The first four chapters have little or no plot action and minimal — although valuable — exposition: We learn the names of the speaker and her siblings and something about their ages and birth order (Kiki is the youngest of the four, he and Carlos are "best friends" — so it's a safe guess that Carlos, too, is younger than Esperanza — and Nenny is younger as well, so Esperanza must be the eldest). We learn something about the family's ethnicity and socio-economic status. But most of what happens in these first four chapters is our introduction to Esperanza.
As the narrator, Esperanza speaks to her audience (the reader) with a total absence of self-consciousness. To whom is Esperanza speaking/writing? Although sometimes she records feelings and impressions in a manner that suggests a private journal or diary, more often she includes information that a diarist (especially a child) would probably deem unnecessary. She will occasionally address other characters directly, but for the most part, what she says and the way she says it suggests that the hearer/reader she has in mind is someone like herself, a girl her own age who does not know her but who understands what she is saying because the two are simpático. In other words, she seems consciously or unconsciously to be addressing the "best friend" she has not yet met.
What Esperanza tells directly about herself here is relatively little; what she tells indirectly is a good deal more informative. First of all, she is at this point a child, although in certain ways, she is older than her years. She still gets in bed with her parents for comfort; she enumerates small differences among family members that prove each is an individual. Part of her self-identity is as an older sister. She feels responsible for guiding Nenny, although there is a lack of sympathy between her and her sister.
