190 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
RESOURCES
Primary Works
“Only Daughter,” in Latina: Women’s Voices from the Borderlands, edited by Lillian
Castillo-Speed (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 156–160.
Discusses her feelings about being described as the only daughter and only a
daughter, and her father’s eventual pride in her success as an author.
Pilar E. Rodríguez Aranda, “On the Solitary Fate of Being Mexican, Female,
Wicked, and Thirty-Three: An Interview with Writer Sandra Cisneros,”
Americas Review, 18 (Spring 1990): 64–80.
Extensive interview discussing The House on Mango Street and Mexican American
culture.
“Sandra Cisneros,” in Interviews with Writers of the Post-Colonial World, edited by
Feroza Jussawalla and Reed Way Dasenbrock ( Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 1993).
A collection of interviews in which Cisneros discusses her life and provides
insight into her work.
Criticism
Eva Paulino Bueno, “The Importance of Being Sandra (Cisneros),” in A Compan-
ion To US Latino Literatures, edited by Carlota Caulfield and Darién J. Davis
(Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), pp. 37–50.
Analysis of Cisneros’s work that places her in the context of the feminist
movements.
Felicia J. Cruz, “On the ‘Simplicity’ of Sandra Cisneros’s House on Mango Street,”
Modern Fiction Studies, 47, 4 (2001): 910–946.
Examines responses to the novel in order to explain its “widespread appeal.”
In doing so, the essay resists simplistic readings that focus on depictions of
“reality,” and encourages readers to look at the novel’s “ideological and narra-
tive intricacies.” The review of the reception of The House on Mango Street is
also useful.
Jacqueline Doyle, “More Room of Her Own: Sandra Cisneros’s The House on
Mango Street,” MELUS, 19 (Winter 1994): 5–35.
A critical essay that situates The House on Mango Street within the context of a
women’s literary tradition and compares it to the work of Virginia Woolf.
Robin Ganz, “Sandra Cisneros: Border Crossings and Beyond,” MELUS, 19
(Spring 1994): 19–29.
A critical overview of Cisneros’s development as a writer who introduces and
makes accessible culturally specific details within mainstream themes.
Margot Kelley, “A Minor Revolution: Chicano/a Composite Novels and the Lim-
its of Genre,” in Ethnicity and the American Short Story, edited by Julia Brown
(New York: Garland, 1997), pp. 62–84.