88 pgs. 7 female, 7 male +ensemble
Doubling is possible
To be produced in CTC's 2005-2006 season
Audience Recommendation: 8+
Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes with intermission
Sixto, Esperanza's father is a wealthy landowner, respected by the workers on his ranch, Rancho Las Tres Rosas. But that doesn't save him from the anger burning against the upper class in Mexico. When he is killed in a raid by bandits, his land goes to his older brother, Luis, an ambitious banker who immediately makes it clear that Esperanza and Ramona, her mother, will be allowed to stay in their home only if Ramona consents to marry him. Mother and daughter formulate a plan to escape. Ramona tells Luis that she must spend one year in a convent before she can consider marriage. This will buy them some time, and meanwhile Esperanza will cross the border with two family servants, Hortensia and her son, Miguel. Esperanza enters her new life with no luxuries from her past - except her beautiful doll.
In California the immigrants find a place with relatives where they can live and work in a migrant labor camp, picking whatever fruit is in season. Esperanza is miserable. The conditions are barely livable. She has none of the skills she needs. However, Isabel, a young cousin of Miguel’s, teaches her to care for the babies whose parents are harvesting in the fields, and gradually she learns to cope. In fact, she finds a way to earn a bit of money and collects it, hidden away in her doll case, hoping to bring her mother into the country. Nothing comes easily in this place. Marta, a young Chicana organizer, is working for better conditions and urges a strike, but strikes are broken by poor whites, “okies,” traveling across country in order to survive. Even Esperanza’s precious money is stolen.
In the end, though, Esperanza thrives. She gives her doll to Isabel because it is whatshe has to comfort a friend, and her mother joins her in California. The roses, which Miguel has carefully smuggled from their home, flourish, and so will Esperanza.
“Lynne Alvarez’s adaptation of Pam Munoz Ryan’s award-winning book is compelling and colorful.” –St. Paul Pioneer Press
