What Are The Challenges Esperanza Faced

“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.

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 sits at become afraid to go outside". The leave home, she would need permission. She evolves from a victim of child abuse to a slave-like wife. Esperanza sees this despair throughout her story.

Although Esperanza faced many challenges I believe that the most difficult challenges she faced were her mom getting Valley Fever and becoming very sick, her having to start working in the fields to take care of Mama, and her and other immigrants facing discrimination in the United States.

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 first challenge that Esperanza faced as an immigrant was doing chores she did not know how to do. This was a challenge to her because she usually had servants to do these chores for her. She had servants to cook, clean, and feed her. It was clear it was very hard to her because the Miguel a character in the book Esperanza Rising states on page 118 in “How would you know how to sweep a floor?The only thing you ever learned was give orders. This is not your fault.

Esperanza's mother was also a very influential role model for Esperanza. Esperanza learns how important an education is by looking at her mother's situation. Her mother laments, “I could have been somebody, you know?” (91). Her mother could have had a better life and a better job if she continued to go to school, and she imparts this wisdom upon her daughter. “Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard” (91). Esperanza does not want to end up in her mother's situation. Without a proper education, a successful life is nearly impossible to achieve. Esperanza's mother teaches her the importance of being strong, educated, and independent: “Got to take care all your own” (91).

The first challenge Esperanza faced as an immigrant was Marta and her friends trying to get workers to go on a strike. “What about us?” said Esperanza, her eyes riveted on the strikers and shoved them back toward the houses.”(p.g 205) The guards were trying to stop the strikers, because they did not like the fact that they were trying to invade their camps. Then Marta stomps back of toward camp and Esperanza asks.”Why is she so angry?”(p.g 133) She is mad because she wants to go on a strike because she does not like their living and working conditions. This is just one of the many problems Esperanza faced as an immigrant.

Esperanza is a shy but a very bright girl. She dreams of the perfect home now, with beautiful flowers in their luscious garden and a room for everyone to live in comfortably all because of the unsatisfied face the nun made that one afternoon--when she moves to the house of Mango Street. She thinks it’s going to be a “grand house on a hill that will have a bedroom for everyone and at least three washrooms so when they took a bath they would not have to tell everybody.” (Cinceros 4) Reality is so different for her when her dream is shot down in a heartbeat when she

The first challenge that Esperanza faced (in my opinion) was her Mama getting sick with Valley Fever. At this time, (this happens rarely) when people weren’t used to the dust storms, the dust would get into their lungs and make them sick, if bad enough, death could occur. On page 157, the doctor said to Esperanza, “There might be some medicines she can take, but even then, if she survives, it might take six months for her to get her full strength back. Esperanza felt the blood drain down her face. She could only say the doctors uncertain words in a whisper, “If she survives…”. In this quote it shows that Esperanza is very frightened from when she heard the doctor say, ‘if she survives’ I would be frightened too. In my opinion

The first challenge that Esperanza faced was not knowing how to do daily chores. Esperanza is now faced with new chores like watching the babies Pepe and Lupe, She had to watch them so her mama and the others could go to work. On page 115 chapter onions the text states

Esperanza had about everything she wanted. She had a beautiful house, pretty clothes, and much more... Esperanza never cleaned or portrayed a big role in the house. She didn’t do anything as simple as cleaning up her room, or bringing down her dirty clothes.

The first challenge Esperanza face as immigrant was Mama got sick with Valley Fever. During that time immigrant to get in dust storm. On chapter Potatoes it said “The dust would get inside their lungs. If you do not breathe in dust you considered lucky but, in Esperanza’s Mama was not so

Women’s expectations aren't the same as men. In some cultures, women are expected to stay at home and take care of their parents until they get married. Sandra Cisneros explains in Themes of Belonging, “Unless you're exiled from your father's house for some transgression, you really are expected to live there. And if you don't marry, you're expected to stay there and take care of your parents” (Shaperio). In an ordinary mexican household a woman is expected to stay at home until she gets married. In the book The House on Mango Street Esperanza says, “Until my great grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off ” (Cisneros 11). Esperanza's grandmother didn't want to get married at the time but her father forced her to because it was their tradition. Since she was a women she didn't have a choice how she got to live her life and pursue her dreams. These cultural expectations are upsetting women because they