Sandra Cisneros, born in Chicago on December 20, 1954, is a Chicana writer and poet. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Loyola University of Chicago in 1976 and a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa in 1978. Her published and award-winning works include Bad Boys (1980), The House on Mango Street (1984), My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), Hairs = Pelitos (1994), Loose Woman: Poems (1994), Caramelo (2002), and Vintage Cisneros (2003). In addition to writing, Cisneros is a founder of the Macondo Foundation and Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation.

Cisneros's childhood had a strong effect on her writing and the themes that permeate her work. [Page 220]First, her father, Alfredo ...