Esperanza Rising

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Esperanza Rising. New York: Scholastic. 2000.



Esperanza Rising is the story of 13-year-old Esperanza Ortega. She is the daughter of a wealthy family in Mexico and is accustomed to being spoiled by servants and family. Suddenly her father is killed and her home is burned. She and her mother and a few close servants escape to California to a Mexican farm labor camp. Esperanza struggles with her adjustment to a new life of poverty and hard work. She must cope with her mother falling ill and other workers threatening to strike and how that affects their lives.
Ryan takes the experiences of her maternal grandmother and weaves them creatively into a beautiful story of a girl developing into a young woman. She won the Pura Belpré award for narrative fiction in 2002.
Esperanza is forced to change from a dependant child into a young woman who focuses on the needs of her and her family. Readers get an accurate portrayal of life first as a privileged child in Mexico and second as a poor laborer in California during the depression. Ryan incorporates Spanish language throughout her novel for the English reader to acquire knowledge. In addition she authored a Spanish version of the novel.