Esperanza Rising: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Señor Rodriguez hurries Mama, Hortensia, and Esperanza into a secret compartment in the wagon specially built for them. It is not safe for women to be seen on the road at night because of bandits, and Luis and Marco’s spies could be anywhere—Señor Rodrigez explains that they will need to travel to Zacatecas so that they can safely board a train bound for the border there. Señor Rodriguez wishes them all luck on their journey, and as Esperanza settles in, she can hear the men above dumping guavas onto the floor above them.

As they set out on their journey, Esperanza is nervous, but Hortensia comforts her by reminding her of a night when bandits came to the house to loot it—and Esperanza, Mama, Miguel, and Hortensia all hid under a bed upstairs. When the bandits got to the bedroom, everyone was terrified, but Miguel, who’d caught a field mouse in his pocket, set it loose and spooked the bandits, who soon left. When Papa came back from work and heard about Miguel’s bravery, he offered him anything he wanted as a reward for rescuing Esperanza—and Miguel said he wanted to go on a train ride.

One day, Esperanza and Miguel both got all dressed up, and Papa took them on a train ride to Zacatecas. They sat in compartments with seats of soft black leather and ate delicious food in the fancy dining car. As Esperanza recalls the memory, she wishes that she were once again riding to Zacatecas with Papa—not in an uncomfortable secret compartment covered by guavas.

Two days later, Esperanza, Mama, Hortensia, Alfonso, and Miguel at last arrive in Zacatecas. As Esperanza stretches while waiting for the train, she looks forward to the comfort of a compartment after so many hours in the cramped little wagon. When the train pulls up, though, Esperanza and her mother board alongside Miguel, Alfonso, and Hortensia—onto a train car filled with peasants. Esperanza is horrified and asks Mama why they aren’t traveling in first class. Mama explains that this is all they can afford, and the disgruntled Esperanza takes her seat on an uncomfortable wooden bench.

When Esperanza takes her doll out of her suitcase to play with it, a dirty peasant girl comes up to her and asks to see the doll. Esperanza yanks the doll away and puts it back into her valise, and the little girl starts to cry. Ramona apologizes to the peasant girl’s mother for her own daughter’s “bad manners.” Quietly, Ramona tells Esperanza that when she scorns “these people,” she scorns Miguel, Hortensia, and Alfonso, too. Mama takes out her crocheting bag and makes a yarn doll for the little girl, who accepts the gift happily. At the next stop, when the little girl and her mother get off the train, Esperanza is relieved that she doesn’t have to be “reminded of her own selfishness and Mama’s disapproval for miles to come.”

At each stop the train makes, Miguel and Alfonso hurry off with a mysterious package, and then hurry back on just before the train pulls out of the station. Esperanza asks to know what’s in the package, but Alfonso says she has to wait to see until they arrive in California. Though Esperanza grows more and more irritable with each stop, Miguel enjoys the train journey, and declares his desire to work on the railroad once they get to California. In America, Miguel says, “even the poorest man can become rich if he works hard enough.”

When a woman gets onto the train with a cage full of hens, whose eggs she sells to feed her family, Mama and Hortensia begin talking and gossiping with her, sharing their life stories even though the woman is a complete stranger. The woman says that even though she’s poor, she is “rich” because she has her family, her garden, and “the memories of those who have gone before [her.]” Mama, moved to tears, tells the woman of their family’s recent loss. Esperanza quietly suggests that Mama not “tell a peasant [their] personal business,” but Mama whispers back that “now [they] are peasants, too.” When the woman reaches her stop, she gifts Ramona two of her chickens, wishing her good luck on her new journey. The women embrace like they are old friends while the flabbergasted Esperanza looks on.

After the woman gets off the train, Esperanza watches out the window as she gives some money to a “crippled Indian woman.” Miguel watches too, and remarks that “the rich take care of the rich and the poor take care of those who have less than they have.” He also notes that “Full bellies and Spanish blood go hand in hand”—the fair-skinned people of Spanish descent are often wealthy and privileged, while dark-skinned and indigenous Mexicans have less. Esperanza tells Miguel that’s just “something that old wives say,” but Miguel retorts that it’s “something the poor say.”