| About the Book
Esperanza's story takes place after World War I during the early days of the Depression in downtown San Jose, California. Although Esperanza encounters many difficulties, like falling out of her sister's grocery wagon, losing her undergarments during the school May Day Dance, trying to find a sippity wee and a rowkey rowkey, and losing her brother to the gypsy fortune-tellers, she always emerges undefeated. Esperanza never loses sight of her desire to make everyone proud of her. She never forgets who she is and where her Spanish roots began. Esperanza makes this world a more beautiful place in which to live.
"The Esperanza stories also began as way of telling my grandchildren about my mother's life and the confusion she sometimes encountered trying to integrate the many languages and cultures to which she had been exposed. Writing about Esperanza has been both cathartic and uplifting for me. And I know that my mother would have loved the fact that her story is available to children everywhere. "
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