The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

(image via goodreads.com)

Citation

Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Vintage Books, 1984. Print.

Awards

•          1985, Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award

Annotation

A young Latina girl talks about her family and Chicago neighborhood in a series of short vignettes.

Booktalk

“We didn’t always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can’t remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot. Each time it seemed there’d be one more of us. By the time we got to Mango Street we were six – Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me.” (3)

Esperanza is just becoming a woman. She spends her days with her younger sister Nenny and her girlfriends from the street. She shares stories about the people in her Chicago neighborhood: the old man who owns the junk shop; Elinita, the witch woman; Rosa Vargas and all her children. The chapters are little stories on their own, but they add up to create a picture of the people and neighborhood she loves and calls home. She talks about getting hips, and her plans to get to eat lunch at school, instead of at home, and lying about her age to get her first job. Her world is full and lush, and even though she is telling her stories, you can see parts of your own life in them too.

(video by jemurillo93 at youtube.com)