Review and Resources

Quiz

1. Who makes Esperanza feel ashamed of her previous house by making her point it out while she is playing in the street?

A. Cathy
B. A marshmallow salesman
C. A priest
D. A nun

2. Who pushes Esperanza into the water in front of a fire hydrant?

A. Kiki and Carlos
B. Darius
C. Sire
D. Tito

3. Who does Esperanza decide to let live in the attic of her dream house?

A. Bums
B. A cat
C. Her little sister, Nenny
D. Her friend Minerva

4. When Esperanza talks about clouds and hips with her friends, how does she describe them?

A. Metaphorically
B. With respect to her everyday life
C. Scientifically
D. With the names of people on her block

5. What do Esperanza and her friends do to imitate grown-ups?

A. Put on makeup
B. Wear high-heeled shoes
C. Smoke cigarettes
D. Dye their hair

6. Which one of these women does NOT spend her days sitting by the window?

A. Esperanza’s great-grandmother
B. Esperanza’s mother
C. Rafaela
D. Mamacita

7. Who is the first person to whom Esperanza recites one of her poems?

A. Her mother
B. Her Aunt Lupe
C. Ruthie
D. Lucy, Rachel, and Nenny

8. What is Esperanza’s first job?

A. Working in a store
B. Helping Marin sell cosmetics
C. Shelving books at the local library
D. Sorting negatives at a photofinisher

9. Where is Esperanza’s father from?

A. Mexico
B. The Dominican Republic
C. Puerto Rico
D. Spain

10. What does Esperanza’s name mean in Spanish?

A. “Wisdom”
B. “Horse”
C. “Hope”
D. “Serenity”

11. Why did Esperanza’s mother drop out of school?

A. She got married
B. She had a job
C. She had to move to America
D. She was ashamed of her clothes

12. What do the three sisters tell Esperanza at the wake?

A. That she should leave Mango Street as soon as she can
B. That she must come back for the others after she’s left Mango Street
C. That she will never leave Mango Street
D. That she has a home in the heart

13. Which of Esperanza’s friends also writes poetry?

A. Alicia
B. Minerva
C. Marin
D. Ruthie

14. Where is Esperanza when a group of boys sexually assaults her?

A. In the Monkey Garden
B. At a carnival
C. On Mango Street
D. At work

15. Which character does not speak English?

A. Esperanza’s father
B. Marin
C. Mamacita
D. Tito

16. Who is the object of Esperanza’s first crush?

A. Sire
B. Tito
C. Darius
D. Geraldo

17. Why does Cathy agree to be Esperanza’s friend only until Tuesday?

A. She has too many cats
B. Esperanza decides to buy a bike with Lucy and Rachel
C. Her family is moving out of the neighborhood
D. She has to go back to France

18. In what way is Nenny similar to Esperanza?

A. They have the same hair
B. They make up similar jump-rope rhymes
C. They both want to eat at the canteen at school
D. They have the same sense of humor

19. Which of the following is NOT a reason that hips are useful, according to Esperanza, Rachel, and Lucy?

A. They are good for dancing
B. They are useful for propping up a baby while cooking
C. They attract boys
D. They differentiate the male skeleton from the female one

20. How does Esperanza decide to defy social conventions at home?

A. She doesn’t do her dishes
B. She refuses to baby-sit her sister, Nenny
C. She refuses to pick up garbage
D. She goes out with Sire against her parents’ wishes

21. With what object or objects in the neighborhood does Esperanza identify most closely?

A. Her house
B. The huge tree in Meme Ortiz’s backyard
C. The four trees in her front yard
D. The abandoned car in the Monkey Garden

22. What does Nenny want to buy in Gil’s junk shop?

A. A music box
B. A little Statue of Liberty
C. A refrigerator
D. High-heeled shoes

23. What does Esperanza yearn for above all else?

A. A new name
B. A home of her own
C. To become a famous writer
D. To leave Mango Street

24. Which of Esperanza’s friends attends college?

A. Minerva
B. Alicia
C. Sally
D. Cathy

25. Why doesn’t Esperanza want to dance at her cousin’s baptismal party?

A. She doesn’t have hips
B. She thinks her dress is ugly
C. Nobody asks her to dance
D. She is wearing her old school shoes

Answer Key

1: D; 2: D; 3: A; 4: C; 5: B; 6: B; 7: A; 8: D; 9: A; 10: C; 11: D; 12: B; 13: B; 14: B; 15: C; 16: A; 17: C; 18: D; 19: C; 20: A; 21: C; 22: A; 23: B; 24: B; 25: D

Suggestions for Further Reading

Binder, Wolfgang, ed. Partial Autobiographies: Interviews with Twenty Chicano Poets. Erlangen, Germany: Verlag, Palm & Enke, 1985.

Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, ed. Women of Color: Mother-Daughter Relationships in Twentieth-Century Literature. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996.

Kelley, Margot. “A Minor Revolution: Chicano/a Composite Novels and the Limits of Genre.” In Ethnicity and the American Short Story, edited by William E. Cain and Julia Brown. New York: Garland, 1997.

Kuribayashi, Tomoko and Julie Tharp, eds. Creating Safe Space: Violence and Women’s Writing. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Madsen, Deborah L. Understanding Contemporary Chicana Literature. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

Quintana, Alvina E., Home Girls: Chicana Literary Voices. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.

Saldívar-Hull, Sonia. Feminism on the Border: Chicana Gender Politics and Literature. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.