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Chapters 4–7

Summary: Chapter 4: Las Guayabas (Guavas)

Esperanza, her mother, and Hortensia hide inside the back of the wagon so they won’t be seen as they escape from Aguascalientes. Esperanza is scared of being in the tight space, but Hortensia distracts her with memories from when they once hid from thieves inside the ranch house by crawling under a bed. After two days, the group boards a train car full of people Esperanza calls peasants. Many are dirty, carrying animals, and wearing old, torn clothes. A little girl stares at Esperanza’s porcelain doll, but Esperanza yanks it back when the girl reaches for it, making the girl cry. Esperanza’s mother apologizes for Esperanza’s bad manners, and has Esperanza help her make a yarn doll for the girl.

At every stop, Miguel and Alfonso step off the train to add water to an oilcloth package. Esperanza is irritated by Miguel’s happiness at being on the train, but Miguel tells her that he is going to try to work on the railroad in California. He has always wanted to work on trains, and Esperanza’s father had promised to help him find a job. Miguel tells Esperanza that in the United States, even the poorest man can become rich if he works hard enough.

After four days and nights on the train, Esperanza meets Carmen, an egg seller who tells the group that even though she is poor, she is rich because she has her children, her garden, and memories of the people she loves. When she leaves the train, Esperanza and Miguel watch as Carmen gives a beggar on the train platform some money and food. Miguel tells Esperanza that the poor take care of those who have even less than they do, while the rich only take care of each other.

Summary: Chapter 5: Los Melones (Cantaloupes)

The train reaches the California border. The police frighten Esperanza, but Mama shows that their papers are good and that they have come to the United States to work. The group boards another train, to Los Angeles. They are met by Alfonso’s brother Juan, his wife, Josefina, and their children, Isabel and the babies Lupe and Pepe. On the way to the farm, Isabel tells Esperanza that she wants to learn English in school this year. 

When the group stops for lunch, Esperanza tries to hear the land’s heartbeat, as Papa taught her to do. She can’t hear or feel anything, and she cries before she has the sensation of flying high, then falling back down. Esperanza faints, and wakes to find Miguel standing above her. 

Marta, a worker from another camp, joins the group. Isabel tells Marta that Esperanza’s father owned a ranch, and Miguel worked for Esperanza’s family. Marta asks if Esperanza is a princess who has come to be a peasant. Miguel and Isabel defend Esperanza, explaining that her father died and a fire destroyed her home. Marta tells Esperanza that her own father died fighting in the Mexican revolution against wealthy landowners. Esperanza tries to explain that her father was a good man, but Marta doesn’t care.

Isabel shows Esperanza the camps of workers from the Philippines, Oklahoma, and Japan. Marta explains that the land owners don’t want the groups to live and work together. As long as all groups think the others are living the same way, no one will care. But if one group receives better treatment, then other groups will strike. Miguel and Marta discuss the jamaica fiesta happening in camp on Saturday night. When the truck arrives at the Mexican camp, Marta taunts Esperanza, saying no one will be her servant there.

Summary: Chapter 6: Las Cebollas (Onions)

Marta joins a group of girls, gossiping with them in English about Esperanza. Isabel points out the building with the camp toilets, and Miguel leads Esperanza and her mother to the group’s cabin. Alfonso has told the landowners that Esperanza and her mother are his cousins, so they will live as a family in one cabin. Esperanza complains that they are living like horses, but her mother tells Esperanza to be grateful for what they have. 

Esperanza and Isabel will watch the babies while the others work in the fields. Esperanza’s main job will be to sweep the wooden platform in the middle of the camp every afternoon. Isabel shows Esperanza the platform and brooms before they meet Isabel’s best friend Silvia and two women, Irene and Melina. Melina tells Esperanza she knows about how she came from Aguascalientes. When Esperanza wonders how people know about her already, Isabel tells her that everyone in the camp knows each other’s business.

Isabel is surprised to learn that Esperanza doesn’t know how to wash clothes. Isabel reminds Esperanza that next week she will go to school, and Esperanza will be alone with the babies. Isabel asks if Esperanza knows how to sweep, and Esperanza assures her that she does. But when it is time for her to sweep the platform, she ends up making a bigger mess. She notices some women watching her and laughing, including Marta, who calls her Cinderella. Humiliated, Esperanza runs back inside the cabin. That evening, Miguel shows Esperanza how to sweep. She thanks him, and Miguel again calls her his queen. Later, Isabel asks about Esperanza’s life as a queen, and Esperanza agrees to tell her about her life in Aguascalientes, if Isabel will teach her how to do laundry and take care of the babies.

