Esperanza Rising

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2000

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-7

Chapters 8-11

Chapters 12-14

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 12-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 12 Summary: “Los Esparragos (Asparagus)”

At the onset of asparagus season, the union agitators step up the pressure on both the farm owners and the Mexican workers. Acts of sabotage plague Esperanza and her friends. When she and her group are being harassed by a picket line of strikers, “[s]he wanted to tell them that her mother was sick. That she had to pay the bills. She wanted to explain to them about Abuelita and how she had to find a way to get some money to her so she could travel” (200). However, the strikers aren’t listening.

Eventually, immigration officials raid the camp, and the strikers scatter. Those who are caught are deported even if they are American citizens. Esperanza finds Marta hiding in a packing shed. She doesn’t reveal Marta’s presence and allows the girl to escape. Esperanza thinks about the terrible plight of family members separated from each other. Although Esperanza fears for her own group, the adults reassure her that the farm owners still need them, so they will be protected. Later, Esperanza asks Miguel to drive past the strikers’ camp to check on Marta and her mother. It is deserted because everyone has fled.

Chapter 13 Summary: “Los Duraznos (Peaches)”

As life in the camp settles back down to normal, peach-picking season begins. Isabel announces that she has a chance of being named Queen of the May at her school because she has the best grades. Esperanza already knows that only white girls get chosen for this honor, but she doesn’t dash her friend’s hopes.

A few days later, the group learns that immigrants from Oklahoma are being settled nearby. They are given preferential treatment with indoor plumbing and a swimming pool. Mexicans are only allowed to use the pool one day a week. Miguel is bumped off his job as a railroad mechanic because the untrained men from Oklahoma will work cheaper.

Esperanza is furious at the discrimination and confronts Miguel about it. “Have you heard they will be given inside toilets and hot water? Why is that, Miguel? Is it because they are the fairest in the land? Tell me! Is this life really better than being a servant in Mexico?” (221-22). Miguel points out that at least in the United States, he has the hope of being something more than a peasant. Esperanza angrily tells him that he is still a peasant. He retorts that she is still behaving like a queen. The next morning, Esperanza learns that Miguel has left the camp in search of railroad work elsewhere. She feels guilty and blames herself for his abrupt departure.

Later, Isabel informs Esperanza that she didn’t get chosen as the May Queen. To lift Isabel’s spirits, Esperanza brings her a basket of peaches and gives her the porcelain doll her father had left as her last birthday present. That same week, Esperanza and Hortensia go to the hospital to visit Ramona. The doctor brings them good news. His patient is strong enough to come home. She is still depressed, and it is important to surround her with friends and family. The entire group is overjoyed to welcome Ramona back. Esperanza tells her mother that she has saved enough to bring Abuelita to California. However, when she opens the valise where she stored the cash, the money is all gone.

Chapter 14 Summary: “Las Uvas (Grapes)”

Esperanza concludes that Miguel stole her money. His parents are upset and say that he will pay it back. Ramona graciously assures them that he must have needed it for his train fare to find work. A few weeks later, Esperanza and her friends are busy packing fruit when they are pulled away from their chores. Hortensia says they must all leave immediately to meet Miguel at the Bakersfield bus station. When they arrive, they find not only Miguel but Abuelita. He went back to Mexico to fetch her. With the help of Señor Rodríguez, Miguel was able to sneak Abuelita out of the convent and get her on a train bound for the United States. Everyone returns to the cabin for a joyous reunion.

When Esperanza told Abuelita their story, about all that had happened to them, she didn’t measure time by the usual seasons. Instead, she told it as a field-worker, in spans of fruits and vegetables and by what needed to be done to the land (246).

Esperanza also proudly displays the blanket that she has been working on. It is now three times the size of a normal blanket, but Esperanza left the final row unfinished. Ramona, Abuelita, and Esperanza all take up the communal project together to complete the stitching.

Esperanza is grateful to Miguel for his part in reuniting her family. A few days before her birthday, the two take a drive out to the foothills. Esperanza tells Miguel her father’s theory that you can hear the heartbeat of the land if you listen closely. Both lay down on the earth and can sense the sound.

It has been a full year since Esperanza came to America. The grape harvest is once again in progress. This time on her birthday, the men stand outside her window and give the traditional serenade that Esperanza missed the previous year. With her family and friends around her, she finally starts to feel hopeful about the future. In the book’s concluding sentence, as she teaches Isabel how to crochet, Esperanza says, “Do not ever be afraid to start over” (254).

Chapters 12-14 Analysis

The final segment is the culmination of a cycle of growth, decay, and rebirth in Esperanza’s life. The novel ends during the same time of year as it began—at grape harvest. While the circumstances of Esperanza’s life have changed drastically in one short year, her inner growth is even more dramatic. She has matured and learned how to deal with the ups and downs of life, just as her grandmother advised her to do when they were first separated.

Each of the book’s three themes is revisited in this set of chapters and achieves closure. Esperanza demonstrates her new sense of the meaning of wealth by parting with her precious porcelain doll to lift Isabel’s spirits. This gesture echoes her mother’s earlier gift of a yarn doll to lift the spirits of the peasant child on the train. Clearly, Ramona already understood this principle as her daughter will a year later.

Esperanza also demonstrates her loyalty to her family despite pressure from the union agitators. Even in the face of harassment and sabotage, she continues to work because bringing Abuelita to California must take precedence over the strong-arm tactics of the pro-union faction. Her commitment to her family is also demonstrated in the blanket she crochets for her mother. Her faith that her grandmother will be reunited with them is shown by the unfinished row of stitches needed to complete the project.

Most significant of all is Esperanza’s willingness to look forward instead of back. Her name means “hope” in English, and hope is the one quality that she fails to demonstrate throughout most of the novel. When she sees her mother recover and welcomes her grandmother back, Esperanza finally begins to feel that life might be worth living. It will be a different kind of life than the one she knew in Mexico but a life worth living just the same. She has learned the most valuable lesson of all and is now ready to pass on her grandmother’s advice when she tells Isabel, “Do not ever be afraid to start over” (254).