ESPERANZA RISING SUMMARIES

Esperanza Rising is the story of Esperanza Ortega, the cherished only child of her
Papa and Mama, Sixto and Ramona. Sixto Ortega is the wealthy landowner of El Rancho de
las Rosas in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Esperanza lives the life of a rich young girl in 1920s
Mexico, wearing beautiful clothes, living in a home with servants, and going to private
school. Her grandmother, Abuelita, lives with the family, and they are attended by a
housekeeper, Hortensia, and several farm workers, including Hortensia’s husband, Alfonso,
and their son, Miguel. Esperanza’s father has taught her to love and respect the land,
listening for its heartbeat.
Since the Mexican Revolution, bandits have threatened wealthy landowners like
Esperanza’s father. On the day of the end of the grape harvest and the day before
Esperanza’s birthday, Papa is robbed and killed by bandits in the fields. After the funeral, the
family learns that while Sixto left the house to Mama and Esperanza, he left the ranch and its
land to his older stepbrother Tío Luis. Luis and his brother Marco try to persuade
Esperanza’s mother to marry Luis and remain on the ranch, or sell the house to Luis. Mama
is worried that if she does not marry Luis, he will send Esperanza away or they will lose the
house. After their home is burnt to the ground in what Luis hints may not have been an
accident, Mama decides that she and Esperanza will join Alfonso, Hortensia, and Miguel to
go to the United States for work, rather than be forced to stay with Luis. Abuelita has been
injured in the fire, but will come to the United States when she has healed. Until then, she
will stay with her sisters at a nearby convent.
After a long journey in a wagon and a cramped, dirty train car, Esperanza and Mama
arrive with the others in California. Abuelita’s sisters at the convent have helped them get the
correct papers to work in the United States. Alfonso’s brother Juan, his wife, Josefina, and
their children bring the group to the field worker’s camp. 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.
Until she is old enough to work, Esperanza takes care of Juan and Josefina’s babies,
Lupe and Pepe, with their older daughter, Isabel. Isabel must teach Esperanza housekeeping
skills, because she will soon go to school and Esperanza will be left with the babies.
 ESPERANZA RISING SUMMARIES
Esperanza’s first attempt at a chore, sweeping the camp platform, does not go well, and she
is humiliated when Marta calls her Cinderella. 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. Esperanza’s family returns home after the storm covered in
dust and dirt, and her mother cannot stop coughing. 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 learns the work quickly and saves her money, purchasing a money order
every other week for Abuelita’s travel. She learns from Marta’s aunt that more strikes are
being planned, and workers who do not join in could be in danger. Esperanza visits her
mother every weekend, but Mama is still sick and depressed. She contracts pneumonia, and
Esperanza cannot visit her for a month. On their way home from the hospital, Esperanza and
Miguel pick up Marta and her mother Ada, taking them to the striker’s farm where they live.
Marta warns Esperanza and Miguel again that they may be in danger if they do not join the
strikes, but the family is cheered by news that Miguel has found a good, temporary job
working for the railroad.
The field workers endure several days of strikers yelling and chanting at them, and
placing dangerous animals and items in packing crates for the workers to find. One day, the
strikers are silent, and for good reason. Immigration officers are finding them and deporting
them back to Mexico, even if they are American citizens, because they are causing trouble
for the government. Esperanza finds Marta hiding in a shed, and Marta begs Esperanza not to
let her get caught. Esperanza agrees, and Marta apologizes for misjudging her. Esperanza
 ESPERANZA RISING SUMMARIES
hopes Marta can get back to Ada safely, but later discovers that the strikers have all been
taken by the immigration officers. 
Esperanza’s frustration rises as she learns of injustices faced by Isabel at school and
Miguel at work because they are Mexican. News of workers from Oklahoma receiving better
living conditions anger her to the point where she storms out of the cabin. Miguel finds her,
and tells her he still believes they can make a better life in the United States, while Esperanza
believes they never will. Esperanza points out that Miguel is still a peasant, as he was in
Mexico. Miguel retorts that she still thinks she is a queen. The next day, he leaves to look for
work in northern California.
Esperanza’s mother is finally able to come home, and Esperanza tells her that she has
almost saved enough money to bring Abuelita to them. She opens her bag to show her
mother the money orders, but discovers that they are gone. Esperanza believes that Miguel
took them before he left, which makes her furious.
When Miguel returns, he is not alone. He has used the money to bring Abuelita from
Mexico to California. At the cabin, Abuelita is reunited with Mama and the rest of the
family. Esperanza tells Abuelita everything that has happened over the past year, explaining
her story by the seasons of fruits and vegetables that have passed. 
Later, Esperanza and Miguel go to the foothills beyond the farm to listen for the
sound of the land’s heart beating. The sun rises and Esperanza feels like she is rising, too. A
year after the tragedy of Papa’s death, the family celebrates Esperanza’s birthday.