Quote 1
"Is this from Guatemala?" I asked.
She nodded. She looked almost happy.
"Sometimes I get homesick for Pittman and it's as ugly as a mud stick fence," I said. "A person would have to just ache for a place where they make things as beautiful as this." (7.95-97)
More than any other character in The Bean Trees, Esperanza feels her dislocation as a source of constant pain. Taylor doesn't know it yet at this point, but it isn't just homesickness for Guatemala that keeps Esperanza down: every day, Esperanza struggles with the anguish of having left her daughter behind. Hence the "almost happy"—this is a character for whom "almost" is as good as it gets.
Quote 2
He let out a long breath. "I don't even know anymore which home I miss. Which level of home. In Guatemala City I missed the mountains. My own language is not Spanish, did you know that?" (14.27)
As Taylor slowly realizes, Estevan and Esperanza have experienced more than one kind of dislocation in their lives. As Mayans who lived initially in mountain villages then later moved to Guatemala City, the couple went through major cultural and linguistic shifts well before they ever came to the U.S. as refugees. They've faced a mountain of difficulty, that's for sure.
Quote 3
"Tortolita, let me tell you a story," Estevan said. [...] "If you go to visit hell, you will see a room like this kitchen. There is a pot of delicious stew on the table, with the most delicate aroma you can imagine. All around, people sit, like us. Only they are dying of starvation. They are jabbering and jabbering," he looked extra hard at Mrs. Parsons, "but they cannot get a bite of this wonderful stew God has made for them. Now, why is that?" (7.141)
First, "Tortolita" is Estevan's nickname for turtle. We know, sounds like a mix between tortellini, a margarita, and a much better name for a girl than "Turtle." Anway, Estevan's story, even if it's kind of weird that he's talking to a three-year-old about visiting hell, emphasizes the importance of community and reciprocal care. The people around the table in hell can't feed themselves because their spoons are too long. But in heaven, the people don't worry about feeding themselves: instead, they use their long spoons to feed one another. Get it? It's all about taking care of the people around you. Like by calling them fun names like "Tortolita."
Quote 4
"Esperanza and I knew the names of twenty other union members," he said. "The teachers' union did not have open meetings. We worked in cells, and communicated by message. Most people knew only four other members by name. This is what I am saying. In Guatemala, you are careful. If you want to change something, you can find yourself dead. This was not the—what do you call? The P.T.A." (9.49)
Ah, we love a good joke at the expense of the P.T.A. But hey: this is serious stuff in the union Estevan's on about. While we're at it, Barbara Kingsolver could have had Estevan be involved in another kind of union, but she chose a teacher's union specifically. Why?
Quote 5
"I can't even begin to think about a world where people have to make choices like that."
"You live in that world," he said quietly, and I knew this, but I didn't want to. I started to cry then, just tears streaming out all over and no stopping them. Estevan put his arm around me and I sobbed against his shoulder. The dam had really broken. (9.56-57)
By the end of her conversation with Estevan, Taylor has unconsciously accepted his point. Although there are some things she knows about injustice, there are other things that she doesn't want to know. In Estevan's view, this desire not to know plays a big role in allowing atrocities to continue.
Quote 6
"What helps me the most is to know her life is going on somewhere, with someone. To know she is growing up."
"Sure," I said, but I knew there was another side to this, too. Where she was growing up, what they would raise her to be. I thought of Turtle being raised by Virgie Mae Parsons, learning to look down her nose and wear little hats, and I then I got it mixed up with police uniforms. (9.81-82)
Although Estevan takes some comfort from knowing that his daughter, Ismene, is alive and growing up somewhere, Taylor worries about the kind of moral education Ismene will receive. If she is being raised by the same kinds of people who would abduct her in the first place, what kind of person will they teach her to be? And imaginining Lil' Turtle Parsnip is just too much for her to handle. And we can't blame her, with a name like that.
Quote 7
"Really, I don't think she knew what she was saying, about how the woman and kid who got shot must have been drug dealers or whatever."
"Oh, I believe she did. This is how Americans think." He was looking at me in a thoughtful way. "You believe that if something terrible happens to someone, they must have deserved it."
"I wanted to tell him that this wasn't so, but I couldn't. (8.90)
When Taylor tries to apologize to Estevan on behalf of Virgie Mae, Estevan refuses the apology. His reasoning helps Taylor to understand something that she's never considered before: that blaming and fearing victims rather than perpetrators of injustice lets people feel "safe."
Quote 8
Then out of the clear blue sky he said, "In Guatemala City the police use electricity for interrogation. They have something called the 'telephone,' which is an actual telephone of the type they use in the field. It has its own generator, operated by a handle." [...] "A crank? Like the old-fashioned telephones?" "Operated with a crank," he said. "The telephones are made in the United States." (9.28-30)
Getting to know Estevan and Esperanza changes Taylor's view of the world fundamentally. The things that Estevan tells her about his life in Guatemala are things she would have once ascribed to the realm of fiction. Through them, she begins to understand the extent of her own ignorance and, most importantly, the way that ignorance contributes to the deep injustice underlying the status quo. Including the fact that a normal telephone made in the U.S. can be used as a torture device. Does that mean that American phone producers are helping out the torturers?