Esperanza Rising

This 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.