Esperanza Rising

by Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza is a young, rich girl living a fairy-tale life in the 1930s with her wealthy parents, grandmother and servants, on a vineyard and ranch in Mexico, El Rancho de Ias Rosas. She lives an idyllic life surrounded by love and the comfort of tradition: watching the grapepicking, attending harvest fiestas, gathering bouquets of roses, and listening to Papa and the working men singing Las Mananitas on her birthday. Then one day, her world falls apart. Her Papa is killed by bandits and her greedy uncles will stop at nothing to seize their land. After watching her home burn, Esperanza and her mother know that their way of life is over and that they must flee to the United States, learning from their former servants how to work to survive. There they face back-breaking work, violence and discrimination, but through all the hardship, Esperanza discovers happiness, and the importance of friendship and family.

• ISBN10: 0439576172
• ISBN13: 9780439576178
• Publish Date: 1 January 2009 (first published 1 October 2000)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Scholastic
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Pigpen.Reads]

My first time reading this and I learned from it. It was inspired by the authors own grandmother. I just... wow....so much is left out of our history books in the states!