Module 5--Esperanza Rising: A Review

MODULE 5: ESPERANZA RISING

 by Pam Munoz Ryan

Ryan, P.M. (2000).  Esperanza Rising.  New York, Scholastic Press.

There is a pun in Esperanza Rising that non-Spanish speaking people will miss, but for those who do speak or understand the language, it's very clear.  Esperanza is a woman's name (I had an aunt named Esperanza), but it also means "hope".  Thus, you have Esperanza the character rising (metaphorically, with the literal rising being more a fantasy of her own), and 'hope' rising within Esperanza after all the troubles and tribulations she endures.  Esperanza Rising is in my view the most beautiful book I've read all semester, one that I think will be beloved by readers of all ages and nationalities. 

Esperanza Ortega was a Mexican princess.  She is the daughter of wealthy landowners who are genuinely kind to their workers.  However, Mexico is still feeling the aftershocks of the Mexican Revolution, where the wealthy are resented.  Esperanza is eagerly awaiting Papa, whom she loves very much and shares a strong bond thanks to her being an only child.  However, right before her birthday, Papa is brought back, dead.  He was killed by bandits, leaving Esperanza, her mother Ramona, and her grandmother, known only as Abuelita (or Grandmother) devastated.

It also leaves them in the clutches of Esperanza's wicked uncles. Tio Luis, (or Uncle Luis) now has rights to the land (but not the house), and he decides that he will further his own political career by marrying his stepbrother's widow.  The prospect of this horrifies the women, but Tio Luis is determined.  So determined that when the house itself 'accidentally' catches fire, it is the motivation for them to flee to the United States.  Esperanza and Mama's loyal servants, Hortensia, her husband Alfonso, and their son Miguel (with whom Esperanza has grown up with), make a daring escape and eventually arrive in Los Angeles (Abuelita has to stay behind due to her injured ankle, staying with her sisters who joined a convent and putting her safely away from Tio Luis).

Esperanza has a hard time adjusting at first to all the radical changes. Though not a terrible or particularly spoiled girl, she still can't quite let go of how things used to be.  She still longs for her old life, but now her new life is that of a migrant worker, picking grapes, asparagus, and other fruits and vegetables during their various seasons. 

Marta, an American of Mexican descent and militant union organizer pre-Cesar Chavez, is openly contemptuous of Esperanza, mocking the 'little princess' for not knowing the simple things like how to sweep with a broom.  Esperanza is despondent over how her life is now, and not even Isabel, a younger girl who is Alfonso's little niece and who loves Esperanza, can help lighten her mood.

Mama works out in the fields along with the others at first while Esperanza takes care of the shack and the babies, eventually learning how to do things right.  Mama however, gets Valley Fever, which causes her to cough uncontrollably as it has affected her lungs.  Esperanza is really at wits end: she lost her father, is close to losing her mother, her grandmother is beyond reach, she has lost her whole way of life, and has nothing to hold onto.  Esperanza, however, decides to rise to the situation, and goes to work in the company packing plant, despite her age and gender.  Marta barely escapes getting rounded up and deported, thanks in part to Esperanza, who doesn't disclose that the agitator is hiding in the plant.  Marta now sees a new side to Esperanza.

Eventually, Esperanza manages to save enough money to bring Abuelita back, and Mama has become well enough to return to the camp (Esperanza having paid the medical bills).  She still finds life in America a rather hopeless one, berating Miguel for thinking he can rise above his station.  "You're still a peasant," she tells him, reminding him of his lowly status among the Anglo population which considers all Mexicans (and Americans of Mexican descent) one monolith group of uneducated field hands.  Angrily, Miguel tells her, "And you think you're still a queen," and leaves the camp...with all the money she had saved.  However, in the end, we find that Miguel has not taken the money for himself.  Instead, he is able to bring Abuelita to the camp, and Esperanza finds hope.

Esperanza Rising is again a simply beautiful book.  We see the journey of Esperanza from the mountains to the valleys and climbing back.  This symbolism of 'mountain and valleys' is given to us through the crochet knitting of Abuelita, Mama, and Esperanza.  Abuelita in particular reminds Esperanza before they are forced to flee that one has peaks and valleys in life.  However, it is the final line in the book that is the theme of Esperanza Rising, "Do not ever be afraid to start over".

