Esperanza Rising Themes

Esperanza Ortega is a pampered, spoiled only child whose servants teasingly call her la reina—the queen. When her father, a wealthy rancher, dies after being attacked by bandits outside their family’s ranch in Aguascalientes, Mexico, Esperanza, her mother Ramona, and her Abuelita (grandmother) lose everything. Plunged into poverty, Esperanza must confront—and overcome—her misconceptions about class, poverty, and the “river” that she believes divides her from “peasants” and servants. Over the course…

Though the early pages of Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising are filled with joy and vitality, very quickly, a staggering and violent loss upends Esperanza Ortega’s world and plunges her and her family into grief, poverty, and danger. As Esperanza, her mother Ramona, and her Abuelita consider how they can rebuild from the literal and figurative ashes of loss, Muñoz Ryan suggests that though grief and loss are debilitating, destabilizing forces, no life…

When Esperanza Ortega and her mother, Ramona, arrive in California to work on a company farm harvesting and preparing fruits and vegetables, they are forced to leave behind the privileged world they once knew. On the farm, a burgeoning labor movement is taking place, and workers, led by the young but fierce Marta, are preparing to strike to demand better wages and living conditions. As Esperanza works to shed her attachment to her…