Esperanza lives in a small house in the poor side of town. This book contains short vinettes from her life as a Latina in a big American city.
I wanted to read this book for several reasons. I had, of course, heard of it and knew it was a multicultural classic, but had never read it. It was also on a list of books on a grant I was considering applying for. The other books on the list seemed super heavy, but this one seemed a little lighter. The thing is, when I went to check it out on Overdrive, they didn't have an audio version in English, only in Spanish. I have studied a little Spanish, and sometimes listen to Spanish blogs, so I thought I would try listening to it in Spanish. As it turned out, I only caught about 1/3 of the words. Some of the stories about words I know I understood pretty well. Other stories were about some word I didn't know, and I got very little of what was happening. I will have to go back some day and read it in English if I really want to find out what happened. That said, trying to understand a book in Spanish, about a Spanish speaker who had to learn English was somehow a meaningful experience and I don't regret the time I spent doing it. (1994, 112 p)
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