Lenguas

Tara Seery
11523323
The Chicano Essay

The texts I have studied in order to be able to understand this topic are ‘The House on Mango Street’ which was published in 1984 and ‘Woman Hollering Creek’, published in 1991. These books were both written by the very talented Sandra Cisneros. Cisneros is the only girl in her family of seven children. Her Mexican father and Chicano mother constantlymoved around from ‘barrio’ to ‘barrio’, leaving Cisneros with the mixed sense of strong family ties and sparse home - themes which appear in her work. Cisneros graduated from Loyola University of Chicago in 1976 with a Bachelor's Degree in English.
Cisneros realized that her writing is different from the 'typical' American. She uses her own experiences as an outsider, not only by her race andculture, but also by gender, to create a unique voice in literature.She introduces us readers to many universal themes in her work which many can relate to. The ‘American Dream’ idea is very vivid and describes the dreams and hopes of many Latin Americans that cross the border to North America with the idea of ‘opportunities’, a chance to start over but it is not always the case. Racism and socialclassification is very much alive at this time. People were not treated equally because of their race and their gender. The role of women in society at that time is a huge topic. Expectations for women and for men were very different. Women were extremely limited in what they did and there was a huge sense of male chauvinism as I will later explain. Cultural transmission also plays a large factor inboth of Cisneros books.
I will start my critical analyses on Cisneros very own ‘The House on Mango Street’. This book is narrated by ‘Esperanza Cordero’. It is written in quite an informal and conversational manner. Nonetheless it is extremely descriptive as Esperanza is a very observative character. The narrative voice also shows the innocence and naivety of a young girl which we can all relateto. Esperanza is a young Hispanic girl living on Mango Street with her large family. She is embarrassed by her home and constantly wishes to have a new house of her own, far away from the ‘barrio’ of Mango Street. She meets a lot of people in her ‘barrio’ whom are very influential in her growth and progress to womanhood. Esperanza loves to write down all her stories and realizes that even if sheescapes to a better life, she must always remember her childhood, her roots, and the place from which she came, Mango Street.

There are two themes in this book which I found very interesting and affective.
The theme of Social classification and boundaries I found throughout the entire book. “Cathy Queen of Cats” introduces Cathy, a wealthier girl who moved to Mango St. Before things were badand is soon going to move away. She claims to be a cousin of French royalty and owns a multitude of cats. She moves away soon after meeting Esperanza to a better, more opulent neighbourhood because she did not belong with people of that class. Cathy advises Esperanza about the people who live on Mango St. In “Our Good Day” she tells Esperanza not to talk “such people” like “Rachel and Lucy”, twosisters who claim to derive from Texas. “These who don’t” gives a great insight on the mentality of the people of this time. Esperanza realises she is safe because she knows everyone in her neighbourhood. She doesn’t entirely understand why people of other colours are afraid to enter. ‘Only people who are lost enter’. Then she realises that her race do the same when entering other ghettos “Allbrown all around, we are safe but watch us drive into a neighbourhood of another colour and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes.” This quote defines how they do not feel welcome out of their comfort zone, they’re outsiders, the lower social class and how they are restricted within certain...