is true in Pam Ryan’s novel Esperanza Rising. Ryan chronicles the issues that many Latino immigrants face. The first is the pressure from the home country. Many of the countries face turmoil, and many are forced to leave their homes and culture. Once in a foreign place, people often struggle with standing by their own culture or assimilating to the new culture. Latino authors frequently use young adult literature as a platform to discuss the issues they face, as young adults are coming of age they struggle with their identities, personifying the struggle of old culture against the new culture.

“There is no Rose without thorns.”All immigrants have troubles through their life. Maybe they are judged by their Heritage,and that is why they are mistreated. Those are the thorns I’m Talking about Esperanza Ortega from Esperanza Rising by pam Munoz Ryan is no different. This young girl had to face a huge challenge to where she had to leave her home in Mexico. She ran to California to start a new life. Since her papa’s death,Esperanza had face many other challenges as an immigrant. Mama getting sick with valley fever and then Esperanza ends up having to learn chores such as sweeping floors, taking care of babies, and doing laundry for her family.

“Don’t be afraid to start over.” These words are true for people that start like a immigrants new life. Esperanza ortega from Esperanza Rising which the author of the book is pam munoz ryan. As Esperanza is a mexican learning how to be a adult from mexico to california. When it means by the quote “don't be afraid to start over.”