Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20, 1954 in Chicago Illinois. Cisneros now lives in San Antonio, TX. Sandra Cisneros was the third child an only daughter out of 7 children. As a Latina, she writes a lot about her experiences in the United States. Sandra Cisneros is best known for her literary work “The House on Mango Street” written in 1991. In addition, Cisneros had received many awards for her work including Mac Arthur Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and a Texas Medal of the Arts.
Sandra Cisneros portraits Clemencia in various ways in “Never Marry a Mexican”. Clemencia is stuck in an interracial world, she wants to fit in, not only fit in but become better, become more powerful and loved. Clemencia is a very resentful woman, she is full of hatred, not only for others but also within her own self. Clemencia is a mistress of several men, but one in particular who she happens to find herself in love with, Drew. Clemencia becomes extremely obsessed with her relationship with Drew. “You think I went hobbling along with my life, whimpering and whining like some twangy country-and-western when you went back to her. But I’ve been waiting. Making the world look at you from my eyes.” (pg. 59) Clemencia’s resentment against Megan, Drew’s white wife, goes beyond the necessity of having Drew, but also involves the belief that she will never be like that “ redheaded Barbie Doll in fur coat” (pg. 64) referring to Megan due to the racial inequality she has grown to experience throughout her life.
Clemencia doesn’t want to take the place of Megan, or of any other fooled white woman but instead accepts the fact that she will never be the wife, but always the mistress in contrast to an anglo lady and she is...
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...in this article Clemencia is not falling into becoming anglicized, but instead she is making him part of her and influences him, “My Malinalli, Malinche, my courtesan, you said, and yanked my head back by the braid.” (pg.58)
Works Cited
Wyatt, Jean. "On Not Being La Malinche: Border Negotiations of Gender in Sandra Cisneros's "Never Marry a Mexican" and "Woman Hollering Creek"" Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. 1 & 2 ed. Vol. 14. [S.l.]: Univ Of Tulsa, 1995. 243-71. Print.
Fitts, Alexandra, and University of Alaska. "Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in Woman Hollering Creek." Sandra Cisneros's Modern Malinche: A Reconsideration of Feminine Archetypes in Woman Hollering Creek 29 (2002): n. pag. 2002. Web
Cisneros, Sandra. "About Sandra Cisneros." About Sandra Cisneros. Dennis Mathis, Apr.-May 2008. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
Sandra Cisneros “Never Marry a Mexican” and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are stories that reflect on the cultures in which the characters grew up in. In Never Marry, Clemencia, the narrator, reflects on her past sexual relations as well as her childhood. She speaks of her parents’ marriage and then transitions into her relationship with college professor and his son. In Oscar Wao, Yunior, the narrator, gives a second-hand retelling of Oscar’s experiences in New Jersey growing up as well as in the Dominican Republic. A person’s identity is largely influenced by their culture, this is especially the case in Hispanic cultures. The social constraints that these cultures place on social class, sexuality, and gender norms can be very detrimental to a person’s self-esteem.
The story “Woman Hollering Creek" by Sandra Cisneros describes the lives of Mexicans in a Chicago neighborhood. She depicts the life that women endure as Latino wives through her portrayal of the protagonist, Cleofilas. For Cisneros being a Mexican-American has given her a chance to see life from two different cultures. In addition, Cisneros has written the story from a woman’s perspective, illustrating the types of conflicts many women face as Latino wives. This unique paradigm allows the reader to examine the events and characters using a feminist critical perspective.
In this short story Sandra uncover the tension between Mexican heritage and demands of the American culture. Cleofilas life consisted of never ending chorus, no good brothers, and a complaining father. She is so excited when the day come for her to become married so she can move away from her town where she grew up, were there isn’t much to do except accompany the aunts and godmothers to the house of one or the other to play cards. She was excited to be far away, all she could think about was to have a lovely house and to wear outfits like the women on the tele. Her picture of the ideal Mexican wife soon became a nightmare when she finally arrived to Texas, where she
Nevertheless, Cisneros’s experience with two cultures has given her a chance to see how Latino women are treated and perceived. Therefore, she uses her writing to give women a voice and to speak out against the unfairness. As a result, Cisneros’ story “Woman Hollering Creek” demonstrates a distinction between the life women dream of and the life they often have in reality.
