Sandra Cisneros: A Chicana who broke the rules

If you attended the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the ‘60s, being a minority like Sandra Cisneros, you would have learned a thing or two about marketing as well as writing. Certain books, you would discover, were not part of the literary canon and likely never would be. Among them would be memoirs of unknown minority women, novels that mixed English and Spanish, or ones that used Chicana slang. Even worse than using “Spanglish” would be to write a book that was neither fiction nor nonfiction, but some hybrid bastard child employing both.

It was also clear that whatever you chose to write about, if you were a Latina your chances of getting published by a mainstream press were nil. The best you could hope for would be publication by an independent or university press with limited distribution, 500-1,000 copies for a new writer.

So, the literary world was stunned when Cisneros’ first novel, “The House on Mango Street,” was not only published by a major New York house (which purchased it from Arte Publico Press) but went on to sell over 6 million copies. Not only was she the first Mexican American woman to have her work distributed by a major New York brand, but the book also broke all the rules.

The book drew upon Cisneros’ own childhood as the only girl raised by a misogynist father in a house with six brothers. Thinly disguised in the novel as Esperanza, the future author struggles to find her own voice. Caught between two cultures: one materialistic, judgmental and innovative; the other, religious, traditional and restrictive, she longs to be independent.

Cisneros was born in Chicago to a Mexican father and Chicana mother. She was bilingual at an early age, as the family moved, for the father’s upholstery business, between Chicago and Mexico City. She mixed both languages in a fluid melange, as does Esperanza in her frank and unassuming voice. The book not only entranced mature readers on both sides of the border but became a favorite of teachers seeking to encourage diversity in the classroom, as well as respect for differences, while at the same time promoting quality reading.

But even more important than all these literary and pedagogical influences is her gift to a new generation of writers. She has given them permission to speak. And it is not only Chicano writers who have profited. It has been a godsend to novelists like Cormac McCarthy, relatively unknown to the mainstream until his breakthrough novel “All the Pretty Horses,” which utilized the hybrid Spanish-English technique. In breaking the rules and establishing her own variations (and doing it so well and so successfully), Sandra Cisneros changed the way fiction is written and opened the door to new ways of seeing and understanding for her readers.

These days she makes her home San Miguel de Allende in Mexico but is often seen in San Antonio, Texas, as well. Not one to forget her roots, she has established a foundation for writers in need in San Antonio, as well as a writers’ retreat to foster the careers of new and emerging writers. In 2016 President Barack Obama presented her with the National Medal of the Arts for her lifetime contribution to American literature. She hopes that Mexico may soon see fit to give her a similar honor.