BIOGRAPHY
"I am a woman and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power. They are the things that give it sabor [flavor], the things that give it picante [spice]" (Gale Writing Group).
These were the powerful words voiced by Sandra Cisneros in a New York Times interview. Since her arrival in the American literary circle, she has not quiet down since. Sandra Cisneros was born in 1954 to a Mexican father and a Chicana mother in Chicago, Illinois (Krstovic 1994: 463). Of seven children, she was the only daughter. Her six brothers attempted to control her life; they had assumed that she would adopt a traditional female role. The family frequently moved between the United States and Mexico because of her father's homesickness for native country (Krstovic 1994:463). As a result, Sandra felt displaced and lacked a place that she could call, "home." She has stated that, "because we moved so much...I retreated inside myself."
Cisneros read extensively as a child. Throughout her college years at Loyola University, she wrote poems and stories. She did not, however, discover her "literary voice" until the late 1970s when she attended the University of Iowa's Writers Workshop (Krstovic 1994: 464). It was then that Cisneros realized that her experiences as a Chicana woman were unique and outside the realm of dominant American culture. During a discussion of the metaphor of a house as a realm of stability, she had observed that with:
The metaphor of a house-a house, a house, it hit me. What did I know except third floor flats. Surely my classmates knew nothing about that. That's precisely what I chose to write: about third floor flats, and fear of rats, and drunk husbands sending rocks through windows, anything as far from the poetic as possible (Krstovic 1994: 464).
After this, she began writing as a form of release from her troubles and conflicts. Her writing is unique from other authors' because they combine several genres. Cisneros is best known for her collection of short fiction, The House on Mango Street (Krstovic 1994: 463). Recently, she has published a realistic depiction of the condition of Hispanic women in her work, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. In this book, the narrators look at the lives and thoughts of Mexican and Mexican Americans who live on both sides of the border.
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories is a collection of short stories of self-discovery set in southern Texas and Mexico during the second half of the twentieth century (Magill 1994: 628). This work is similar to her first collection of short stories, The House on Mango Street, in its structural and thematic pattern. This book was a semi-autobiographical account of a Chicana adolescent named Esperanza. She writes about her experiences on Mango Street in order to overcome her situation. Esperanza rejects the repressive gender values of her culture, and the humiliation from her family's poverty (Krstovic 1994: 464). In Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, however, the female protagonist are "maturer and more complex" (Krstovic 1994: 464).
There are twenty-two narrative selections that are divided into three sections. In the first section, the narrators are mostly young girls. In the second section, the narrators discuss sexuality and love. In the third section, the narrators are older; "they are sometimes harder, and are always resilient" (Magill 1994: 629). Overall, this book deals with how women are seen and how women see themselves in the Latino culture (Magill 1994: 630). Through her fiction and poetry, we can observe Cisneros' strength as she poignantly addresses the themes of degradation associated with poverty, violence, sexual suppression, divided cultural loyalties, self-identity, and feelings of alienation, and gender roles (Krstovic 1994: 463-4).
ANALYSIS OF THEMES
Poverty
We can observe the theme of poverty in, "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn." In this vignette, the young protagonist describes a companion named Lucy Anguiano. We discover that Lucy is a peculiar child. She is boastful about having eaten dog food. The young protagonist does not care what anyone thinks. She remarks, "But me I like that Lucy, corn smell hair and agua flipflops just like mine that we bought at the K mart for only 79 cents same time" (Cisneros 1991: 3). We can assume from this sentence, that she and her friend Lucy do not have a lot of money to waste. We can also draw hints from descriptions of Lucy's family. They do not have an automatic washer and must use a "wringer washer." They have a way of hanging clothes so that it would, "take up less space and you don't waste pins" (Cisneros 1991: 4). Families who are financially prosperous do not have a scarcity of pins and do not usually have to worry about space. Another example of scarcity is evident in this statement, "The girls all wear each other's clothes" (Cisneros 1991: 4).
Violence
One can find the theme of violence in, "Woman Hollering Creek." In this story, Cleófilas moves in with her husband across the border to live near San Antonio, Texas. She gives birth to her son and becomes fascinated by an arroyo called Woman Hollering. She wonders if the woman is hollering out of joy or pain (Cisneros 1991: 47). As time passes by, she learns what it is like for love between a man and woman to go sour. Her husband would beat her time and time again. While she was growing up, her parents had never raised a hand to her so Cleófilas did not know how to react:
The first time she had been so surprised she didn't cry out or try to defend herself. She had always said she would strike back if a man, any man, were to strike her. But when the moment came, and he slapped her once, and then again, and again, until the lip split and bled an orchid of blood, she didn't fight back, she didn't break into tears, she didn't run away as she imagined she might when she saw such things in the telenovelas (Cisneros 1991: 47).
