Living on her family's ranch in Mexico in the years following the Revolution, 12-year-old Esperanza has always had all the material things she could wish for. Even more important to her, she has had the love and devotion of her parents. But on the eve of her 13th birthday, Esperanza's world is shattered when her father is killed by bandits. With the help of Hortensia, Alfonso, and their son Miguel, the Zapotec Indian family who had been their most trusted employees, Esperanza and her mother flee to the United States to escape Esperanza's despicable uncles, who now own their land.

Thousands upon thousands of workers have come to California from across North America looking for work during the Great Depression. Esperanza's mother tells her daughter they must be grateful for the shelter and work they have found in a field labor camp with other Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, but Esperanza finds gratitude hard to come by. Her privileged childhood has not prepared her for the harsh, overcrowded conditions in which they live, or for the housework and childcare she is expected to do to help out.

Initially determined to do well at her tasks as a matter of pride, Esperanza soon develops a fierce determination to succeed based on more compelling need. She is driven in part by her desire to provide for her mother after her mother falls ill. But the generosity, hopes, and heartbreak that she witnesses among the workers in the camps, who live with dignity in almost unbearable conditions of poverty, who face danger and illness in the work they do, and the real risk of unemployment and deportation if they strike for better conditions - teach her that they all share the same hopes and dreams, and that the fate of many cannot be isolated from the fate of one.

Pam Muñoz Ryan's novel, inspired by events in the life of her own grandmother, deftly weaves social issues into a novel that is first and foremost a compelling story of family and coming of age.

Megan Schliesman
October 2000