Summary: Chapter 7: Las Almendras (Almonds)

Miguel leads Esperanza and her mother behind the cabin to a makeshift shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Miguel has planted rosebushes there that he dug from the burnt ground of the ranch. He and Alfonso kept the cuttings wet during the journey from Mexico. Miguel has placed Esperanza’s rose beside a trellis, allowing it to climb. Mama reminds Esperanza that Papa’s heart would find them wherever they went.

The following night is the jamaica fiesta. Esperanza is nervous about facing the others in camp, and asks about Marta. Isabel tells Esperanza that Marta knows English because she and her mother were born in the United States. Isabel’s father doesn’t like it when Marta comes to the jamaicas, because she talks too much about workers striking. 

At the fiesta, Esperanza notices a group gathered around Marta and her friends. Marta yells that the workers are being treated like kittens, meek animals who have no choice. Marta’s group is planning to strike in two weeks, at the height of the cotton season. They want others to join them so everyone’s lives can get better. Marta and her friends are ordered to leave the camp. Later, Josefina explains that Marta and her mother are migrant workers. Migrant camps have no protection and very little pay. Josefina tells Esperanza that Mexicans cannot risk striking, because the landowners will hire other workers from Oklahoma or elsewhere. 

Late that night, Mama tells Esperanza that she is proud of all that Esperanza is learning. Esperanza says that she will light a candle for Papa at church the next day, and pray for a railroad job for Miguel, for help with the babies, and for Abuelita to get well. Mama says that she will pray too for Esperanza to be strong, no matter what happens.

Analysis: Chapters 4–7

The treacherousness of her journey forces Esperanza to confront her own privilege and her discomfort in its absence, and to consider where she fits in the new social structure. Vivid descriptions of sounds and smells on the wagon create a feeling of claustrophobia and paranoia that heightens as the family later boards a train cramped with people and animals. Carmen’s generosity serves as an example of how members of less-privileged communities can alleviate one another’s suffering and provides Esperanza with visible evidence of the power of gratitude. When Esperanza tries to show that she is better than the poorer people in their compartment, Mama’s sharp rebuke reinforces Esperanza’s discomfort with her new status and highlights how much work Esperanza must do to learn her role in a new community.

Marta’s immediate, taunting judgment of Esperanza’s background and amusement at her current discomfort establishes Marta as an intriguing but polarizing character. Marta is the first of Esperanza’s peer group to truly challenge her and to remain unimpressed by her story. Marta can see the racism and oppression around her, which Esperanza has not yet observed. The contrasts between Marta’s and Esperanza’s backgrounds highlight the sharp social and economic disparities that can arise between groups that outsiders might consider to be the same. As two teenage girls whose fathers were killed, the pair would seem to have much in common, at least on the surface. The animosity that Marta reveals when she says her father died fighting against rich landowners like Esperanza’s father, however, indicates that Marta is keenly aware that the differences between them run deep.

The book’s theme of family and community again comes into play as Esperanza and Mama become part of an extended family group, learning to live with and help others. Painful conversations between Esperanza and Mama reinforce the theme of feminine strength and underscore Mama’s humility and patience. The fairytale motif continues when the other women call Esperanza, whose story began with a storybook prick of the finger, “Cinderella” due to her inability to accomplish simple household tasks. This name-calling is a sharp contrast to Miguel’s affectionate use of the term “my queen” when he addresses Esperanza.  

Roses reappear in Chapter 7 as a reminder of home and a symbol of hope and love. The forethought and care that Miguel employed to bring the cuttings and keep them safe on their journey is typical of the respectful, understanding, and tangible support that Miguel shows Esperanza throughout the story. Just like Esperanza, the roses survive the journey, and their placement on a trellis, which will allow them to grow, implies strength in new beginnings. This reminder of home is a peaceful pause that allows Esperanza time to reflect before the story shifts again to the social dynamics of the workers’ groups at the jamaica. This time will help her to put the events there in perspective and learn from them, another sign that she will flourish along with the roses.

Marta’s fearlessness at the jamaica emphasizes her significance as Esperanza’s foil in the story. Although her behavior up until this point has always been combative, Marta’s passion for workers’ rights suggests another side to her personality. Her drive to improve conditions for all the workers illustrates that, like Esperanza, Marta strives for a better life and is willing to work to achieve it. The division between migrant workers and Mexicans like Esperanza becomes very tangible at this point. Marta’s expulsion from camp highlights the danger that conflicts between different cultural groups could present to all the workers, adding another dimension and complexity to the theme of community in the immigrant experience. When Esperanza begins to understand Marta’s view, she also starts to reconcile her own privilege.

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