A Smart Cookie

Esperanzas mom always tells her I could've been somebody, you know? Her mom can do many things such as sing opera, fix a t.v., and speak two different languages. But she doesn't know how to find the right subway to get downtown. When Espernaza is with her, her mother is very tense while they wait for the right one to come. Esperanza says that her mom would love to go and see a ballet, she goes to the public library and gets opera records and listens and sings with powerful lungs. One day though when she and Esperanza were in the kitchen her mother said the her the same thing. I could've been someone, you know? Her mom tells Esperanza to keep up with school and don't drop out or quit for any reason. To study hard. Then her mother says why she dropped out of school. It was because she didn't have nice clothes, but she had brains. She then says, disgusted, I was a smart cookie.