The stories of Sandra Cisnero center on the ideas that Mexican-American women have a hard time dividing themselves between two separate worlds, countries and cultures. Traditionally, Mexican and Chicano women are quiet, obedient and not sexual. American women are outgoing, do their best to be different from traditional standards and have freedom in their sex lives. In the stories “Woman Hollering Creek” and “Never Marry a Mexican,” this separation is explored in the mode of strong, female characters. The analysis shows that the struggle for a Mexican-American woman is real in modern times, but can be overcome with a strong female identity – as a woman undefined by her ethnic background.
Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.
...wler-Salamini and Mary Kay Vaughan, eds Creating Spaces, Shaping Transitions: Women of the Mexican Countryside, 1850-1990 Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
Intertwined in allusions to women of Mexican history and folklore, making it clear that women across the centuries have suffered the same alienation and victimization, Cisneros presents a woman who struggles to prevail over romantic notions of domestic bliss by leaving her husband. In the story Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleófilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally. Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. In Woman Hollering Creek, we see a young Mexican woman, who suddenly moves across the border and gets married. The protagonist, Cleófilas’ character is based on a family of a six brothers and a dad and without a mom, and the story reveals around her inner feelings and secrets.
There was an encounter with the sister in law of a Lima merchant, a misunderstanding with Catalina’s brother over his mistress and other occasions being betrothed to women in the New World. At one point in her travels she comes very close to dying on the way to Tucman from Concepcion. Two men on horseback save her and they take her back to their mistress’ ranch. As gratitude for saving her life she helps tend to the ranch for about two weeks. The mistress is so overwhelming thankful to Catalina that she offers her daughter for her to marry. “And a couple of days later, she let me know it would be fine by her if I married her daughter—a girl as black and ugly as the devil himself, quite the opposite of my taste, which has always run to pretty faces.” (28) These instances happened a lot, where because of her hard work throughout her life she was offered many women to marry. Those engagements, however, ended after she exploited the situation and rode off with gifts and dowry
Juliana Barr’s book, Peace Came in the Form of a Women: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Dr. Barr, professor of history at Duke University-specializes in women’s role in American history. Peace Came in the Form of A Women, is an examination on the role of gender and kinship in the Texas territory during the colonial period. An important part of her book is Spanish settlers and slavery in their relationship with Natives in the region. Even though her book clearly places political, economic, and military power in the hands of Natives in the Texas borderland, her book details Spanish attempts to wrestle that power away from indigenous people through forced captivity of native women. For example, Dr, Barr wrote, “In varying diplomatic strategies, women were sometimes pawns, sometimes agents.” To put it another way, women were an important part of Apache, Wichita, and Comanche culture and Spanish settlers attempted to exploit
In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago and grew up in Illinois. She was the only girl in a family of seven. Cisneros is noted for her collection of poems and books that concentrate on the Chicano experience in the United States. In her writings, Cisneros explores and transcends borders of location, ethnicity, gender and language. Cisneros writes in lyrical yet deceptively simple language. She makes the invisible visible by centering on the lives of Chicanos--their relationships with their families, their religion, their art, and their politics.
Sandra Cisneros's writing style in the novel The House on Mango Street transcends two genres, poetry and the short story. The novel is written in a series of poetic vignettes that make it easy to read. These distinguishing attributes are combined to create the backbone of Cisneros's unique style and structure.
Each part contains short stories within them. These all consist of a heartwarming girl, Esperanza,who matures into a woman and how she faces these gender roles through love and violence. Cisneros alters the name Esperanza with Chayo, Rachel, Lupe, Ines, and Clemenica, to explain differences between them along with to give the story more lewd effectiveness. Sandra Cisnero's main focus throughout the novel was identity. Cisneros starts off in the first section (“My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn), narrating as a young child and further matures into the final section (There was a Man, There was a Woman)....
In the Book women are looked upon as objects by men whether they are boyfriends, friends fathers or husbands. The girls in the novel grow up with the mentality that looks and appearance are the most important things to a woman. Cisneros also shows how Latino women are expected to be loyal to their husbands, and that a husband should have complete control of the relationship. Yet on the other hand, Cisneros describes the character Esperanza as being different. Even though she is born and raised in the same culture as the women around her, she is not happy with it, and knows that someday she will break free from its ties, because she is mentally strong and has a talent for telling stories. She comes back through her stories by showing the women that they can be independent and live their own lives. In a way this is Cinceros' way of coming back and giving back to the women in her community.