ESPERANZA SUMMARY
The novel opens in el Rancho de las Rosas in Aguascalientes, Mexico. 12-year-old Esperanza lives a charmed life with her Papa, Mama,Abuelita, and several servants and workers. Esperanza is very close to Papa. The day before Esperanza's thirteenth birthday, she pricks her finger on a thorn - a sign of bad luck. Later that night, Esperanza and her family receive the terrible news that Papa has been killed by bandits.
Papa's step brothers, Tío Luis and Tío Marco, are both powerful men in Aguascalientes. Together, they try to manipulate the situation after Papa's death in order to seize el Rancho de las Rosas. Tío Luis offers to marry Mama and threatens her when she turns him down. Shortly after Papa's death, Esperanza wakes …show more content…
However, immigration officials break it up and haul several strikers away to be deported. Esperanza later finds Marta hiding in a shed. Instead of turning her into the officials, Esperanza helps Marta escape. In her new role as head of the house, Esperanza grows tremendously and is able to balance all of her chores while looking after Isabel and the babies.
Eventually, Mama returns from the hospital. Esperanza's contentment is short-lived, though, when Miguel loses his mechanic job to workers from Oklahoma who are willing to work for less. Esperanza becomes outraged and picks a fight with Miguel about the social position of Mexican migrant workers in the United States. Miguel is gone the next morning. Soon after his departure, Esperanza discovers that the money she had been saving to bring Abuelita to the United States is gone. Frustrated and angry, Esperanza throws herself into her work.
A few days later, Miguel returns to California with Abuelita, whom he managed to sneak out from under the watchful eye of Tío Luis. It turns out he took Esperanza's money to do exactly what she had planned to do with it. In the year after Papa's death, Esperanza's life comes full circle. Her family is together and she has found happiness once
The novel opens in el Rancho de las Rosas in Aguascalientes, Mexico. 12-year-old Esperanza lives a charmed life with her Papa, Mama,Abuelita, and several servants and workers. Esperanza is very close to Papa. The day before Esperanza's thirteenth birthday, she pricks her finger on a thorn - a sign of bad luck. Later that night, Esperanza and her family receive the terrible news that Papa has been killed by bandits.
Papa's step brothers, Tío Luis and Tío Marco, are both powerful men in Aguascalientes. Together, they try to manipulate the situation after Papa's death in order to seize el Rancho de las Rosas. Tío Luis offers to marry Mama and threatens her when she turns him down. Shortly after Papa's death, Esperanza wakes …show more content…
However, immigration officials break it up and haul several strikers away to be deported. Esperanza later finds Marta hiding in a shed. Instead of turning her into the officials, Esperanza helps Marta escape. In her new role as head of the house, Esperanza grows tremendously and is able to balance all of her chores while looking after Isabel and the babies.
Eventually, Mama returns from the hospital. Esperanza's contentment is short-lived, though, when Miguel loses his mechanic job to workers from Oklahoma who are willing to work for less. Esperanza becomes outraged and picks a fight with Miguel about the social position of Mexican migrant workers in the United States. Miguel is gone the next morning. Soon after his departure, Esperanza discovers that the money she had been saving to bring Abuelita to the United States is gone. Frustrated and angry, Esperanza throws herself into her work.
A few days later, Miguel returns to California with Abuelita, whom he managed to sneak out from under the watchful eye of Tío Luis. It turns out he took Esperanza's money to do exactly what she had planned to do with it. In the year after Papa's death, Esperanza's life comes full circle. Her family is together and she has found happiness once