Esperanza Maria Sanchez DeLeon
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
~The New Colossus~
~Emma Lazarus~
History
Esperanza was born to Carmen Sanchez in San Antonio in Early September of 1987. Her birth father was hauled off to prison before she was born and a few years after that her mother married Julio Rodriguez, a baker who divorced her several years later, leaving her with three more children.
Growing up in the barrio of San Antonio, Esperanza's mother always told her "Dios Proveera","God will provide." but in the end it seemed to be Esperanza who did the providing. At age ten she began taking care of her younger twin sisters, Eva and Rosa, and brother Juan in the afternoon when her mother worked evenings as a janitor for the local high school. She learned to cook early on and became incredibly versatile in the kitchen, able to make decent meals from leftovers and seasonings and precious little else. At age 16 she took on a part time job to help with the bills and at 17 she took on a second one, all while earning A's and B's in her high school courses. Throughout her childhood and adolescence she also took dance lessons at the local YWCA before school, finding in ballet and interpretive dance a sort of freedom from the drudgery of her everyday life. She was a gifted and adaptable dancer, and often landed small parts in ballet recitals for her school and community.
Her mother was a very religious woman who attended church twice a week and tried her best to raise four children by herself. Despite this, Esperanza failed to see the influence of God in her daily life. Everything she had, either she or her mother had worked for. As far as she was concerned, if there was a god, he had probably forgotten they existed. She became a default agnostic, and later a rational atheist, finding more meaning in the simple, but powerful workings of science and humanity than in the crinkled pages of old bibles.
She went to college at San Antonio Community College in order to keep costs down and be close enough to help out her family. Between a full time time job as a dance teacher and scholarships she managed to earn enough to pay her way through four and a half years of college to earn her bachelor's in psychology and help support her family. After graduating, she chose to go to Texas A&M because of it's excellent psychology Masters program, it's relative proximity to he family, and the scholarships that they offered. Despite financial assistance, however, money was still tight, and she struggled to find a cheap enough place to live near campus until she finally chanced on an ad that Beatrice had taken in the Eagle looking for a roommate. The two met up and became quick friends, with Bea's loud outgoing nature and Ronnie's gentle strength being a perfect compliment to each other.
She struggled her first semester with paying her bills, but after one of her roommate's friends introduced her to a dancer at the Silk Stocking, she met with the manager and began dancing there for money. At first it was only once in a while when rent was due, but soon she was dancing several nights a week, partly as a means of escape, partly because she loved helping her customers find what they were looking for, but mostly because she was good at it and her tips paid more than virtually any other job in town. With her new source of revenue she was able to stay in school and even have enough left over to send money back home to her mother, although she knew that if her mother ever suspected where the money came from she would spit on it and disown her. Even though both of her sisters were grown now and had both left San Antonio, money was still tight with her family. Her mother was getting on in years, and her medical bills were piling up. Meanwhile her youngest sibling, Juan, had become involved with one of the local gangs that sold drugs in the neighborhood, and was begging, borrowing and stealing cash from their mother whenever he wasn't in jail or off causing trouble.
Meanwhile, Esperanza was quickly making friends with Bea's gaming group. She and Aime quickly bonded, Ronnie's love of dancing finding a perfect partner in Aime's love of music. Nils became something of a fascination for Ronnie, and she was quickly attracted to his easy charm and wit. Chrys, Connie and Simon became like surrogate siblings for her, giving a new family to take care of and cook for and counsel through life's difficulties.
Esperanza's true father is the Norse god Baldur, most honored and respected of the pantheon, who was treacherously betrayed by Loki before being condemned to Hel's domain until Ragnarok. He sired Esperanza during a brief escape into the world, and the "prison" he was sent back to was actually death itself.
Since discovering her true nature, Ronnie has been on several adventures with her friends, including having to face down her debilitating fear of snakes in order to secure her brother's freedom from an Aztec titan. Mor recently she fell in love with a scion of Dionysus named Indigo, only to have to witness his shooting at the hands of a titan-spawn posessed mortal. Indigo was whisked away by his father, but his fate remains unknown and Esperanza has yet to fully recover from the mental strain of the experience. In the aftermath of the experience she quit her job as a stripper and is now working for Simon, helping him with his web-detective business.
Personality
Esperanza (Ronnie) is a beautiful, smart, talented young woman, loyal to her friends and family, and generous to a fault. She will often give more than she has to others, putting herself at a disadvantage to make sure that others don't suffer. Her kitchen is always open, and her gaming group is treated to her homemade meals whenever they meet. She is good with people, and has a smile for everyone she meets. Her natural beauty and charisma make her an easy person to talk to, and she finds that she likes helping people with their problems, generally becoming the repository for her friends secrets, fears, and worries. In fact, she finds that she can remember the secret pains and heartbreaks of friends who have long since forgotten them and moved on. Despite all this, however, she can be somewhat melancholy and detached. The sheer amount of responsibility and hardship she has had to deal with in her life has left her emotionally dulled, and hard pressed to truly enjoy many aspects of life. Despite her smiling demeanor, she sometimes feels lost and alone, unable to control her own destiny and unable to hope for anything better for herself except perhaps to help others. The only time she truly feels free is when she is dancing, expressing herself and her repressed feelings through her body and her her art.
Vital Statistics
Age: 23
Major: Psychology
Siblings: Eva and Rosa (twins) - 19, Juan - 17
Hometown: San Antonio
Favorite Music: Classical, Techno, Salsa, or anything with a good beat that you can dance to.
God Purviews
Personifying the concepts of Self-Sacrifice and Charity, Esperanza holds the downtrodden and helpless as her subjects. She embodies both the Mexican/Catholic concept of La Marianisma (The sacrifice of the virgin Mary) as well as the chivalric ideal of defending the weak and the innocent. She gives all of herself to her work, lending her powers, her strength, and her very blood to help the helpless and defend those with no other recourse. Her compassion, however, should not be seen as pacifism, as her Nordic heritage often insists that the best defense is a good offense. Although she will offer redemption to those who seek it, she will likewise be quick to cut down those who continually prey on the helpless and the weak. And those who have found themselves on her bad side know first hand that her enchanted revolver "Mistletoe" almost never misses.
Being the child of a sun god, Esperanza has three different aspects, each representing a phase of the solar day; sunrise, noon, and sunset. In her sunrise aspect she is an innocent virgin, newly awakened to the world and eager to share herself with it. In her noon aspect her motherly light shines on all living things, bringing life and driving out the darkness. In her sunset aspect she is the hardened, battle-weary maid, bringing mercy to those who suffer, her pale golden glow leading the way into Chrys' domain.
