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Introduction

Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican American author, poet, and educator. She is best known for her novel The House on Mango Street (1984).

Early Life

Cisneros was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 20, 1954. She spent her childhood in Chicago and in Mexico. Her later writing reflects both heritages. In 1976 she graduated from Loyola University Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in English. Two years later she earned a master of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa.

Writer and Educator

After graduating, she worked as a high school teacher and counselor. She was also a visiting writer and gave lectures at many universities.

In 1984 Cisneros published The House on Mango Street. The book is about a young girl growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. It won the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award in 1985. Cisneros also wrote Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), which won numerous awards, including the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. The children’s book Hairs/Pelitos (1994) uses the differing hair textures within a single family to explore differences between people. The book is in both Spanish and English.

In addition to novels, Cisneros wrote several volumes of poetry. One of her most popular books of poems is My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987), a collection inspired by her experiences living in rural Mexico and urban Chicago. Cisneros published a book of essays about her life, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, in 2015.

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