Quote 1
I am tired of looking at what we can't have. When we win the lottery…Mama begins, and then I stop listening. (34.1)
Esperanza becomes disillusioned with her parents' dreams of affording a big, beautiful house. It seems she may suspect it will never happen.
Quote 2
I could've been somebody, you know? Esperanza, you go to school. Study hard. That Madame Butterfly was a fool. (36.3)
In the opera Madame Butterfly, the title character gives up her culture, religion, and family to marry a man who later abandons her. This statement by Esperanza's mother is a warning to her daughter not to be so foolish as to pin all her hopes for the future on a man.
Quote 3
Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Está muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don't know what to do. (22.1)
The use of Spanish in this scene creates a feeling of intimacy and reminds us of Esperanza's family heritage. It's unclear whether Esperanza's Papa speaks Spanish to her here because he's talking about his family in Mexico, or whether they speak Spanish at home more frequently.