The American Library Association considers Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñez Ryan one of the top 10 books for young adults. This book's SEL themes are cultural experience, overcoming challenges, dealing with grief and loss, and the importance of hard work, sacrifice, hope, and love. I explore how these themes connect to the CASEL SEL competencies and are used within Unit 3 of the 8th grade Emozi® Middle School Socratic Seminar activity.
Esperanza Ortega is a pampered young girl with everything she could ever want until her father is brutally murdered. She and her mother must flee their farm in Mexico to escape her devious uncle. Once settled in their new home, a labor camp on a farm in California, Esperanza struggles to accept her new, hard reality while mourning the loss of her father. When her mother falls ill, Esperanza must become the breadwinner. Through backbreaking work and an uncertain future, Esperanza transforms from a spoiled, pampered child into a caring, compassionate and determined young woman. Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and loosely based on the author's own grandmother's immigration story, Esperanza Rising is a coming-of-age story full of hope, beautiful imagery, and the power of the human spirit. The American Library Association considers it one of the top 10 books for young adults. This book's SEL themes are cultural experience, overcoming challenges, dealing with grief and loss, and the importance of hard work, sacrifice, hope, and love. My fun fact for this novel is that because of the labor shortage caused by WWII, more than 4.5 million Mexican citizens were legally hired to work in the United States. Today, immigrant farmworkers make up an estimated 73% of agricultural workers in the US.
"After their quinceañeras, they would be old enough to be courted, marry and become las patronas, the heads of their households, rising to the positions of their mothers before them."
Mexico is going through a difficult time when it comes to economics. "Change has not come fast enough, Esperanza. The wealthy still own most of the land, while some of the poor have not even a garden plot. There are cattle grazing on the big ranches yet some peasants are forced to eat cats."
Abuelita, Esperanza's grandmother tells her, "There is no rose without thorns," and Esperanza explains that this means that there is "no life without difficulties."
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