Cisneros, Sandra

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 Cisneros de Moral, took a job as an upholsterer, which led the family to move multiple times between Chicago and Mexico City. Second, she is the only daughter in a household of six brothers. Finally, she looked at her mother, Elvira Cordero Anguiano—an avid reader—as her strongest female supporter. Each of these circumstances flavors Cisneros's writings as her characters often contend with their Chicana identities, female sexuality, and cultural boundaries.

Literary critics argue that Sandra Cisneros's focus throughout her work on feminist resistance to patriarchy indirectly stems from her relationships with her father and her six brothers. For instance, there is the preteen narrator, Esperanza Cordero, in The House on Mango Street. Esparanza understands that, in her culture, a woman's place is in the home, but that does not prevent her from looking for opportunities outside of what her culture allows. It is her mother who urges her to do well in school so that she can have the opportunities that transcend the notion that women should remain within the private sphere.