- Eskimos have thirty different names for snow - read Esperanza in a book.
- There aren't thirty different kinds of snow, Lucy says - just two: clean and dirty.
- Clouds have ten different names, said Esperanza. Such as: Cumulus an Nimbus.
- Fight erupts between Esperanza and Rachel. Dialogue between them: "Looks like your fat face. Whose fat face? Esperanza's fat face, that's who. Looks like Esperanza's ugly face when she comes to school in the morning. Who you calling ugly, ugly? Not you. Your mama, that's who."
- Family that was little - arms, hands, height, and feel all little.
- Esperanza and the girls get a bag of shoes from the "family of little feet".
- Rachel learns to walk in high heels.
- We walk to the corner store and the men can't take their eyes off of us (Lucy, Rachel, and Esperanza).
- "We must be Christmas."
- Mr. Benny at the corner grocery puts down his cigar and asks, "Your mother know you got shoes like that?"
- Mr. Benny tells them to take the shoes off because: "Them are dangerous, he says."
- Bum talks to Rachel and she tells him her name.
- He wants a kiss from her and will pay a $1 for it.
- When they get home they hide the shoes and when Lucy's mom finds them, she throws them away.
- Kids with keys around their neck go to the canteen to eat (their mothers aren't home or home is too far for them to go for lunch).
- Esperanza asks her mom to write a note to the principal because she wants to eat in the canteen.
- Esperanza's siblings want to eat home, but she wants to eat at the canteen.
- After three days of begging Esperanza's mom agrees to bag her lunch.
- She will go to school with a rice sandwich.
- There is a letter for the Sister Superior saying Esperanza lives too far and is very skinny - the mother hopes "to God she does not faint" ~ signed Mrs. E. Cordero
- The nun knew she actually didn't live far.
- Esperanza cries.
- Canteen wasn't special and everyone watched as she cried and "ate my sandwich, the bread already greasy and the rice cold."
- Mama buys Esperanza new clothes - socks, slip, and a dress, but she forgets the shoes. Everything new, but has to wear old saddle shoes she wears to school.
- 6:30 and her little cousin's baptism is over.
- Uncle Nacho is coming in his car to bring us to Precious Blood Church because that's where the baptism party is.
- Mama dances, laughs, and dances. All of a sudden she is sick - I think too many tamales, but Uncle Nacho says too many drinks (shows this by tilting his thumb to his lips).
- Esperanza doesn't dance because of her shoes. Her feet keep "growing bigger and bigger."
- Uncle Nacho says she is the pretties girl there and so Esperanza, although at first doesn't want to, does dance with him.
- As she dances, she forgets about her shoes.
- At the end, everyone claps for Esperanza and Uncle Nacho and Mrs. Cordero is proud of her daughter.
- They are playing jump rope.
- Discussion about signs of maturity.
- One day you wake up and they are there - hips!
- They're good for holding a baby as you cook.
- You need them to dance, says Lucy.
- Nenny believes if you don't get them, then you'll turn into a man.
- Hips are scientific, Esperanza says repeating what Alicia already told me - it's the bones that let you know which skeleton was a man's and which a woman's.
- Hips just open - one day you might decide to have kids.
- But don't have too many kids or your behind will spread.
- You have to practice to walk with hips.
- Esperanza wanted a job.
- She went to the social security office the month before to get her number.
- She needed money because Catholic high school was expensive.
- Aunt Lala found a job for Esperanza - Peter Pan Photo finishers on North Broadway.
- Aunt Lala said Esperanza was one year older than she really was and she would start the next day.
- In her job, she wore white gloves.
- She needed to match prints with their negatives - a real easy job.
- During lunch, she ate in the washroom because she was scared to eat in the company lunchroom.
- During break, she went to the coatroom because there was a bench there.
- Shifts must have been changing because some people punched in.
- An older Oriental man said hello and was friendly to Esperanza.
- He asked if I knew what day it was - it was his birthday and he asked her for a birthday kiss.
- She was going to kiss him on the cheek to be nice, but he grabbed her face with both hands and kissed her hard on the mouth and didn't let go.
