This novel explores the theme of language as power. Firstly, mastering the English language grants Esperanza power that her parents do not have. The vignette “No Speak English” captures the way people in her community suffer from not speaking English fluently. Her father spent a long time eating one type of food because he could only say “hamandeggs,” and her neighbor Mamacita feels despair as her baby learns to speak English instead of Spanish.

As an American child with an American education, Esperanza is automatically afforded opportunities that her parents can’t access. She struggles to assimilate into upper class American culture, so reading and writing in English becomes her primary means of managing that struggle. She dreams of escaping poverty with her writing, again emphasizing the importance of language. Through her writing, she can explore what it means to come from two places at once; to carry a Mexican identity simultaneously with an American identity. For example, she discusses the differences between her name in Spanish and English: “In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters” (10). The English language gives Esperanza a means to communicate and form an identity independent of her family history.