Chapters 1-5
What happens every year on El Rancho
de las Rosas, the day after
the grape harvest.
Esperanza's Birthday
On the first day of work in
the sheds with Hortensia and
Josefina, Esperanza learns:
Where potatoes
come from.
How does Mama begin to look differently after being in the camp for a few weeks?
Hair in braids, she seemed shorter, not herself.
Who taught Esperanza how to sweep?
Miguel
Mama shakes Esperanza awake
in the middle of the night.
The house is on fire.
How does Hortensia
treat Esperanza’s cut
and swollen hands?
With mashed avocados.
Why was it important for Esperanza to go to the jamaica?
To face everybody after she was so embarrassed in front of them.
Why did white Americans treat Mexicans differently
They think they’re uneducated, good for only manual labor, dirty, poor, unskilled
On the train ride from
Zacatecas, Mama
gives it to the little peasant girl.
A yarn doll.
When Miguel leaves the
camp in the middle of the
night, what does he steal?
Esperanza’s money orders.
What did the strikers do to try to slow down the workers or hurt them?
Put snakes, a rat, razor blades, and shards of glass in the crates of asparagus
Why did police and immigration officers put those striking onto a bus?
To deport them to Mexico, they’re causing problems for the government
Why Marta calls Esperanza
“Cinderella”?
Esperanza does not know
how to sweep the platform.
Miguel retrieves
Abuelita and brings
her to America because ___________.
He knows that Esperanza
and Mama need her.
Why did Abuelita and Esperanza knit their hairs into the blanket?
It symbolized their love and good wishes. The women will never be separated again.
Why does Marta want everyone in the camp to strike so badly?
To make more money and get better living conditions.
In “Las Ciruelas”,
Esperanza is worried
about her family.
There is a terrible
dust storm.
Who is the woman with the hens and why is she important?
Carmen is important because she is the first person to teach Esperanza that having riches is not the only thing that matters. She is rich in love and happiness.
“Didn’t I tell you that Papa’s heart would find us wherever we go?” What does Mama mean by this?
Alfonso and Miguel give them a gift of rose bush shoots that they brought from Mexico. Mama makes this statement in reference to Abuelita’s belief that roses contain memories in their rosehips.
In the last chapter, Esperanza tells Abuelita about all that has happened within the past year.
When she tells the story, she does not use the names of months or holidays to measure time. What does she use instead? Why?
Esperanza recalls time in spans of fruits and vegetables, and by what needed to be done to the land. This is because Esperanza has become a field worker, and her life now revolves around the harvest seasons of different crops throughout the year.