Esperanza had to start over, and it wasn't an easy adjustment for her.  I think one can sympathize somewhat with Esperanza, even if at the beginning of her forced exile she still carried some of her old views.  For example, she cringed in horror at letting a poor little girl handle her precious doll, the last remnant of her old life of privilege. However, by the end we see that Esperanza has matured: she gives her precious doll to Isabel after Isabel lost being Queen of the May.  Isabel had her heart set on it, and if things had been fair she, who had the highest grades in school, would have won.  However, some reason was found to make a white girl Queen, but Isabel is too young and innocent to understand the reason she lost.

Discrimination is touched on in Esperanza Rising, as Esperanza is awakened to the bigotry all around her.  She sees how others hold her in contempt, despite that Esperanza is more educated than they are.  How the Mexicans are rounded up for protesting for better working conditions, some deported despite being American citizens, also angers her.  Esperanza starts sympathizing with the protesters, but Ryan is smart in not making the union organizers saintly and above reproach.  Instead, Ryan also shows the concerns of those not protesting, their need to keep food on the table and shelter over their family's heads.  The company camp is also not shown as this pit of despair but much better than most.  The company camp isn't romanticized or held to be a beautiful place.  It's dirty, ugly, and depressing.  However, the fact that the characters are together and genuinely love each other made things bearable.

The characters were all fully-drawn, neither being all good or all bad, but like all people, with flaws and virtues, moments of anger and moments of compassion.  Well, perhaps with the exceptions of Abuelita and Isabel, who were rather good and wise. 

Ryan has an interesting way of separating the chapters.  Rather than be numbered, they are given names of fruits and vegetables in both English and Spanish (Los Aguacates, Avocado and Las Uvas, Grapes for example).  There is use of Spanish throughout the book, but Ryan includes the translation right afterwards.  I think this reflects how Esperanza in the end started measuring time, not by months but by what produce they picked and packed.

Esperanza Rising is a pretty quick read and tells a wonderful story of a girl who lost much but is working her way to starting over, accepting that things are forever altered. 

BRIEF REVIEW DISCUSSION

Mary Ruth Donnelly in her review believes that because Ryan did not advocate for or against a side in the subplot of the union organizers it will "use the book in a wider variety of school setting".  I agree: by letting us decide who was right for their own situation, Esperanza Rising becomes in my view a more universal story. 

I think this book will appeal to all ages and ethnicities.  Hispanic children in particular will find figures and phrases they understand, and I think girls of all backgrounds will identify with a girl who rises to become a strong female.  As someone who is Hispanic, I was moved by Esperanza Rising, showing how our stories are also part of the extraordinary fabric of America.  My background is a little different than Esperanza Ortega.  We weren't from a rich family, we never actually worked in the fields, and my father's side was proudly American (almost redneck in a way).  Still, Pam Munoz Ryan has created a wonderful story that all people can relate to.

PROGRAMMING SUGGESTIONS

Any activities connected to Esperanza Rising might be a jamaica, a party for the community that can be organized for the public at large.  As part of the feast, we can include all the various fruits mentioned.  It might also be good to speak to actual migrant farm workers to speak on their experiences.  Folklorico music and dance would also be I think a welcome presentation, bringing Mexican culture to audiences. 

Pam Munoz Ryan:
Born 1951

REFERENCES:

Donnelly, M. R. [Review of Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan].  Retrieved from http://www.siue.edu/MLTE/LA%20Modules%20DONE/esperanza_rising.htm

Module 5--Remember: The Journey to School Integration: A Review

MODULE 5:

REMEMBER: THE JOURNEY TO

SCHOOL INTEGRATION

by Toni Morrison

*Author's note.  As I understand it, the Youth Literature class requires the Module Number to be listed in the title of the review and not within the review itself.  As a result, for the term I will add "Module X" in the title. 

Morrison, T. (2004).  Remember: The Journey to School Integration.  Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company.

Given how I detested The Bluest Eye, I was surprised at how I enjoyed Remember. The former horrified me and I grew to dislike Toni Morrison, thinking her reputation as this literary genius wildly overrated.  Remember, on the other hand, is a much better book.  I think it has to do with the fact that Morrison knows that her audience of children need a different tone and manner when speaking to them.  Remember has a very gentle tone as Morrison uses photos to tell the story, good and bad, of when schools were integrated.  A mixture of photos and brief commentary told through the viewpoint of the pictures' subjects make up the book, and Morrison combines both so well they flow naturally together.

