Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan

I enjoyed Esperanza Rising so much. I had never read it before, but heard about it from my sister when she read it for class in 4th grade. I remember her coming home from school and telling me excitedly how Esperanza means "hope," so the book's title really means "Hope Rising." She really loved the discovery that the title had more to it than she thought at first. I notice the author ended her note by explaining what Esperanza means, and I think talking about this would be a good way to introduce the book to the students: looking at the cover, talking about the title, asking the students if they know what it means, and seeing if knowing what "Esperanza" means changes how they interpret the cover and make predictions about the story.

I noticed the book shows how people are separated by status, wealth, and ethnicity everywhere. The characters expected to leave it behind in Mexico, but then discovered it all over again in America. This book also gets into issues with immigration: citizens not being treated like they are really citizens (much like the Japanese-American and Native American "relocation"), and "trouble-makers" being shipped away regardless of citizenship because of a threat to powerful companies and supposedly to the job market. I'd like to look up some recent immigration issues and relate these to the events in the book. Also, I wonder what farm-camp-labor looks like these days: seasonal migrant workers? And what about our use of cheap labor abroad, where American law doesn't reach?

Finally, in the story and the author's note, she talks about how her grandma and so many others were very survival-focused. They worked hard for little because they wanted to feed their families, and to provide them with the opportunity for something better. They put their hopes, their esperanza, for the future into their kids. This story of working for something better reminded me of all the stories my grandparents have told over and over about our immigrant heritage, and how our great-great-etc-grandparents broke their backs, washed clothes and rocked babies simultaneously, shocked wheat at the speed of lightning to keep their jobs, and were treated badly by the people who were already established here, just in the hope of giving us something better.

They planted trees they knew would never give them shade in their own lifetime, but which they hoped would be tall and breezy for their children's children and hopefully on down the line. They maybe didn't have the same struggles as Esperanza's family, but they did struggle in their own ways and rarely saw the results of their efforts. I think I would like to somehow tie in students' own immigrant stories to Esperanza Rising. Maybe they don't all know their own immigrant stories, especially if their families have been here a long time, but I'd ask them to interview someone in their family or someone they know who remembers or has an immigrant story to tell. I feel like there's more I could do with that, or like I should perhaps make the topic broader, like "family stories" rather than strictly "immigrant stories," but I don't quite know yet.

I know some people forget that most of us here are immigrants, and some get these weird attitudes of "if you're not American, then stay out of America!!" What does that mean? What is "American"? Just because someone got here 100 years after your ancestors, that makes them less American, or non-American? Is this some form of hazing? "You can't join the team and wear the colors til you've been humiliated and demeaned like all the rest of us were"?

Wow, I've now used my full quota of question marks for a week or two. :) Sorry if this is overly ranting. This topic gets me really ired up.