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1 12345678910112131415161718192022223 Our land is alive, Esperanza, said Papa, tak-ing her small hand as they walked throughthe gentle slopes of the vineyard. Leafygreen vines draped the arbors and the grapes wereready to drop. Esperanza was six years old andloved to walk with her papa through the windingrows, gazing up at him and watching his eyesdance with love for the land. This whole valley breathes and lives, he said,sweeping his arm toward the distant mountainsthat guarded them. It gives us the grapes and thenthey welcome us. He gently touched a wild ten-dril that reached into the row, as if it had beenwaiting to shake his hand. He picked up a hand fulof earth and studied it. Did you know that whenyou lie down on the land, you can feel it breathe?That you can feel its heart beating? Papi, I want to feel it, she said. Come. They walked to the end of the row,1 AGUASCALIENTES, 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 1where the incline of the land formed a lay down on his stomach and looked up ather, patting the ground next to him.

2 Esperanza smoothed her dress and knelt , like a caterpillar, she slowly inched flatnext to him, their faces looking at each other. Thewarm sun pressed on one of Esperanza s cheeksand the warm earth on the giggled. Shhh, he said. You can only feel the earth sheartbeat when you are still and quiet. She swallowed her laughter and after a mo-ment said, I can t hear it, Papi. Agu ntate tantito y la fruta caer en tu mano, he said. Wait a little while and the fruit will fall intoyour hand. You must be patient, Esperanza. She waited and lay silent, watching Papa s then she felt it. Softly at first. A gentlethumping. Then stronger. A resounding thud, thud,thud against her could hear it, too. The beat rushing in herears. Shoomp, shoomp, 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 2 She stared at Papa, not wanting to say a wanting to lose the sound. Not wanting to for -get the feel of the heart of the pressed closer to the ground, until her bodywas breathing with the earth s.

3 And with Papa three hearts beating smiled at Papa, not needing to talk, her eyessaying every his smile answered hers. Telling her thathe knew she had felt 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 3 LAS UVASGRAPESsix years later4 Papa handed Esperanza the knife. The shortblade was curved like a scythe, its fat woodenhandle fitting snugly in her palm. Thisjob was usually reserved for the eldest son of awealthy rancher, but since Esperanza was an onlychild and Papa s pride and glory, she was alwaysgiven the honor. Last night she had watched Papasharpen the knife back and forth across a stone, soshe knew the tool was edged like a razor. Cu date los dedos, said Papa. Watch your fin-gers. The August sun promised a dry afternoon inAguascalientes, Mexico. Everyone who lived andworked on El Rancho de las Rosas was gathered atthe edge of the field: Esperanza s family, the houseservants in their long white aprons, the vaquerosalready sitting on their horses ready to ride outto the cattle, and fifty or sixty campesinos,strawhats in their hands, holding their own 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 4ready.

4 They were covered top to bottom, in long-sleeved shirts, baggy pants tied at the ankles withstring, and bandanas wrapped around their fore-heads and necks to protect them from the sun,dust, and spiders. Esperanza, on the other hand,wore a light silk dress that stopped above hersummer boots, and no hat. On top of her head awide satin ribbon was tied in a big bow, the tailstrailing in her long black clusters were heavy on the vine and readyto deliver. Esperanza s parents, Ramona and SixtoOrtega, stood nearby, Mama, tall and elegant,her hair in the usual braided wreath that crownedher head, and Papa, barely taller than Mama, hisgraying mus tache twisted up at the sides. Heswept his hand toward the grapevines, signalingEsperanza. When she walked toward the arborsand glanced back at her parents, they both smiledand nodded, encouraging her forward. When shereached the vines, she separated the leaves andcarefully grasped a thick stem.

5 She put the knife toit, and with a quick swipe, the heavy cluster ofgrapes dropped into her waiting hand. 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 5walked back to Papa and handed him the kissed it and held it up for all to see. La cosecha! said Papa. Harvest! Ole! Ole! A cheer echoed around campesinos,the field-workers, spread outover the land and began the task of reaping thefields. Esperanza stood between Mama and Papa,with her arms linked to theirs, and admired theactivity of the workers. Papi, this is my favorite time of year, shesaid, watching the brightly colored shirts of theworkers slowly moving among the arbors. Wag-ons rattled back and forth from the fields to thebig barns where the grapes would be stored untilthey went to the winery. Is the reason because when the picking is done,it will be someone s birthday and time for a bigfiesta? Papa smiled.

