Novel: Esperanza Rising
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Author: Pam Munoz Ryan
Published: Scholastic, 2000
Esperanza lives a fairytale-like
life in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Her
father, a wealthy landowner, spoils his thirteen-year old daughter until great
tragedy falls upon the family when bandits kill him. Circumstances surrounding his death force
Esperanza and her mother to flee from their home to seek refuge in the United
States. They escape during the night
with the assistance of their head farm hand and his family. It is in the Unites States, working as a
migrant laborer on a California farm during the Great Depression, that
Esperanza begins to clearly see and understand the injustice and oppression
forced upon farm workers both in the United States and in Mexico. Esperanza’s experience takes the reader on a
journey through the harsh conditions migrant farm workers face. She helps one to understand what life was
like and how little life has changed for many farm laborers.
Photo courtesy kingsacademy.com
The first thing Esperanza notes
about her new life is the poor living conditions farm hands endured.
Not only did farm workers labor in extreme
weather conditions, but often times they did not have a place to escape weather
when not working.
Esperanza is disgusted
that their living conditions are comparable to that of animals. Their provided
homes were often times nothing more than thin walls and a door; sometimes even
just a tent with a dirt floor.
Many of
the basic activities of daily living, such as laundry and cooking, was a
communal effort.
Today, farm laborers
still endure extreme weather and though farms do not directly provide
housing for laborers, there are labor camps that offer seasonal housing.
These labor camps are an improvement from the
Great Depression era yet they are hardly what most American’s would deem
livable.
Being raised in an affluent family,
Esperanza was accustomed to a very comfortable lifestyle and never exposed to
hard physical labor.
Life as a migrant
farm worker was difficult and dangerous.
A short while after beginning work, Esperanza’s mother contracted Valley
Fever and almost died.
Valley Fever is
still a viable threat to today’s migrant farm laborers.
In fact, 22,401 new cases were reported in
2011.
Migrant farm workers also have a higher mortality and morbidity rate
than the rest of the American population.
Many become ill due to heat stroke and exposure to pesticides.
They also develop musculoskeletal strains
from long hours of intense physical labor.
The good news is that migrant workers now have better access to
affordable healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.
San Joaquin Valley image courtesy of www.wunderground.com
Providing healthcare for migrant
workers is a step in the right direction for improving working conditions, however,
low wages are still a major problem.
Esperanza’s main goal was to earn enough money to bring her grandmother
to the United States.
Her childhood
friend Miguel, desired to find work as a mechanic in hopes of being exposed to
opportunities not available to him in Mexico.
Esperanza and Miguel’s ambitions are not unlike many of today’s migrant
workers.
Most farm laborers are young
adult males who come to the United States seeking the opportunity for a better
life.
Some work to earn money to take
back or send back to their families and some work to bring their families to
the United States.
In both cases, the hope
is for a more prosperous future.
The sad
truth is that though their conditions may be improved from that in Mexico, life
is still hard, it is still difficult to get ahead, and many remain poor.
A young girl in
Esperanza Rising asks her mother “Are we going to starve?”
Her mother replies, “No, mija.
How could anyone starve here with so much
food around us?” Today, many immigrants may well be asking the same question.
In San Joaquin Valley, the heart of
California’s agriculture, the Cap-K Foodbank in Bakersfield feeds more than
30,000 people per month.
Surrounded by
so much food, yet it is one of the “poorest and hungriest” regions in the
country.
Image courtesy of www.laprogressive.com
Challenges that both migrant farm
laborers today and during Esperanza’s time face are the threat of deportation
and low wages.
Though Esperanza was working in the United
States legally and had proper documentation, many Hispanic workers in the
1930’s did not have proper documentation and were working illegally in hopes of
eventually gaining citizenship.
This has
not changed.
In 2009 the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that just under 50% of the hired
crop farmworkers were unauthorized to work in the United States.
The
threat of exposure and deportation keeps migrant farm hand wages low.
Esperanza was constantly under pressure from
her peer, Marta, to join with other laborers to strike for higher wages.
Today’s illegal immigrants have no protection
from unfair wages and poor working conditions.
If they try to unite and strike, like Marta, Esperanza’s friend, they
are simply deported from the country.
Although there were significant negative
aspects of life as a farm laborer, the one benefit that made a huge difference
for the posterity of the migrant farm worker was the opportunity to obtain a
public education.
Esperanza, who came
from an affluent Mexican family, was educated.
However, most Mexicans, like Isabel with whom she shared a room, did not
receive an education and were therefore confined to a lower social class.
By coming to the United States and enduring
poverty, one’s children could receive an education creating hope for future
generations.
Today, the rural
agricultural areas of Mexico do not have adequate education and are failing the
Mexican children.
The opportunity to receive an education in
the United States is a major enticement.
Much about
Esperanza’s experience during the Great Depression is comparable to migrant
farm labor today. The labor is still
hard and the work conditions less than favorable, yet Hispanics continue to
flock to the United States to obtain work in hopes of escaping the poverty they
experience in their own countries.
United States agriculture provides many, just like Esperanza, with the
opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families.
