Esperanza's Mountains and Valleys ¨Don´t be afraid to start over.¨ Immigrants had to leave everything and everyone they knew to go to a new. Esperanza Ortega from Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan is no different. She was forced to leave her rich life, because her Papa died and her uncle's wanted more attention and more money. Esperanza was rich, then she was rags when she immigrated to the U.S. She had fancy dresses, servants, and money. But now, she has nothing since her Papa's death. Esperanza had to face many other challenges as an immigrant such as Mama getting sick with Valley Fever and not knowing how to do daily chores because she had servants. The first challenge Esperanza faced as an immigrant was Mama getting sick with Valley
Enrique, someone who has hands on experience with this, went to the United States to find his mother and start a new life with her. Enrique was very sad leaving his old life behind. He had a girlfriend, Maria Isabel, whom he loved very much and later he found that Maria Isabel was pregnant with their daughter. Enrique knew that he left Honduras for a reason and he knew he had to deal with missing experiences such as his daughter’s important moments.Enrique accepted the obstacles he had to overcome by remembering that in Honduras his life was for the worse. In Honduras, money was scarce, life was sad, and his family depended on him to send money back to them by working in the United States.
The Sierra de la Serenidad is right between two settlement groups in a mountain pass. The mountain pass can lead up to a priest at the top of the mountain where there will be a lot of religious activity going on because the settlers feel like they need to be in a trance to relax. The climate is extremely dry around the area because it is surrounded by two rivers that go into the sea where there is a lot of humidity. Through the coastal plain and desert strip that goes down to the coast, climate and soil combine to support an agricultural economy based on maize. The pass system in the Andes was set up to control the commodity flow in the lake. This type of economy is thought to be around for 2,000 years. The settlers ate the fish that were in the water around the complex.
In the town of Santa Rosa California, in the county of Sonoma sits a very run down structure in need of either reconstruction or preservation of the remaining structure. Whether they reconstruct the structure or not, it is a prime example of a structure to be added to the National Register of Historic Places. This building is called the Carrillo Adobe and was owned by a woman by the name of Maria Ygnacia de Carrillo. However the site and part of the structure was constructed before Maria Carrillo moved to the area which would later become Santa Rosa, California and constructed the first structure in the town. The foundation was laid by monks of the Franciscan order, as they planned to build the twenty-second mission in California. However the monks moved on to build a mission in the surrounding area. In 1837 Carrillo, who had just become a widow, moved from San Diego County with her children to the area, which was not yet known as Santa Rosa.
Being an immigrant, you have to leave your old life behind,and you have to leave all your memories behind. In the book Esperanza Rising Pam Munoz Ryan, she and her family were forced to move to California, and she had to leave all the memories from Papa and her home in Mexico behind. Although Esperanza faced many different challenges, the hardest ones were dealing with Mama having valley fever and fighting with Marta and the other strikers.
Through the view of a young girl, this story really captures what it’s like to feel like immigration is the only option for a family. In the story, set in the 1960’s, Anita lives in the Dominican Republic, a country with a dictator named el jefe. One day at school, Anita’s cousin is called out of class, and Anita is asked to go with. She finds out that her
Moving to the U.S was challenging for an immigrant.” Don’t be afraid to start over.” These words are true to any immigrant who is moving to a new place. Esperanza had many challenges when she was moving to California. The first challenge she faced was Esperanza did not know how to do daily chores, because she had always had servants. The second challenge was the dust storms caused mama to become sick with Valley Fever. The third challenge was Esperanza had to go work in the fields to take care of mama. Esperanza had many challenges as an immigrant, but these were the most challenging ones.
The autobiography Journey of Hope Memoirs of a Mexican Girl and the documentary short “Children in No Man’s Land” has brought into light three important topics that are results of immigration. The first is the “American dream” and the notion of yearning to migrate abroad to seek dreams formed by misconceptions of the limited knowledge one has of their destination. The second is assimilation and the process of assimilating oneself to their new homeland. The third is a unique situation presented in both these works, which is estrangement from their family members. This paper attempts to critically analyze the unique journey of immigration for Rosalina, Maria de Jesus, and Rene. It argues that glorified images and dreams of what America could be like falsely creates a sense of hope. It focuses on the dual task of reviewing the process of assimilation based on each immigrant situation, and an examination of familial estrangement as
After reading The Book of the Unknown Americans, I realized how difficult immigrating to the United States can be. I am an immigrant also, so just reading the story makes me relate to many problems immigrants experience relocating to a different country. Immigrants often face many issues and difficulties, but for some it is all worth it, but for others there comes a point in time where they have to go back to their hometown. Alma and Arturo Rivera came to the United States to better their life, but also so that Maribel could attend a special education school. While Arturo had a job things had gone well for the family, but once Arturo lost the job and passed away the two of them had to go back because they felt that that was the best option for them. Reading this book made me realize how strong an individual has to be to leave their own country and relocate somewhere else not knowing if this will better your life or cause one to suffer.
Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, is a book about a wealthy girl, Esperanza, who must flee to the United States and serve as a farm worker after her house is burned and her father killed. Throughout her journey Esperanza meets many new people, most of them peasants, and is forced out of her comfortable life. Esperanza’s confrontations with class differences in Mexico, during her train journey, and in California, symbolize stages in her transformation from a privileged young girl to skilled and hard working young woman.
In the book, Esperanza doesn’t want to follow the norms of the life around her; she wants to be independent. Esperanza states her independence by stating, “Not a man’s house. Not a daddy’s. A house all my own,” (Cisneros 108.) The syntax of these sentences stick out and are not complete thoughts, yet they convey much meaning and establish Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging. Esperanza’s feeling of not belonging is also emphasized when her sisters tell her that the events of her life have made her who she is and that is something she can not get rid of. Her sisters explain that the things she has experienced made her who she is by saying, “You will always be esperanza. You will always be mango street. You can’t erase what you know” (105.) What her sisters are trying to tell her is that the past has changed her but it doesn’t have to be a negative thing; it can be used to make her a better person who is stronger and more independent. Esperanza realizes that the things around her don’t really add up to what she believes is right, which also conveys the sense of not
If someone were to be torn from everything they know in order to live in a new country with a new culture and surroundings, they would face changes in themselves. Yolanda Garcia from the novel How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, by Julia Alvarez, faces these changes in her identity and culture. After immigrating to America from the Dominican Republic, Yolanda is immediately confronted by the new culture that surrounds her. It leads her to feel insecure about who she is, and she feels the need to fit in with the Americans. Being a Dominican immigrant causes Yolanda to become insecure about herself and her culture, confused by the mix of two cultures she lives with, and to lose her sense of identity.
Even if you are rich, you have to go through bad news. Bad news comes in everyone’s life. In the book Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza used to be in Mexico living her happy and rich life. Her
Bad things can happen to good people and your life can get better are some of the greatest themes of Esperanza Rising. For example, in the last sentence of the novel, Esperanza tells Isabel, ”Do not ever be afraid to start over.”(253) This quote was almost the same statement Abuelita told Esperanza while crocheting a blanket, but Esperanza never thought she would turn back to it, until Papa died and sure enough, Esperanza didn’t want to start over. She held on to everything from her magnificent, princess-like life, especially her doll. She didn’t know her life would never be the same again, but after living in California for a while, she looked back at what Abuelita told her and learned to let go of her past, even giving her favorite, special doll from Papa, to Isabel. Papa’s death broke Esperanza to pieces, but when she moved to California she took a turn for the better because she learned a lot of everyday skills, such as sweeping, cleaning clothes, and how to work which benefitted her and she embraced her life and enjoyed everyday.
For Mexicans, the general reason to migrate is for pure economy reasons. For Cubans and Guatemalans, the main reason is to escape from persecution at home and seek refugee status in the United States. For Indigenous communities, it is generally a combination of the two. But often or not, the poor and unlivable conditions in the home country are just too much to bear. They are often so horrible that not only are men and women willing to face and in some cases, die to reach the United States but, as dramatized in “Victoria para Chino”, so too do the children of migrant parents. Upon crossing the border, many migrants discover that the much-hyped notion that the US is a land of opportunity or plentiful work is not true. Migrants, unlike citizens, have far fewer choices to employment options such as agriculture and service jobs. Generally, these jobs provide low pay and are some of the most economically vulnerable during economic downturns. If a migrant cannot find stable work, he is often forced onto the streets as a jornalero. A jornalero is basically a day laborer that seeks work on street corners. However, this method of work is notorious for its unreliability for work and money that it is often joked that there is only “¡Tres trabajos para toda la pinche ciudad!” (Ordenez pg.44). While
Esperanza, a Chicano with three sisters and one brother, has had a dream of having her own things since she was ten years old. She lived in a one story flat that Esperanza thought was finally a "real house". Esperanza’s family was poor. Her father barely made enough money to make ends meet. Her mother, a homemaker, had no formal education because she had lacked the courage to rise above the shame of her poverty, and her escape was to quit school. Esperanza felt that she had the desire and courage to invent what she would become.