The Bean Trees: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Near the New Mexico border, Taylor, Turtle, Estevan and Esperanza are stopped at an immigration check point. Mattie knew this might happen, so she had Estevan and Esperanza dress in bright colors and stereotypically American fashions, as well as leaving Esperanza’s hair down and free instead of braided. Taylor is nervous, but tries not to show it as she shows her ID to the officer at the checkpoint. The officer asks Taylor who Turtle’s parents are, and Taylor hesitates so Estevan jumps in and says that Turtle is his daughter. Taylor is upset by this, but acknowledges that it was the most logical answer.

Taylor stops for lunch at Texas Canyon, a rock formation that she and Turtle had loved when they first came to Arizona. The rocks are stark, and Estevan comments that this is what the earth would have looked like if God had stopped creation early. They keep driving straight through the first night, planning to reach Oklahoma on the second night.

Taylor and Estevan talk as Taylor drives. Estevan tells Taylor about the quetzal bird that is the symbol of the Guatemalan Indians. Taylor feels as though she is driving home to Kentucky, and asks Estevan if he misses his home and his language. Estevan reveals that even Guatemala City was not his first home, and Spanish was not his first language.

Taylor learns that Estevan and Esperanza actually speak dialects of Mayan, and that they chose the Spanish names “Estevan” and “Esperanza” only when they came to Guatemala City. Taylor tells them how she, too, chose a new name when she moved to Arizona.

As they continue talking, Taylor describes how her father abandoned her mother before she was born. Estevan tells Taylor that Esperanza also grew up without a father. Meanwhile, in the backseat, Esperanza sings traditional Mayan songs to Turtle until Turtle falls asleep on her lap.

Taylor realizes that her picture of Guatemala as an endless exotic jungle is not the full story of the place and does not capture the hardships that the Guatemalan people face. She wonders aloud why everyone always tries to remove Indians from their own lands, and Estevan sighs that he hates how he never feels like he belongs anywhere. Thinking of the plight of her own Cherokee great-grandfather, Taylor tells Estevan that it is wrong to call any person “illegal.”

The second night on the road, Taylor reaches the Broken Arrow motel where she worked during the month that she first found Turtle. The old woman who owned the hotel, Mrs. Hoge, has died and her daughter-in-law Irene lost hundreds of pounds to take on the business and get ready to have a baby of her own. After dinner, Irene tells Taylor that Mrs. Hoge wasn’t exactly kind, but she still misses the old woman.

The next morning, Estevan and Esperanza stay with Taylor as she searches for Turtle’s family, instead of going straight to the new safe house. As she searches, Taylor notes that Estevan and Esperanza look like the local Native Americans here. Estevan comments that Cherokee and Mayan people do look different, but that white people certainly can’t tell. Taylor glances in the rearview mirror and thinks that Esperanza and Turtle look perfect as mother and child.

Estevan goes over the back story he has invented for “Steven and Hope” as Americans, but he still needs a new last name. Taylor suggests the “family name” Two-Two, after the mechanic who fixed her car in Oklahoma. The little group finally reaches the bar where Taylor found Turtle. Estevan and Esperanza, as well as Turtle, give Taylor a hug for luck, and Taylor goes into the bar alone.

The bar has gotten significantly cleaner and nicer since Taylor was last there, and she discovers that the place has changed hands and no one who works there knows anything about the two men who were in the bar that night. Taylor decides to bring Estevan, Esperanza, and Turtle in for lunch while she thinks about what to do next.

As Taylor pays, she asks the waitress about Bob Two Two the mechanic, and learns that he moved to Oklahoma City. The waitress also tells Taylor that this bar isn’t actually Cherokee nation land. She shows Taylor postcards of lakes in the Cherokee nation, which Taylor finds beautiful, and tells Taylor that the Cherokee nation is less a place than a people.

Totally unsure about what to do next, Taylor decides to go to Lake of the Cherokees and Estevan and Esperanza agree to accompany her again instead of going to the sanctuary house. Taylor calls it a vacation, the first vacation that any of them have ever had.