Esperanza Rising: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

When Esperanza wakes up the next morning, she thinks she can hear Papa and the others singing to her—but as she rises up out of her dreams, she realizes that she is alone in her parents’ bed, and recalls the horrible events of the previous evening. After Alfonso returned home with Papa’s body, he told Esperanza and Mama that Papa and his vaqueros had been ambushed by bandits, who’d killed them and stolen their boots, saddles, and horses.

Esperanza wraps a shawl around her shoulders and goes downstairs to find the house totally empty. There is a knock on the front door—it is Señor Rodriguez, Marisol’s father and a rancher on a neighboring piece of land. When Esperanza opens the door for him, he happily explains that Papa has ordered some papayas from his farm for the fiesta today. Esperanza breaks down in tears as she tells Señor Rodriguez—one of Papa’s oldest friends—that her father is dead. Hortensia appears and puts her arms around Esperanza, comforting her as she sobs.

Papa’s funeral masses last for three full days, and the ranch is full of people who have come from far and wide to pay their respects. Each night, however, the house empties, and Esperanza, Mama, and Abuelita are left alone to comfort one another through their lonely tears. One morning, Mama urges Esperanza to open her birthday gifts. Though Esperanza receives many beautiful things, the only gift she has any interest in is Papa’s—a porcelain doll in a fine white lace dress.

In the days after the funeral, Marco and Luis come by the house every day to hole up in Papa’s study and “take care of the family business.” One day, a lawyer comes by to settle Papa’s estate. Esperanza cannot keep up with all the talk of loans, property, and investments, and as her mind and eyes wander, she sees that Tío Luis is wearing Papa’s belt buckle. Esperanza begins crying angry tears, sensing that something is terribly wrong.

The lawyer informs Ramona that though Sixto left the house and the yearly income from the grapes to her and Esperanza, the land—not usually left behind to women—has been given to Luis, the banker on Sixto’s loans. Luis slides a piece of paper across the desk and offers to purchase the ranch house for Ramona. When she looks at the amount he has offered her, Ramona scoffs—she knows the house is worth twenty times his offer. Luis admits that he predicted Ramona would say no, and now offers her a “solution” to her situation: he proposes that the two of them get married. Luis tells Ramona that together they could be a “very powerful couple”—he has been thinking of campaigning for governor.

After a pause, Mama says that she is offended by Luis’s offer, and Luis’s face “harden[s.]” He tells Ramona that she will regret her decision—her house is now on his property, and he “can make things difficult” for her and Esperanza. After Luis and Marco leave, the lawyer advises Ramona to be careful—Luis is a “devious, dangerous man.” Ramona, however, tells the lawyer to deliver a message to Luis: that she will “never, ever” change her mind about marrying him.

That evening, Mama, Abuelita, Esperanza, Hortensia, and Alfonso discuss what they should do. Abuelita has money in the bank—though Luis would probably prevent her from taking it out. Esperanza suggests they borrow money from their friends the Rodriguezes, but Alfonso warns her that Luis and Marco are “powerful and corrupt,” and will make things “difficult” for anyone in the community who tries to help the Ortegas. As the conversation goes around “in circles,” Esperanza goes out to the rose garden to be alone.

After a little while, Miguel comes outside to sit with her. It is the first time they’ve been alone or even talked since Papa’s death. Miguel points out which roses belong to Esperanza, and which ones belong to him—when they were little, Papa planted special variations for each of them that have now grown into large, tangled bushes.

Miguel confides in Esperanza that he and his family are thinking of leaving for the United States to work—there is no room for social advancement in Mexico, and even if Alfonso and Hortensia did try to make a life for themselves on the small piece of land Sixto gave them, Luis would simply take it away. Miguel takes Esperanza’s hand and tells her how sorry he is for her loss, but the embarrassed Esperanza pulls her hand away. As Miguel stands up to leave, he tells her that she was right all along—here in Mexico, they will always “stand on different sides of the river.”

Esperanza goes up to her room, dresses for bed, and looks out her window at the valley below. She whispers to herself that no matter how bad things get, she “won’t ever leave” the ranch. As a breeze lifts a “familiar, pungent smell” onto the wind, she looks down into the courtyard and spots the box Señor Rodriguez delivered on the day of Papa’s death—the papayas inside are now overripe and rotting.