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Introduction & Chapters 1–3

Summary: Introduction: Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1924  

We first meet Esperanza Ortega as a six-year-old girl walking with her father, Sixto, whom she calls Papa, through a vineyard in the valley where they live in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Papa describes the valley as a living thing with breath and a heartbeat. He tells Esperanza that when a person lies down on the ground, they can feel the land breathe and hear its heart beating. Esperanza giggles as they lie down to listen, and says she can’t hear it, but Papa tells her to be patient. After a few moments, Esperanza can hear and feel the land beneath her. 

Summary: Chapter 1: Las Uvas (Grapes), six years later (1930)

Esperanza is the only child of Sixto and Ramona Ortega. Sixto is the wealthy owner of El Rancho de las Rosas. Everyone at the ranch is preparing for the year’s grape harvest, including Esperanza’s family, their servants, cowboys, and field workers. It is also almost Esperanza’s thirteenth birthday. While gathering roses, Esperanza pricks her thumb on a thorn, and believes it is a sign of bad luck. Papa has not returned from the fields, and Esperanza and her mother are worried. Papa had been warned about bandits in the area who were angry with wealthy landowners like him. Papa has given some workers their own plots of land, but there are still many who own nothing. 

Mama sends two workers, Alfonso and his son, Miguel, out to find Papa while she waits with Esperanza and Esperanza’s grandmother, Abuelita, and their housekeeper, Hortensia, who is Alfonso’s wife and Miguel’s mother. Miguel is sixteen. He and Esperanza have been friends since they were children. But one day she told Miguel that because his family worked for hers, there was a river between them that couldn’t be crossed. Now Miguel calls Esperanza his queen. 

Abuelita and Esperanza crochet to take their minds off worrying about Papa. Esperanza’s work is lopsided compared to Abuelita’s, but Abuelita tells her not to be afraid of starting over. Esperanza’s uncles, Tío Luis and Tío Marco, arrive at the house. Tío Luis is the bank president and Tío Marco is the town’s mayor. They are Papa’s older stepbrothers. The men bring bad news: a ranch worker has found Papa’s silver belt buckle. Abuelita, Hortensia, and Mama begin to pray for Papa’s safety. Alfonso and Miguel finally arrive in a wagon, carrying the dead body of Esperanza’s father covered in a blanket. Esperanza falls to her knees, crying.

Summary: Chapter 2: Las Papayas (Papayas)

Esperanza learns that Papa and his workers were attacked and killed by bandits. She tells the story to Señor Rodriguez, her friend Marisol’s father who has brought the papayas Esperanza’s father had ordered for Esperanza’s party. Papa’s funeral services last for three days, and people leave the family food and flowers. Esperanza doesn’t want to open her birthday presents, but Esperanza’s mother says that her father would have wanted Esperanza to do so. Esperanza receives several gifts, including a porcelain doll from Papa. 

Tío Luis and Tío Marco visit the family every day, becoming more frustrated as Esperanza’s mother continues to grieve for Papa. A lawyer tells Mama that Papa left the ranch house to her and Esperanza, but he left the land to Tío Luis. Luis wants to buy the house, and makes an offer that Esperanza’s mother does not think is fair. Luis then offers to marry her so she can continue to live in the house. Mama refuses this offer as well, and Luis warns that he will make her life hard. 

While Mama, Abuelita, and Hortensia discuss what can be done, Esperanza meets Miguel outside. They talk about the rose bushes Papa planted for each of them, side by side. Miguel tells her that his family will leave for the United States soon to look for work rather than work for Luis, but they will stay for a while to help Esperanza’s family. Esperanza is grateful, but determined that she will never leave her home.

Summary: Chapter 3: Los Higos (Figs)

Esperanza is woken by her mother screaming. Their house is on fire. They struggle to leave while Miguel runs inside the house for Abuelita. Abuelita is injured and cannot walk, but she still holds her bag of crocheting. Esperanza, Mama, Abuelita, Hortensia, Miguel, and Alfonso watch as the fire destroys the house. 

Luis and Marco express sorrow for another tragedy so soon after Papa’s death, and Luis wonders what the family will do if more accidents happen. He offers again to marry Mama, and she says she will consider his proposal. Esperanza is furious, and tells Luis that she hates him. The family and friends agree that Luis will destroy more of the ranch unless Mama marries him. Hortensia tells Mama that her family is going to the United States to live and work on a big farm. There will be jobs for everyone. Mama asks if she and Esperanza can go with them. Abuelita will come later, after her injuries have healed. Until then, she will stay with her sisters at a nearby convent.

The group discusses the difficulties of crossing the border into the United States. Abuelita says that her sisters at a convent will get the correct papers for Esperanza and her mother. Abuelita reminds Esperanza not to be afraid of starting over. She gives Esperanza the bag of crocheting and tells her to finish her work. Mama tells Luis she will accept his proposal, but he must rebuild the ranch, and send a wagon so she can visit Abuelita at the convent. Luis is surprised but agrees. 

A few nights later, Esperanza and her mother escape. Esperanza leaves with a bag containing clothes, tamales, and her new doll. She looks back at the ranch, but Mama tells her that Papa’s heart will find them wherever they go.

Analysis: Introduction & Chapters 1–3

Esperanza’s walk in the vineyard with her father establishes her strong connection to both her family and their land. Papa’s gentle reminder for Esperanza to be patient in order to discover the phenomenon of the “living” land emphasizes his age and wisdom as well as his knowledge and experience of the land, and Esperanza’s willingness to wait despite thinking it silly highlights her respect for him. Esperanza’s amazement as she hears and feels the “heartbeat” of the land for the first time reinforces her bonds with her homeland and with her father, and foreshadows how this bond will bring her strength during difficult times. From this point forward, the book explores the deep connection between humans and the land and how nature will influence the characters’ lives.

The name of El Rancho de las Rosas is the first allusion to roses, which are a symbol of tenacity and rebirth throughout the novel. Roses thrive in harsh conditions and beautify their surroundings but harvesting their blooms can be risky, as Esperanza learns when she pricks her thumb on the rose’s thorn. While this incident foreshadows the tragedy that befalls her father, it also foretells the harsh conditions that Esperanza will later endure before learning to thrive once again. Abuelita employs wisdom, an important trait of her character, to ground the incident in reality when she explains that there are no roses without thorns and that Esperanza cannot control some of the bad things that happen in life. In the aftermath of her father’s death Esperanza talks with Miguel beside the rose bushes her father planted for them when they were children. Like Esperanza and Miguel, these rose bushes have grown together side by side, and they symbolize that the strength of the pair’s friendship will play a large part in Esperanza’s eventual rebirth.

When Abuelita advises Esperanza as they crochet that she should not be afraid to start over, it highlights both the importance of the advice and the significance of crocheting, which will be a recurring motif in the novel. In this moment, the pair attempt to find comfort and distraction by keeping their hands busy with this seemingly simple task, and Abuelita’s obvious mastery of the craft is a concrete example of her years of experience compared to Esperanza’s youth. Crocheting requires little more than a hook and whatever raw materials are on hand, and Abuelita’s advice implies that she herself has started over from next to nothing many times. It becomes evident that the family will need to start over after Esperanza’s father dies, and when fire consumes the family home, Abuelita’s tight hold on her bag of crocheting indicates her firm belief that it contains enough for them to start over. Esperanza must accept that her once perfect life has changed forever, and when Abuelita gives the bag to her, it is with the intention to remind Esperanza to have hope even as she feels as if she has lost everything. Just as Abuelita can make beautiful things with a hook and bits of thread, Esperanza must learn to craft a new life for herself from scratch. 

Next section Chapters 4–7

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