I personally questioned the title, until I found out that the word esperanza (also the main character's name) means hope in Spanish. Upon learning this, I looked back on the story, gaining a deeper appreciation and understanding of the text.
Esperanza Rising is about a young girl, Esperanza Ortega, and her family immigrating from Mexico to the United States. In Mexico, the Ortegas live on a large wine growing ranch and live well. However, tragedy comes to Esperanza's family by other corrupt family members bent on taking the family farm. Esperanza and her family are forced to flee across the border to the US, where they live a poor existence, The family and it's servants work side by side in food camps, picking and sorting seasonal crops and scraping together what money they can from the minimal pay they receive.In the author interview in the back of the book, we find out that Esperanza Rising is an actual tale recounting Ryan's grandmother's life story. Ryan says her grandmother, whose name was Esperanza, had told her the story many times.
The story Esperanza Rising could easily be tied with other subjects. It deals with immigration, the Great Depression and the farm labor camps in the California agriculture fields in the early 1930's. I would have my fifth-graders take one aspect of the book (immigration, Mexican Repatriation, labor camps, the Great Depression, dust storms, to name some) and do more research on it. They would be writing more information on their individual subjects and giving a visual display, which they would present to the class as a whole.
This engaging historical fiction should be on any teacher's must read list. I would also suggest keeping within your classroom library.
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