These 2 characters named Esperanza and Miguel are taking from the book titled "Esperanza rising" written by Pam Muñoz Ryan in the year 2000.
The difficult relationship began when Esperanza told Miguel that a deep river ran between them saying that she was on one side while he was on the other side.
The word "deep river" she used is an example of a literary device known as "symbolism". The meaning is that there was a good distance between the social classes of she and Miguel.
Students learn about the characteristics of an effective personal narrative and compare those to a news article. They do prewriting activities and practice writing details to show rather than tell about an experience.