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Q: The girls and women in Esperanza Rising are strong-minded and vibrant, and their bonds are the

threads that bind the story. How does this reflect your own experiences? What women — personally or

historically — have inspired you the most?
A: It is easy to see how my family, especially my grandmother, influenced my writing. I come from a very

matriarchal family with my grandmother at the helm. Esperanza Rising is based on her immigration story.

Perhaps the recurring theme of feminist determination had its impetus in my family history because I do

seem interested in stories where the character succeeds despite circumstances that society stacked against
her. The quirky, preoccupied Rosa Maria in my picture book Mice and Beans is also based on my

grandmother. Ironically, Joe Cepeda agreed to illustrate the book because he thought the grandmother in

the story was so much like his mother. Certainly not all Mexican grandmothers are like this character, but
I think there is a certain Hispanic verity that is captured within these stories — an adoration of children,

big family celebrations, proverbs to live by, and of course, food. The women who have inspired me are

the ones about whom I have written: Charlotte Parkhurst, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, and my own
grandmother.

Q: Why did you name the chapters in Esperanza Rising after fruits and vegetables?
A: That wasn’t something that came about early in the planning of the book. It came about later. I started

to feel that Esperanza’s life was taking on the rhythm of the harvest, so I called my editor and said, “What

if I named the chapters after the harvest that she’s experiencing in each chapter?” She said I should give it

a try, and it worked. Then I went back and reworked the chapters a little to pull that thread a little tighter
and to make those chapter headings more symbolic.

Q: How did you learn about life in the company camps? Did it require a lot of research?

A: I learned about the camps from my grandmother when she was alive. But I began this book many years

after she died, so of course when I started writing, I had many detailed questions to which I needed

answers. Did they have electricity in the cabins? Were the cabins wood and plaster or just wood walls?
Did they use gas stoves or wood stoves? How many rooms did the cabins have? Did people plant

gardens? Did they go to town for church or did a priest come to the camp? What did they do for

entertainment? How did people feel about striking? And on and on. After many phone calls, I found Jess
Marquez who moved to the camp when he was eleven years old. He lived there for five years and

actually remembered my grandmother and her family. Several members of my family had worked in the

sheds so that’s how I got that information, and one of my aunts told me about potato eyes because she had

cut potato eyes for several years. When I came home to Bakersfield while I was working on the book, my
dad drove me out to the actual site of the sheds and the railroad tracks. I didn’t have to research the land

or the area because I grew up there and we went to Lamont and Arvin almost every Saturday during my