Beautiful & Cruel

♥Beautiful & Cruel:
Esperanza, the ugly daughter. So she says. Nobody comes for her. Nenny always says she wont wait her whole life for a husband to come her way. Minerva's sister left her mother's house by having a baby. Nenny doesnt want to go that way either though. Nenny has pretty eyes. Its easy to talk if your pretty says Esperanza. Mopther says when Esperanza gets older that her dusty hair will settle and her blouse will learn to stay clean. She doesnt want to grow up tame like everyone else does.

Bums In The Attic

Bums In The Attic:
Papa at a big house on the hill with a garden. Esperanza wants a house just like it. On Sunadays they would go when it was his day off. Esperanza doesnt go anymore for she is ashamed. All of them staring out the window like the hungry, wanting what the cant have. "When we win the lottery..." Mama says. One day she will have a house of her own and when bums come asking if they could sleep there she will ask them to stay and let them sleep in the attic because she knows what its like not having a home.

Minerva writes poems.

Minerva Writes Poems:
Minerva is a young woman just a little bit older than Esperanza. And already she has two kids. Her husband leaves and comes back. Leaves and comes back. Leaves and comes back. Over and over again. Her mother raised her kids alone and so will Minerva. Her husband keeps leaving and coming back until she says enough is enough. All his item, clothes, shoes, everything is out the window and the doors are locked. The night he comes back he sends a rock through the window then he is sorry and she lets him back. She writes poems and folds them up into small squares and holds them in her hand for a long time. Sometimes she lets Esperanza read her poems and Esperanza lets her read her own poems.

Sally

Sally:
Sally is a girl that everyone thinks is beautiful. With eyes like egypt and nylons the color of smoke. Her hair is black like a ravens feather. Everyone seems to like her. Esperanza wants to be like her. She wants to get shoes and nylons just like Sally.

Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays

Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut & Papaya Juice on Tuesdays:
Rafaela is a woman whose husband always lockher in the house for fearthat if he doesnt she will run away because she was too beautiful to look at. She always sat in the window upstairs withhalf her body hanging out and elbows leaning against the edge, day-dreaming. Sometimes she would ask the children if she gave them a dollar, would they go get her something. She always asked for coconut juice or papaya juice.

Four Skinny Trees & No Speak English

☼Four Skinny Trees:

Esperanza has four skinny tree's outside her bedroom window. The trees are like their own people. Own personal beings. She admires them for the most part and Nenny just sleeps and doesnt appreciate them.

"Their strength is a secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and grow down and grab the earth between thei hairy toes and bite the sky with their violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep.

Let oneforget his reason for being, they'd all droop like tulips ina glass,each with their armsaround the other..."

○No Speak English:

Mamacita, the wife of the man across the street from Esperanza. The man worked from early in the morning to late at night. Everyday. He worked to pay for Mamacita to come to this new country. To the United States. A yellow taxi pulled up in front of the house across the street and the man pulled, the taxi cab driver pushed. Push, Pull, Push, Pull. Until shewasout of the cab. Mamacita and the baby boy had finally arrived. The man carried all her suitcases and things into the house and Mamacita carried the baby boy into the house. After shemoved in, noone seemed toseemuch of her. They say its because she's afraid to speak english, others say its because shes too fat. Others say its becauseshe cant go up and down the stairs. Whatever her reasons were, she wouldntcomedown the stairs. No one saw her. She sits in the windowall day playing the spanish radio and would sing homesicksongs about her homecountry. The man would get angry becauseof how homesick she was.