Quote 52
Sally is the girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke. The boys at school think she's beautiful because her hair is shiny black like raven feathers and when she laughs, she flicks her hair back like a satin shawl over her shoulders and laughs. (32.1)
Beauty is an important quality of femininity in this novel. Esperanza seems to admire beauty in women, though she feels she doesn't possess it herself.
Quote 53
Sally, who taught you to paint your eyes like Cleopatra? And if I roll the little brush with my tongue and chew it to a point and dip it in the muddy cake, the one in the little red box, will you teach me? (32.3)
Here Esperanza expresses a longing to be initiated into the rites of femininity. She's in awe of Sally's feminine knowledge, and her request to be taught about makeup is an expression of her desire to be more feminine.
Quote 54
Minerva is only a little bit older than me but already she has two kids and a husband who left. Her mother raised her kids alone and it looks like her daughters will go that way too. (33.1)
The problems that women face in one generation seem to be passed down to the next.