“I am a woman, and I am a Latina. Those are the things that make my writing distinctive. Those are the things that give my writing power.”
Sandra Cisneros is a writer, best known for her first novel The House On Mango Street. She is regarded as a pioneer in Chicana, or Mexican-American, literature, and has received numerous awards for her writing which covers cultural hybridity, economic inequality, and feminism. Cisneros also received the National Medal of Arts from Barack Obama for her influential literary works, which have sold millions of copies. Later in her career, she established the Macondo’s Writer Workshop, which provides socially conscious writing workshops, and founded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation, which awards talented writers from Texas.
Nationality: Mexican-American
Industry: Publishing
Q: What is it like knowing that this book is taught so widely in American schools today? – The Chicago Public Library
A: “I don’t take it personally. It has nothing to do with me, or with my book. The book is being taught because it is telling a story that has spiritual resonance at this time in history. It is serving a need, it is doing its healing, it is transmitting light, but I was just the conduit for that light, not the source. I am grateful that the timing was right for my labor to be recognized, and that the readers were ready to hear this story at this time. I am fortunate and blessed to be the flute, but I recognize and acknowledge I am not the music.”