6 When the grapes deliveredtheir harvest, she always turned another year, she would be thirteen. The pickingwould take three weeks and then, like every 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 6year, Mama and Papa would host a fiestafor theharvest. And for her Rodr guez, her best friend, would comewith her family to celebrate. Her father was afruit rancher and they lived on the neighbor -ing property. Even though their houses were acresapart, they met every Saturday beneath the holmoak on a rise between the two ranches. Her otherfriends, Chita and Bertina, would be at the party,too, but they lived farther away and Esperanzadidn t see them as often. Their classes at St. Fran-cis didn t start again until after the harvest andshe couldn t wait to see them. When they wereall together, they talked about one thing: theirQuincea eras,the presentation parties they wouldhave when they turned fifteen.

7 They still had twomore years to wait, but so much to discuss thebeautiful white gowns they would wear, the bigcelebrations where they would be presented, andthe sons of the richest families who would dancewith them. After their Quincea eras,they would beold enough to be courted, marry, and become 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 7patronas,the heads of their households, rising tothe positions of their mothers before them. Esper-anza preferred to think, though, that she and hersomeday-husband would live with Mama andPapa forever. Because she couldn t imagine livinganywhere other than El Rancho de las Rosas. Orwith any fewer servants. Or withoutbeing sur-rounded by the people who adored her.<It had taken every day of three weeks to put theharvest to bed and now everyone anticipated thecelebration. Esperanza remembered Mama s instruc-tions as she gathered roses from Papa s garden. Tomorrow, bouquets of roses and baskets ofgrapes on every table.

8 Papa had promised to meet her in the gardenand he never disappointed her. She bent over topick a red bloom, fully opened, and pricked herfinger on a vicious thorn. Big pearls of blood pulsedfrom the tip of her thumb and she automaticallythought, bad luck. She quickly wrapped herhand in the corner of her apron and 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 8the premonition. Then she cautiously clipped theblown rose that had wounded her. Looking towardthe horizon, she saw the last of the sun disappearbehind the Sierra Madre. Darkness would settlequickly and a feeling of uneasiness and worrynagged at was Papa? He had left early that morn-ing with the vaquerosto work the cattle. And hewas always home before sundown, dusty from themesquite grasslands and stamping his feet on thepatio to get rid of the crusty dirt on his he even brought beef jerky that thecattlemen had made, but Esperanza always had tofind it first, searching his shirt pockets while hehugged was her birthday and she knew thatshe would be serenaded at sunrise.

9 Papa and themen who lived on the ranch would congregate be-low her window, their rich, sweet voices singingLas Ma anitas,the birthday song. She would run toher window and wave kisses to Papa and the oth-ers, then downstairs she would open her knew there would be a porcelain doll 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 9 Papa. He had given her one every year since shewas born. And Mama would give her somethingshe had made: linens, camisoles or blouses embroi-dered with her beautiful needlework. The linensalways went into the trunk at the end of her bedfor alg n d a,for s thumb would not stop picked up the basket of roses and hurried fromthe garden, stopping on the patio to rinse her handin the stone fountain. As the water soothed her,she looked through the massive wooden gates thatopened onto thousands of acres of Papa s land. Esperanza strained her eyes to see a dust cloudthat meant riders were near and that Papa wasfinally home.

10 But she saw nothing. In the duskylight, she walked around the courtyard to theback of the large adobe and wood house. There shefound Mama searching the horizon, too. Mama, my finger. An angry thorn stabbed me, said Esperanza. Bad luck, said Mama, confirming the super-stition, but she half-smiled. They both knew 11/12/14 4:09 PM Page 10bad luck could mean nothing more than droppinga pan of water or breaking an put her arms around Esperanza s waistand both sets of eyes swept over the corrals, sta-bles, and servants quarters that sprawled in thedistance. Esperanza was almost as tall as Mamaand everyone said she would someday look justlike her beautiful mother. Sometimes, when Es -peranza twisted her hair on top of her head andlooked in the mirror, she could see that it was al-most true. There was the same black hair, wavyand thick. Same dark lashes and fair, creamy it wasn t precisely Mama s face, becausePapa s eyes were there too, shaped like fat, brownalmonds.