La Casa en Mango Street

Spanish 2 / Mrs. McEwen

Sandra Cisneros: Biographical Note

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954, to a Mexican father and a Chicana* mother

She has six brothers and is the only daughter in the family

She moved frequently during her childhood and visited Mexico often

Chi·cano adj.

Usage Note: Chicano is used only of Mexican Americans, not of Mexicans living in Mexico. It was originally an informal term in English (as in Spanish), and the spelling of the first recorded instance in an American publication followed the Spanish custom of lowercasing nouns of national or ethnic origin. However, the literary and political movements of the 1960s and 1970s among Mexican Americans established Chicano as a term of ethnic pride, and it is properly written today with a capital. · While Chicano is a term of pride for many Mexican Americans, it remains a word with strong political associations.

Sandra Cisneros: Biographical NoteCisneros found

an outlet in writing; in high school she wrote poetry and was the literary magazine editor.

Earned a BA in English from Loyola University of Chicago in 1976

Sandra Cisneros: Biographical NoteEarned a master's degree at the

University of Iowa Writers Workshop in the late 1970's

Found her particular voice, as a working-class, Mexican-American woman with an independent sexuality

Sandra Cisneros: Biographical NoteThe House on Mango Street:

published by Arte Publico Press of Houston in 1984 and won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in in 1985

She divided her time between California and Texas, earning a variety of fellowships and guest lectureships

Sandra Cisneros

Much as the writer Esperanza promises to return to Mango Street at the end of that novel, Cisneros has continually returned to her community, showing the powerful connection between art, politics, and everyday life.