Part 5
Esperanza is truly a worker now, laboring in the packing shed and the fields beside the others. Then the weather turns: a towering dust storm sweeps across the valley, and everyone races indoors as the air fills with choking grit that seeps through every crack. When it finally passes, the world is buried in fine dust — and worse, Mama begins to cough and cannot stop. She has Valley Fever, a sickness caused by dust that settles deep in the lungs, and she grows so ill that she must be taken to a hospital far away, where she will lie for months, weak and in danger. Esperanza is terrified — she has already lost Papa, and now she may lose Mama too. But grief turns to resolve. To pay the hospital bills and to save enough to bring Abuelita north — for Esperanza is sure that her grandmother’s presence will help Mama heal — she throws herself into work, cutting the ‘eyes’ from seed potatoes in the shed and taking every job she can. Isabel and Josefina help with the twins; Miguel and his family stand by her. Slowly, coin by coin, the once-pampered girl becomes the one who holds her family together — still frightened, but no longer helpless.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Illness words: dust storm, fever, hospital, recover, resolve… |
| Literary Elements | The storm as a turn, Esperanza’s new strength, and rising stakes |
| Cross-Curricular | Valley Fever: when dust settles in the lungs |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Las Ciruelas | The Plums — Esperanza works in shed and field until a huge dust storm buries the valley; when it clears, Mama begins to cough and cannot stop. |
| Las Papas | The Potatoes — Mama has Valley Fever and is hospitalized for months; terrified but resolved, Esperanza cuts potato eyes and works to pay the bills and save for Abuelita. |
Pam Muñoz Ryan gives Las Ciruelas & Las Papas a distinct verbal field, summarized by the heading “Words of Storm and Sickness.” Here fever is a noun naming a sickness marked by a high body heat; the accompanying context makes that sense visible: Mama’s fever would not break for days. Here hospital is a noun naming a place where the sick are treated; the accompanying context makes that sense visible: Mama was taken to a hospital far away. Here recover is a verb naming to get well again after illness; the accompanying context makes that sense visible: It would take months for Mama to recover. Here resolve is a noun naming firm determination to do something; the accompanying context makes that sense visible: Fear hardened into resolve as Esperanza worked. These definitions make the part’s setbacks and renewed effort readable as changing connotation.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
Part 5 raises a specific threat, answers it through character action, and leaves an altered aftermath. Esperanza is truly a worker now, laboring in the packing shed and the fields beside the others. Then the weather turns: a towering dust storm sweeps across the valley, and everyone races indoors as the air fills with choking grit that seeps through every crack. When it finally passes, the world is buried in fine dust — and worse, Mama begins to cough and cannot stop. She has Valley Fever, a sickness caused by dust that settles deep in the lungs, and she grows so ill that she must be taken to a hospital far away, where she will lie for months, weak and in danger. That progression explains how “Storm, Sickness, and Resolve” produces lasting consequence.
- Mama is taken to a distant hospital with Valley Fever.
- The family shelters as dust fills the air.
- Esperanza works to pay the bills and save for Abuelita.
- Mama begins to cough and cannot stop.
- A huge dust storm sweeps across the valley.
Part 5 layers point, stakes, and symbol so that an ordinary detail carries later significance. The dust storm is the second great hinge of the novel — the fire’s echo. Like the fire in Part 2, it is a physical event that forces a life-changing one: the fire made Esperanza a refugee; the storm makes her, in effect, the head of her family. Notice how Ryan uses weather as fate. In a story about people bound to the land, it is fitting that the land itself — its dust, its seasons — keeps deciding the family’s course. Watch how the plot keeps rhyming: loss, then a rise to meet it. Each valley in the blanket’s zigzag is answered by a climb, and here Esperanza begins the hardest climb yet. That authorial design makes “The Storm as a Turn” a lesson in deliberate irony.
The stakes of Part 5 widen when its choices are examined through dust, that, and reaches. The illness that strikes Mama is real, and it is native to exactly the place the family landed. Valley Fever comes from a fungus that lives in the dry soil of the American Southwest and California’s Central Valley. When the ground is disturbed — by plowing, by construction, and above all by dust storms — the spores lift into the air, and anyone who breathes them in can fall ill. Most people recover, but some, like Mama, develop a serious lung sickness that can take months to heal or turn deadly. In the dusty, wind-blown camps of the 1930s, farm workers were especially exposed. This context turns Part 5 from a private adventure into a broader question of systems.
Think back over these chapters. The sky in the west turns a strange brown, then swallows the sun, and everyone runs for the cabins as the air itself turns to grit that finds every crack. When it clears, the valley is buried — and a mother’s cough will not stop. A long ride to a hospital, a bed far away, months of not knowing. And a girl who once could not hold a broom now bends over a table of seed potatoes late into the night, cutting eye after eye, hiding coin after coin, because the only thing worse than being afraid is doing nothing while someone you love lies sick.
The sickness that nearly takes Mama has a real name: Valley Fever. It is caused not by a virus you catch from another person, but by a tiny fungus that lives in the dry soil of the American Southwest and California’s Central Valley. The fungus makes microscopic spores, and when the ground is disturbed — by digging, by plowing, and above all by dust storms — those spores rise into the air. A person who breathes them in can become infected. Many people who catch Valley Fever have only mild symptoms, or none at all. But some develop a serious lung illness, with fever, weakness, and a deep cough that can drag on for months, exactly as Mama’s does.
Farm workers in the 1930s were especially at risk. They lived and labored out in the open, close to freshly turned soil, in a region where the fungus was common and dust storms were frequent. There was no simple cure; the sick could only rest, wait, and hope their bodies would win. For a poor family, such an illness was a double blow: it threatened a loved one’s life AND swallowed money in hospital bills while taking a worker out of the fields. Understanding Valley Fever helps explain why a single dust storm could change everything for Esperanza’s family — the same wind that buried the crops could also carry a sickness deep into a mother’s lungs.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 5 “Fear Into Resolve”
When Mama falls ill, Esperanza is terrified — but instead of giving up, she turns her fear into hard work. Write about a time you felt afraid but chose to act anyway. What were you afraid of, what did you do, and what happened? 6–10 sentences. End with what you learned about facing fear.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 5 Complete!
You finished Las Ciruelas & Las Papas of Esperanza Rising.
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Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Pam Muñoz Ryan’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.