We start with a brief opening where we are told the book is about "you", even though the reader is in a post-integration world.  We get a brief background about how before Brown v. Board of Education, schools were segregated (blacks and whites could not go to school, or anywhere really, together).  "Separate but equal" was not equal, and we get how Morrison herself felt in 1953 when she travelled South, a year before the Brown decision.

 

From there, we get the main text of Remember, which is divided into three sections: The Narrow Path, The Open Gate, and The Wide Road.  The first section presents how black children's education was pretty shabby: dilapidated schools, long walks to go to the 'Negro' school when whites-only schools were closer.  The second section, the longest, starts with the Supreme Court ruling and again with pictures and text we get the shock of integration.  Photos detail both the positives (children walked to school by their parents without incident, small children of all races calmly accepting their new classmates), and negatives (older students giving them the cold shoulder at best, their parents being downright violent at worst or simply boycotting the school).  The final section goes beyond school integration, touching on how the Civil Rights movement expanded to break down segregation throughout all sections of society. 

Remember is an excellent book.  The text is simple enough for children to understand without being patronizing.  I think it is a good idea to show that some people were violently opposed to integration and that their reaction is chronicled through the photos.  Sometimes Morrison doesn't write text to accompany the pictures.  Instead, she has the pictures compliment each other and let the reader draw his/her own ideas.  For example, on one page she has a group of teen white girls yelling in anger, and the other has a group of young black boys walking towards the camera, a little hesitant as they go to school.

While there is no way to know whether they were actually related in both incidents taking place at the same date and time, Remember mixes them so well that the underlying message (whites were displeased to see blacks going to the same schools whites attended) is made clear.  Contrast this with another set of photos, where small children, black and white, were sharing elementary school with nary a thought or interest in the differences between the two groups.  As far as they were concerned, the message the children are pointing to in one photo ("Let's All Work Together"), speaks for itself. 

Morrison also uses the pictures to allow us to read their minds, or at least give an interpretation about what could have been going through their minds.  One photo has a group of white boys holding signs opposing integration, but Morrison's text has a questioning style.  It suggests that it was peer pressure, not genuine belief, that motivated them coming down to protest integration. 

"I don't know.  My buddies talked me into this.  They said it would be fun.  It's not, but these guys are my friends and friends are more important than strangers.  Even if they're wrong.  Aren't they?"

 
This was an extremely bright idea.  It shows that perhaps the people opposing integration really might not have wanted to.  Again, it's impossible to know for sure without asking them, and even that might be suspect.  However, Morrison makes clear she herself doesn't know, but that she is taking creative license to make her point. 

BRIEF REVIEW DISCUSSION

I think Remember does an excellent job presenting a very difficult subject to younger readers of all races.  I think it goes beyond appealing to black audiences and can be appreciated by all readers of all backgrounds.    However, a reviewer commented that it was odd how events were placed out of order (the last part of Remember is on lunch counter protests and the bus boycott, which took place prior to the Brown decision).  The writer comments that this is a 'problem', suggesting that it is mixing history with fallible memory.

I did not think this was a major issue, though perhaps it might give young readers a misinterpretation of history.  However, given that Remember is not about the whole Civil Rights Movement, but on just one aspect of it (integration), particularly from a child's point of view, I think we don't have to worry too much on strict historic accuracy.  I think the book is suppose to be part history, part memory, and as such, the jumbled history structure is not a deal-breaker. 

The title is Remember, and memory emphasizes certain points while not focusing on others.  I think the point of Remember is about memory, about impressions, about feelings.  We go into the minds of the figures in the pictures, but its a fictional interpretation.  Morrison doesn't know exactly what they were thinking or feeling.  Instead, she just wants to convey impressions, suggestions, not strict history. I think it works, and while I'm normally a stickler for historical accuracy, I think Remember does a good job giving impressions, which again I think was its goal. 

PROGRAMMING SUGGESTIONS 

A good program I think would be to encourage visitors to rope off a certain area and make it For Grumgrawls Only.  Obviously, there is no such thing as a Grumgrawl, but it might give people pause to wonder of when people were segregated.  I also think having students reenact the Little Rock Nine going into the high school would be a good presentation. 

I'm reluctant to have displays that openly present the ugliness of segregation, fearing people might misinterpret them.  However, perhaps a display where certain books are presented "For Whites Only" and "For Blacks Only" might drive the message home.  I would leave that to the librarians' discretion. 

REFERENCES:

Review of the book REMEMBER: The Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison]. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-618-39740-2

Toni Morrison:
Born 1931