Sandra Cisneros

By Kelly Kidwell

Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father, born in Mexico City, married her mother, a Mexican-American, after meeting in Chicago, and they had seven children, with Sandra being the only daughter. Cisneros' childhood was spent moving from Mexico to Chicago, from one ghetto neighborhood to another, making friendships difficult. In an interview with Jim Segal she states, "Because we moved so much, and always in neighborhoods that appeared like France after World War II—empty lots and burned-out-buildings—I retreated inside myself" (Juffer). She began reading a lot as a child, with a particular interest in Virginia Lee Burton’s book, The Little House, which described a beautiful family home that provided stability, fuelling Cisneros' dream of owning her own home.

She began writing in high school, then graduated with a BA in English from Loyola University in Chicago, and received her Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop in 1978. She found her voice in writing at the Writers Workshop and is one of the few Chicano writers trained in formal creative writing (Elias 2).

Cisneros' voice -- that of a "working-class, Mexican-American woman with an independent sexuality" (Juffer) -- is shaped by her experiences growing up in a part of America that many other authors are not familiar with. She writes about real people and experiences that she encountered in her lifetime and explores interests that are important to her: "feminism, love, oppression, and religion" (Mathias). Her first book, The House on Mango Street, was published in 1984 by Arte Publico Press of Houston.

A lyrical novel, Mango Street falls between the genres of fiction and poetry. Cisneros explains:

I recall I wanted to write stories that were a cross between poetry and fiction. I was greatly impressed by Jorge Luis Borges' Dream Tigers stories for their form. I liked how he could fit so much into a page and that the last line of each story was important to the whole in much the same way that the final lines in poems resonate. Except I wanted to write a collection which could be read at any random point without having any knowledge of what came before or after. Or that could be read in a series to tell one big story. I wanted stories like poems, compact and lyrical and ending with a reverberation. (Olivares 160).

Cisneros calls the novels narrator, Esperanza, an "anti-academic voice—a child's voice, a girl's voice, a poor girl's voice, a spoken voice, the voice of an American-Mexican" (Juffer). The book was about a young girl growing up in the Hispanic corner of Chicago, much like Cisneros did, and coming to terms with her identity. The story "Hips" is about a young girl coming to terms with the physical changes of her body as well as growing out of her childhood. Cisneros also uses many people she knew in her neighborhood as characters in the book, including stories such as "What Sally Said", about a girl who is beaten continuously by her father, and "Minerva Writes Poems" about a girl a little older than Esperanza who is married with two children and a husband who is always leaving her. In the story "A House of My Own", Esperanza dreams of a house all her own. Mango Street won the Before Columbus Book Award (1985) and is a widely acclaimed "literary masterpiece" (Juffer). When commenting on the autobiographical nature of her work in the Americas Review, Cisneros states that "All fiction is non-fiction. Every piece of fiction is based on something that really happened…They're all stories I lived, or witnessed, or heard" (Tompkins).

Cisneros’ first collection of short stories to be published by a mainstream publisher, Woman Hollering Creek, (Random House, 1991) features Mexican-American characters similar to those in Mango Street yet more mature. They are not living in Chicago, but near San Antonio, Texas, and are once again, first person narratives. Three of the stories are included in the Norton Anthology of American Literature, sixth edition. Woman of Hollering Creek has won the P.E.N. Center West Award for best fiction in 1992, the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award, and many others.

Cisneros’ collection of poetry, My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987) reveals a different side of her work and is considered the most widely read. "The poems are physically descriptive and sensuous—bordering on the erotic—and behind them lies a strong hand" (Elias). The poem "Loose Woman" speaks of sexual independence: "I'm an aim-well, / shoot sharp, / sharp-tongued, / sharp-thinking, / fast-speaking, / foot-loose,/loose-tongued,/let-loose, /woman-on-the-loose / loose woman. / Beware, honey" (Juffer). An interview with Publishers Weekly claims the collection of poems is "celebrating the 'bad girl' with her 'lopsided symmetry of sin and virtue'" (Juffer).

Cisneros' work has been taught in many different academic disciplines including Women's studies, Ethnic Studies, English, Creative Writing, Sociology, and Sex Education (Mathias). Her representation of multiculturalism has gained not simply literary, but canonical value. Critical in introducing Chicanos into the literary canon, House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek presented as youthful and universal "coming of age" stories that present ethnic role models. Cisneros’ non-academic reception and reviews tend to more openly embrace her "bad girl" politics.

With the exception of Random House, Cisneros publishes much of her work through independent presses. Because of the growing mainstream attraction to Chicano literature, critics thought she would cross over to the mainstream, Cisneros rebelled, "I mean to raise hell, and I think my stories do. I'm very curious to see how they will be understood or misunderstood. The people they're really for are the Latino's. They'll get the subtext" (Juffer). With no intention of selling out, she has opened the door for Chicano literature in America. Cisneros continues to write, and finally owns a home of her own - a bright purple house in a Victorian neighborhood in San Antonio, Texas.

Voices From The Gaps: woman writers of color.  3 Dec. 2003. <http://voices.cla.umn.edu/newsite/authors/CISNEROSsandra.htm>

Elias, Eduardo F. "Sandra Cisneros." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 122: Chicano Writers, Second Series. Ed. Francisco A. Lomeli and Carl R. Shirley. Detroit: Gale, 1992. 77-81.

Juffer, Jane. "Sandra Cisneros' Career." Modern American Poetry.  3 Dec. 2003. www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/cisneros/career.htm.

Mathias, Kelly.  "Sandra Cisneros: b.1954."  Voices From The Gaps.  Department of English.  University of Minnesota, 2003.  http://voices.cla.umn.edu/newsite/authors/CISNEROSsandra.htm

Olivares, Julian.  "Sandra Cisneros' 'The House on Mango Street' and the Poetics of Space." C hicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature.  Ed. Maria Herrera-Sobek and Helena Maria Viramontes.  Arte Publico Press, 1988.  160-70.

Tompkins, Cynthia.  "Sandra Cisneros."  Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series.  Ed. James Giles and Wanda Giles.  Detroit: Gale, 1995.  35-41.