Sexual suppression
In, "One Holy Night," we can see the theme of sexual suppression. A Latina eighth grader living in the southwestern United States gets to know Chaq Uxmal Paloquín (also known as Baby Boy), a man who buys from her pushcart every Saturday. He deceived her by telling her that he is descended from Mayan kings and initiates her into the mysteries of sex. She knows that she should be ashamed, but she "runs home jubilant with her secret knowledge" (Magill 1994: 629). It all comes out eventually. When the family goes to confront Baby Boy, they found that he has packed up and gone. Later on, they found out that she is pregnant, he is really named "Chato," he is 37, and that he is not descended from Mayan blood. We can imply from the reading that in this culture young girls are denied the access to sexual information. The mystery surrounding this taboo subject was too unbearable. Curious, the young protagonist uncovers the secret on her own. As a result, she is ostracized and sent to live with relatives in a small Mexican town where, "she counts the months until the birth of her child, staring at a picture of a man she thinks she loves" (Magill 1994: 629).
Divided cultural loyalties, Feelings of alienation, and Self-identity
We can see the theme of divided cultural loyalties in the short story, "Mericans." In this story the young narrator, Michele, faces two types of separations. When she and her brothers were on a visit to Mexico, they were playing outside a church, waiting for their grandmother. The boys taunt her and call her "sissy" and "girl." Here is the example of alienation by her own peer and cultural group because of her gender: "You throw that ball like a girl"( Cisneros 1991: 18). What can one expect, Michelle is a girl! Michelle goes inside and when she comes out, she finds her brother speaking to tourists in Spanish. Junior is not from just one cultural background, but two. He addresses Michelle in English, shocking one tourist, who thought the boys were Mexican children. Junior explains to her that they are "Mericans." The name used is an important example of self-identification. The terms looks like a typo of "Mexican," but it's not. Cisneros' coining of a new phrase demonstrating the combination of two words, "American" and "Mexican," is brilliant.
Gender roles
In the "Eyes of Zapata," Inés Alfaro tells of her life with Emiliano Zapata. On one of his infrequent visits, she thinks about her past. She knows that Zapata loved her but he never said that would marry her and he never did. He would spend months at a time away from them, as she made a life for herself and for her children. Meanwhile, he has married another woman and had two children with her. Emiliano, though, continues to return to Inés. Even through these trials, Inés holds on to the belief that she belongs to Emiliano and she, "has belonged to him from their first kiss, and that she knows real love" (Magill 1994: 629). She responds to his absence by remembering:
How you looked at me in the San Lázaro plaza. How you kissed me under my father's avocado tree. Nights you loved me with a pleasure close to sobbing, how I stilled the trembling in your chest and held you, held you. Miliano, Milianito. My sky, my life, my eyes. Let me look at you. Before you open those eyes of yours. The days to come, the days gone by. Before we go back to what we'll always be (Cisneros 1991: 113).
Conclusion
Sandra Cisneros is indeed unique from her contemporaries. She is an author that has received acclamations for her prose that combines elements of several genres (Krstovic 1994: 464). Although she has been criticized for her incorporation of children's speech and games into her stories and her negative portrayal of male violence toward females, she has also been praised. Her distinctive literary styles and innovative techniques are remarkable. Also, her concentration on cultural imperialism, and women's issues has been a universal appeal (Krstovic 1994: 464). These qualities have established Sandra Cisneros as an emerging figure in literature. Aamer Hussein in the Times Literary Supplement remarked, "Cisneros is a quintessentially American writer, unafraid of the sentimental; avoiding the cliches of magical realism, her work bridges the gap between Anglo and Hispanic "(Gale Writing Group). I beg to agree.
Works Cited & Bibliography
Cisneros, Sandra 1989 The House on Mango Street New York: Vintage Books
Cisneros, Sandra 1991 Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories New York: Vintage Books
Gale Writing Group 1994 "Sandra Cisneros" in Krstovic, Jelena ed. 1994 Hispanic Literature Criticism Detroit: Gale Research
Magill, Frank N. ed. 1994 Masterpieces of Latino Literature New York: Harper
Collins Publisher
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