Meme Ortiz

In this chapter, Esperanza describes a neighborhood boy named Meme Ortiz and the house he lives in. However, she goes into more detail about the tree in his backyard then anything else. Even though the land around the tree isn't as great, the tree stands out even better in comparison because of it making it more memorable for Esperanza.

As said in the text, she says: "But what you remember most is this tree, huge, with fat arms and mighty families of squirrels in the higher branches". In the surrounding area next to the tree, is all the houses and apartments on Mango Street. This gives Esperanza a sense of adventure when she was climbing it during the "First Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest" and also the freedom and possiblity of escape from the neighboorhood. Another thing is that, Esperanza gets a new perspective of what Mango Street looks like from above: "All around the neigborhood of roofs.......the balls that never came back down to earth. Down at the base of the tree.......our house with its feet tucked under like a cat."

-Theresa, Alexus