Esperanza Rising
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan / Narrated By: Trini Alvarado
Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
First listen? Not so much. Second listen? Holy Cow, I almost missed a great story!
I dunno what my problem was, but the first time I settled down to listen to Esperanza Rising, jeez, like, my mind was all over the place. I found Esperanza annoying; I found the people around her annoying. The situations? Annoying.
Turns out, as you would imagine, the only thing truly annoying was that I didn’t give the audiobook anywhere neeeear even half a chance. Me: I’m annoying!
Because at the second listen? I was swallowing lumps that inexplicably formed in my throat, and I had to bat away a few tears.
Esperanza is a young girl in Mexico, born into privilege and wealth. Her best friend is Miguel, but let’s face it: He’s but a worker, so nothing is gonna happen there. Until, that is, Esperanza’s father is killed, and Esperanza and her mother have to flee a bad situation, choosing to go to the U. S. and start over.
And maybe this is where I got annoyed, but Esperanza will NOT get used to the idea that she’s not a queen, with people waiting on her hand and foot. She’s around poverty and peasants now, and she feels herself to be sooo superior to them. Her mother keeps swatting her down, reminding Esperanza that THEY are now impoverished, THEY are but peasants. The book goes on for quite some time in this vein, and I got a bit peeved with the girl. She didn’t seem to grasp the severity of their situation, and she didn’t seem to understand that there was a lot to be grateful for, a lot of people to whom she owed a great deal of thanks.
But ya gotta start a character arc somewhere, and Esperanza, after MANY mistakes (She’s never swept a floor before; she doesn’t know how to change a diaper; she sure as heck can’t work in the Shed or the Fields of the farm/ranch they wind up at)? Well, she comes to be proud of hard work, to be proud of being a good friend and of carrying not only her own weight, but the weight that comes when her mother becomes very, very ill.
Esperanza, a girl whose father taught her to lie on the earth, to feel its rhythm and its heartbeat, starts finding her own way in the world. But it’s not without sorrow, and it’s not without indignation. Because in the States, being Mexican means being beNEAth second class. If you speak your mind, you can get deported, even if you have papers, even if you are a U.S. citizen. Plus, the story takes place around the time of the Depression, the time of the Dust Bowl, so there are many, many white individuals willing to work for any wages. Mexicans don’t stand a chance, and it’s something that weighs on Esperanza’s mind, heart, and soul.
A rift with Miguel brings the most beautiful writing in the book, the most wondrous situation, and it’s a true testament to familia and to hope. And Trini Alvarado narrates it all so beautifully as Esperanza comes from being a spoiled child and goes on to being proud then devastated then proud again.
The final image is truly touching, and my hat is off to Pam Muñoz Ryan. Especially since, as an Afterword, she tells us of how the story came to be, of her grandmother Esperanza who came with nothing and lived through toil and prejudice and wound up with a family who could actually do things with their lives besides work in fields. Now that’s somebody I wanna hear more about!
If you have a chance and are looking for a wonderful “Esperanza” give this book a try rather than going for the Esperanza, the protagonist, of the book The House on Mango Street. One girl shuffles and ignores injustice. The other? Well, she absolutely soars, flies high above, all while embracing the ground below.
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