Evelyn Valdovinos

English 112B

Professor Warner

April 26, 2006

A Raw Voice in Contemporary Realistic Fiction

My Book Talk on Sandra Cisneros� The House on Mango Street inspired me to choose her as the focus of this assignment which deals with Contemporary Realistic Fiction. As a result, this book is my center piece for the bibliography. To begin with, I was really interested in the way Cisneros realistically depicts the life of Esperanza Cordero, who feels caught growing up between two cultures. In doing my research I learned that Cisneros is very fond of this approach (writing realistic fiction) because many of her books and stories are inspired by her life experience being a Mexican-American woman. The influence of her unique experience also extends to her works of poetry, which at times tend to be autobiographical.

I am very drawn to Cisneros� distinct writing style. There is a raw and vivid quality to her voice, and as in The House on Mango Street, there is a beautiful, lyrical quality that is also seen in her poetry. The fact that she intermingles her Mexican heritage with her American identity in her writing further enriches her style.

The works of Cisneros are essential to the genre of contemporary realistic fiction. Young adult readers are already reading Esperanza�s vignettes in schools around the nation learning about multicultural literature. Many of her other works depict similar realities that should be exposed to young readers. Not only will they learn about a different culture, students will appreciate the poignancy of her talent as an author who is incredibly enjoyable to read.

The following annotated bibliography covers her major works, a guide for teachers and students on Latino literature that includes analysis on The House on Mango Street, a recently published biography for young adults, two interviews, two web-based resources on the author and her works, and a critical essay on The House on Mango Street.

Annotated Bibliography on

Works by and about Sandra Cisneros

Augenbraum, Harold. Margarite Fernandez Olmos. U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical

Guide for Students and Teachers. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000.

101-111.

�Each chapter in this Critical Guide provides pertinent biographical background on the author as well as contextual information that aids in understanding the literary and cultural significance of the work. The most valuable component of the critical essays, the Analysis of Themes and Forms, helps the reader understand the thematic concerns raised by the work, particularly the recurring issues of language expression and cultural identity, assimilation, and intergenerational conflicts. Each essay is followed by specific suggestions for teaching the work with topics for classroom discussion� (Summary taken from this book). The Guide contains an essay called, �Female Voices in Sandra Cisneros� The House on Mango Street� which is an excellent source for both teachers and students to better understand Cisneros� use of female voices in her novel, a dominant theme she explores. The essay also contains ideas for teaching the novel and a useful annotated bibliography on criticism and suggested reading. I think this is a valuable source for people interested in Latino literature as it covers in detail an array of critical topics in the books discussed.

The Authorized Sandra Cisneros Website. Grandview Park Design. 20 April 2006.

<www.sandracisneros.com>.

This website is the authorized site for Cisneros. It features information about her works, a biography, interviews and reviews, publications, study guides and selected links, and scheduled appearances. This is a very useful resource since it encapsulates information by and about the author all in one cyber-place. It is recommended to anyone interested in Cisneros, student, teacher, or otherwise.

Beard, Carla. Web English Teacher. Summer 2000. 20 April 2006. <www.webenglishteacher.

com/cisneros.html.>

�Web English Teacher presents the best of K-12 English / Language Arts teaching resources: lesson plans, WebQuests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles, and classroom activities� (webenglishteacher.com homepage). The site contains links to lesson plans that focus specifically on The House on Mango Street. These resources can aid educators in teaching the novel. The lesson plans cover many topics such as vocabulary, journal prompts, study of themes, symbols, and style aimed at students in different levels. In general, I consider this a resourceful site for teachers.

Borondy, Matt. Identity Theory. Summer 2000. 20 April 2006. <www.identitytheory.com/

people/birnbaum76.html>.

�Identity theory is a regularly published, web-based magazine of literature and culture� (identitytheory.com homepage). The site has extensive interviews, among other literary and cultural links, that Robert Birnbaum, a journalist, has facilitated over the years. One of these is an interview with Sandra Cisneros on her project of nine years, the novel Caramelo. The interview is relaxed and covers more topics concerning Cisneros as a writer, her thoughts on her other works, her time spent living in Europe, her favorite authors, and many more (this is a very long interview). It is definitely recommended for those who want to expand their knowledge of the writer.

Brackett, Virginia. A Home in the Heart: The Story of Sandra Cisneros. North Carolina:

Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., 2005.

This is a superb and very recent biography intended for young adult readers. It covers the story of her life, including her grade school and high school years, the tensions of her bicultural identity, her years at the Iowa Writer�s Workshop, her experience in writing poetry and novels and being an activist and mentor. Written with young readers in mind and containing photographs and a timeline of the author�s life, the biography is useful not just for young readers, but also adults who want to learn about Cisneros� life and her journey of becoming a writer.

Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.

�A multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion, and poignancy�the very stuff of life. Lala Reyes� grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala�s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes� annual car trip�a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels�from Chicago to �the other side�: Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family�s stories, separating the truth from the �healthy lies� that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the �Paris of the New World� to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties�and, finally, to Lala�s own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas� (summary taken from barnesandnoble.com). Being a work of realistic fiction the novel contains many elements of Cisneros� life growing up in two diverse cities. The novel explores themes of multicultural identity, multigenerational stories and story-telling, and family values and ties, which makes it great for teaching, perhaps in grades eleven and twelve.

