Fall 2021 CI452 Wiki:Sandra Cisneros

Biographical Information

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, and children's book writer born in Chicago. Sandra is well known for unique experiences as a Hispanic woman born in Chicago. Sandra engages her audience through a her feminist approach Latina identity, Spanish phrases, and her characters spiraling English and Spanish syntax to represent different cultures. Sandra writes in both English and Spanish and has many awards throughout her career.

Sandra was born on December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were from Mexico, but met in Chicago. She was the only girl out of her 6 siblings. Sandra began her journey as a writer at age of ten by writing a poem. She became a more active writer when she began high school and was known as "the poet". After graduating high school Sandra continued her writing journey at Loyola University of Chicago and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She then furthered her education at the University of Florida and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. After graduating with her Masters Sandra went back home to Chicago and gave back to her community by becoming a teacher and counselor at the Latino Youth Alternative High School. Cisneros also worked in several universities where she build on her career as a writer. Her personal experiences influenced her to share her stories with the world.

Themes

Cultural Identity: Cultural identity is a major focus across Sandra's literary work. Sandra's work highlights her experience and power of shifting between cultures. Sandra states, “I’m a translator. I’m an amphibian. I can travel in both worlds. What I’m saying is very important for the Latino community, but it is also important for the white community to hear. What I’m saying in my writing is that we can be Latino and still be American.”

Social Justice: In her writing Sandra shares how the injustice women face impact their lives and freedom. Sandra shares how women are oppressed by society: limited future opportunities and dependency on men, and sexualization. Through her writing she attempts to spiral "difficult" conversations around the topic of feminism and shift oppressive perspectives towards women. In her writing, she honors the women in her family while breaking some cultural traditions and being an independent woman.

Writing Style

Sandra's writing is largely influenced by her personal experiences in identifying as a Latina and American. She has written several books based on her real life and stories around her to represent her cultural identity and social justice stance. She immerses the reader into the Latino and American culture by spiraling syntax that represents both cultures. Sandra is a skilled fiction writer, but she has also published nonfiction texts.

Bibliography

Sandra has published several pieces of writing including poems, short stories, novels, and children's books and received multiple awards and honors.

American Book Award (*The House on Mango Street*)

Premio Napoli (*Caramelo*)

PEN Center West Award (*Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories)*

Mountains & Plains Booksellers’ Award (*Loose Woman)*

PEN Center USA Literary Award (*A House of My Own: Stories from My Life)*

National Medal of the Arts (awarded by President Barack Obama)

Citations:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sandra-Cisneros

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sandra-cisneros

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sandra-cisneros

https://literariness.org/2020/04/17/analysis-of-sandra-cisneross-stories/

https://www.sandracisneros.com/books