While completing an MFA in creative writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop, Cisneros first discovered a sense of her own ethnic 'otherness', and at this time she felt marginalized 'as a person of color, as a woman, as a person from working-class background'. Cisneros attributes 'her impulse to create stories' to 'the loneliness of those formative years'. Earlier, Cisneros suggested that as the only girl in a family of boys, she often felt isolated. Yet there are differences for instance, where Esperanza has two brothers and a sister, Cisneros was 'the only daughter in a family of seven children'. Like her protagonist, Esperanza, Cisneros is Mexican-American and was born and raised in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. In spite of this, it remains an influential coming-of-age novel and is a staple piece of literature for many young adults.Ĭisneros has discussed the relationship between her own personal experiences and Esperanza's life as depicted in The House on Mango Street. īecause the novel deals with sensitive subject matters, such as domestic violence, puberty, sexual harassment, and racism, it has faced challenges and threats of censorship. It was adapted into a stage play by Tanya Saracho, which was staged in Chicago in 2009.

It was on The New York Times Best Seller list and is the recipient of several major literary awards, including the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. The book has sold more than 6 million copies, has been translated into over 20 languages and is required reading in many schools and universities across the United States.

The House on Mango Street is considered a modern classic of Chicano literature and has been the subject of numerous academic publications in Chicano studies and feminist theory. Elements of the Mexican-American culture and themes of social class, race, sexuality, identity, and gender are interwoven throughout the novel. Based in part on Cisneros's own experience, the novel follows Esperanza over the span of one year in her life, as she enters adolescence and begins to face the realities of life as a young woman in a poor and patriarchal community. Structured as a series of vignettes, it tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a 12-year-old Chicana girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago. The House on Mango Street is a 1984 novel by Mexican-American author Sandra Cisneros.

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