Esperanza Rising
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Esperanza Rising (ISBN 0-439-12041-1, Scholastic Press) is a 2000 novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
[edit] Summary
Esperanza Rising takes on the role of a young, spoiled, Mexican girl, Esperanza Ortega. She happily lives on her family's estate in Aguascalientes, Mexico surrounded by fancy dresses and servants. But due to family jealousy, her father is murdered, her home is burned to the ground and she and her mother have two options to their lives: her mother either marries Esperanza's devious uncle, Tio Luis and Esperanza gets sent to a boarding school in another city or they escape to the United States. So she and her mother flee to California and live in a Mexican farm labor camp. Here she has a difficult time confronting that she is poor, and sometimes forgets she has to take off her own clothes before bathing. When Esperanza does not think life can get any worse, her mother falls ill with valley fever(later pneumonia) and others threaten to go on strike.
Esperanza Rising also covers cultural issues. Her friend, Isabel does not get a school award, because of the country she is from, her friend Miguel cannot work on motors on the railroad because he is from Mexico and treated like a peasant and many people are upset because the workers from Oklahoma receive better conditions than them. Esperanza Rising becomes becomes much meaningful when you learn that this is not a story of fabrication by Pam Muñoz Ryan, but a retelling of a story told by her grandmother to her, and her experiences coming to America.
[edit] Awards
Esperanza Rising has won the following awards:
- Pura Belpré Award which honors Latino authors whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in a children's book
- 2001 ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
- Smithsonian Best Books 2000
- Publisher's Weekly Best Children's Books 2000
- L.A. Times Best Books of 2000
- Excellence in a Work of Fiction Award 2001 Children's Literature Council of Southern California
- 2001 Judy Goddard/Libraries Limited Arizona Young Adult Author Award
- Jane Addams Children's Book Award, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
[edit] Sources
- Ryan, Pam Muñoz. Esperanza Rising.
- "Esperanza Rising."
- "Esperanza Rising: Summary."