--------. The House on Mango Street. New York: Random House, 1987.

�Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn�t want to belong�not to her rundown neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza�s story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become� (summary taken from this book). Already taught to students starting from grade school to university level, the novel teaches a great deal about the problems and successes of growing up between two cultures. Written in a distinct, child-like voice the narrator sounds and feels real to the reader. Students across all cultures will find this book to be invaluable to their collection of books.

--------. Loose Woman. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 1995.

�Seductive, earthy, at times confessional, Sandra Cisneros's vibrant new collection of poetry celebrates the female aspects of love - from the reflective to the overtly erotic - in a voice recognizable from her powerful works of fiction. These poems offer narratives as formally elegant as they are emotional and accessible. They are bound together by the voice of one woman, whose language spans cultures and continents. She is a woman who finds great strength from her roots in the barrio, and who knows better than to take herself too seriously, even as she struggles with the anguish of making sense - and making love - in a world she feels compelled to write about. With a multiplicity of moods tumbling through its lines - joyous and introspective, tender and ruthless, self-mocking and sincere, often funny and sometimes wild and rude - Loose Woman offers intoxicating poems of extraordinary insight and vivid imagination� (summary taken from barnesandnoble.com from the publisher). This collection of poems is useful for young female readers and any adult that enjoys poems about the peculiarities of love. Some of the poems would make excellent models for students learning how to write poetry and finding a voice. With its emphasis on the multicultural experience, the poems could be taught in a segment about multiculturalism in creative writing. In the words of the author, �Loose Woman has a [�] colloquial flavor to me, it�s even vulgar at times. The lines are loose. [�] The subjects are loose. I say things that one would not consider proper to say in poetry� (see source below Latina Self-Portraits 48).

--------. My Wicked Wicked Ways. Bloomington, Indiana: Third Woman Press, 1987.

�This collection reveals the same affinity for distilled phrasing and surprise, both in language and dramatic development, found in Cisneros's volumes of short stories, Woman Hollering Creek and The House on Mango Street . For a glimpse of it, see the poem ``Josie Bliss'': ``a tropical dream / of Wednesdays / a bitter sorrow / like the salt / between the breasts.'' Of the book's four parts, the first two immerse the reader in the Chicana homefront, including the poet's own place in it, presumably the San Antonio familiar from her prose work. The remaining two parts leave the barrio behind, as the author's world becomes more cosmopolitan and still more personal. Here Cisneros reflects on herself and her men, on how she treats them and they her� (summary taken from barnesandnoble.com, from Publishers Weekly review). This is a great collection of poetry that details real life experiences, thoughts, and emotions. In talking about this collection Cisneros says, �It deals more explicitly with the autobiographical issues of my life� (see source below Latina Self Portraits 48). The poems are usually written in a simplistic style that young readers can easily read and possibly relate to. Again, some of Cisneros� poems would make great models for students writing poetry and all the poems are good for reading aloud to listen for Cisneros� distinct poetic voice.

--------. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.

�[This] [is] a story collection of breathtaking range and authority, whose characters give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border. From a young girl revealing secrets only an eleven-year-old can know to a witch woman circling above the village on a predawn flight, the women in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom� (summary taken from this book). The stories in this collection could be taught in a segment on short stories, especially about multiculturalism. With their range of topics and written in various styles and voices, the stories would make a good introduction to Cisneros� works.

Eysturoy, Annie O. �The House on Mango Street: A Space of Her Own.� Daughters of

Self-Creation. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996. 89-112.

To explain what she wanted to achieve by writing this book the author says, �I have [�] chosen not to impose upon these novels a series of predestined themes, but rather to examine each novel individually with the purpose of illuminating some of the patterns of experience characterizing the Chicana process of self-development� (27). The book takes a critical approach to the works of Isabella Rios, Sandra Cisneros, Estela Portillo Trambley, and Denise Chavez. In the essay on Cisneros� The House on Mango Street, the author discusses many ideas such as the symbolism of the house and Mango Street, Esperanza�s consciousness of the relationship between language and identity, her �quest for a self-defined identity,� her emerging sexuality, and the implications of observing the female lives on Mango Street. This piece, in particular, is one that can help teachers and college students reading the novel. Because it is written for academia the language and ideas might be too advanced for young readers, nevertheless I think the essay is a valuable aid to teachers who want to teach this book.

Heredia, Juanita. Bridget Kevane. Latina Self-Portraits: Interviews with Contemporary

Women Writers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.

This book, which includes an interview with Cisneros called �A Home in the Heart,� features interviews with other distinguished Latino writers who the editors themselves facilitated, such as Julia Alvarez, Denise Chavez, and Cherrie Moraga to name a few. Being a fairly recent publication (2000) the interview offers current information about Cisneros. The interview asks compelling questions and covers topics like her literary inspirations, her works and what she thinks about them, feminist consciousness, and family and cultural influences. I think reading writer�s interviews is always essential to understanding where the writer comes from. This interview will definitely complement studies on Cisneros and her works.