When her father dies, her life turns upside down. Esperanza and her mother must move to America and begin their life anew as migrant workers in California. The novel chronicles Esperanza's struggles to adapt to her new circumstances. Esperanza's mother, Ramona, who teaches Esperanza how to be strong after Papa's death. Mama is Esperanza's support system in California until she falls ill - after which Esperanza must take on the responsibility of keeping their family together.
Esperanza's father, Sixto, the kind proprietor of el Rancho de las Rosas. He feels deeply connected to the land and teaches Esperanza to trust the cycles of nature. In the beginning of the novel, Papa is killed by bandits while repairing a fence on the ranch. Esperanza's best friend in Mexico - they are permanently separated when Esperanza and her mother move to California.
Abuelita is what Esperanza calls her maternal grandmother. She teaches Esperanza the importance of perseverance. Due to an injury, she must stay behind in Mexico when Esperanza and Mama move to California. Eventually, Miguel is able to bring Abuelita to the U. She is married to Alfonso, and is Miguel's mother. Another wealthy landowner, he's the only one of Papa's neighbors willing to help the family after Papa dies.
In fact, he's the one who helps Mama and Esperanza sneak out of town by hiding them under a pile of guavas. When we first meet Hortensia and Alfonso, they are servants in the Ortega household.
They are super loyal to Esperanza's family because Papa has been very good to them—he treats them like friends and gives Alfonso some land of his own.
Alfonso is Papa's best friend and right hand man, and Hortensia, the head housekeeper, is a friend and confidant to both Mama and Esperanza. On top of all that, it's impossible for them to ever be more than servants in Mexico, because Mexican society is rigidly divided according to class and race.
Hortensia and Alfonso are Zapotec Indians with dark skin, so no matter how hard they work, they will never become part of the privileged class. Instead, they dream of moving to the U.
Aside from Esperanza and her mom, we get to know this sympathetic couple better than any other Mexican immigrants in Esperanza's camp.
They're not fleeing from tragedy, like Esperanza and Mama. They're just looking for economic and social opportunity. On the way there, a worker named Marta joins them and taunts Esperanza, calling her a princess who is now a peasant.
At the camp, the cabin where the extended family will live is small and poor, but Mama tells Esperanza that they must be grateful for it nonetheless. Isabel must teach Esperanza housekeeping skills, because she will soon go to school and Esperanza will be left with the babies.
Marta is a migrant worker and an antagonizing force among the field workers, encouraging them to strike for better working conditions. At a fiesta called a jamaica, Esperanza watches as Marta and her friends try to rally the field workers before they are ordered to leave. Over time, Esperanza learns to take care of the babies and the household. She calls on memories of childhood to fix a mistake she makes while feeding the babies, and joins two women, Irene and Melina, as they protect the children during a terrifying dust storm that overcomes the farm and fields.
The striking workers encounter more difficulty, because the cotton fields where they were working have been ruined by the storm, and they will now have no work. A month passes, and Mama is now very ill. A doctor tells the family that she has Valley Fever, and her lungs are infected by dust spores from the storm.
When winter comes and Mama begins to have trouble breathing, she goes to the hospital. Esperanza now has no choice but to work to earn money for herself and Mama, and for Abuelita to join them in California. Esperanza visits her mother every weekend, but Mama is still sick and depressed. She contracts pneumonia, and Esperanza cannot visit her for a month.
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