History of Mexico <1930
The country that conquered the Aztecs in 1521 and began ruling Mexico for 300 years.
What is Spain?
This event began in 1848 when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, causing thousands to migrate to California.
What is the Gold Rush?
The word for the money that workers earn each hour or day they work.
What are wages?
This is the huge economic crisis that began in 1929 when the stock market crashed and led to massive job loss and poverty.
What is the Great Depression?
A hint or clue that suggests what events might happen in the future in a story, such as Esperanza pricking her finger on a thorn.
What is foreshadowing?
This is the specific war that began in 1846 because the U.S. wanted to take over Texas.
What is the Mexican-American War?
The common term for the people, often from Oklahoma, who began arriving in California in 1933 seeking work.
What are Okies?
This is the general term for the environment workers are in, which can be clean, dirty, safe, or unsafe.
What are conditions?
(Accept living conditions or working conditions)
This environmental disaster was caused by too much farming on the Great Plains, leading to huge storms that destroyed farms and forced families to leave.
What is the Dust Bowl?
Giving human traits to nonhuman things, like when the novel says "This whole valley breathes and lives."
What is personification?
This Spanish word means "poor farm workers" and describes the people who were promised rights during the 1910 revolution.
What are campesinos?
In 1850, California went from being a U.S. territory to officially becoming the 31st of these.
What is a state?
The action of refusing to work in an effort to protest for better pay or rights.
What is a strike?
This term refers to the mass arrival of desperate Great Plains farmers from Oklahoma into California, where jobs were scarce.
What is the Okie Migration?
An idea, symbol, image, or device that appears multiple times throughout a text, such as the "river" that divides Esperanza and Miguel.
What is a motif?
Name two of the four states that the U.S. gained after winning the Mexican-American War.
What are Texas, California, New Mexico, or Arizona?
This is the practice of mass watering that began around 1890, enabling huge farming operations in the Central Valley.
What is irrigation?
The specific name for workers who move from place to place to pick different crops in different seasons.
What are migrant workers?
The term used to describe the organizing and striking by farm workers in response to poor treatment and abuse.
What is Labor Unrest?
When an object, person, or idea has an additional meaning beyond its literal one, like Papa's roses or Abuelita's blanket.
What is a symbol?
This major upheaval began in 1910 and led to the forcing out of the last dictator and the adoption of a new constitution.
What is the Mexican Revolution?
In 1920, California’s population reached 3.5 million, which was this many times the number of people who lived there in 1860.
What is ten times (or 10x)?
The name for a group of workers who organize and take action together to demand better treatment.
What is a union?
The nickname for California, which farmers sought out because it seemed like a wonderful place to find work.
What is "The Golden State"?
Placing two images or ideas close together to emphasize the contrast between them, such as comparing Esperanza's hands as a rich upper caste girl to her hands as a poor campesina.
What is juxtaposition?