The House on Mango Street Study Guide

Sandra Cisneros was the only daughter in a family of six boys, and her family moved frequently between Chicago and Mexico City as her father took different jobs. Cisneros’s mother was her strongest positive female influence, as she encouraged Sandra to read and continue her education. Cisneros began writing poems at age ten, and she later attended Loyola College and then the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. At Iowa she began writing about her own unique experiences instead of trying to imitate the primarily white male voices of the traditional literary canon. Cisneros is best known for The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. She has become a leading figure of the Chicano literary movement, and has taught at several high schools and colleges. She currently lives and writes in San Antonio, Texas.

Cisneros’s work has become a landmark for American minority women writers, and she is one of the most famous Chicana and Latina writers. The House on Mango Street is set in a barrio (primarily Latino neighborhood) of Chicago, and portrays both the poverty and the male-dominated culture of Cisneros’s own upbringing. Her work criticizes both the sexism of the Mexican-American barrio and the racism and classism (and sexism) of English-American culture, and has become an important part of the increasing dialogue surrounding these issues.

The House on Mango Street is part of the Chicano and Latino literary movement, which includes authors like Rudolfo Anaya, the author of Bless Me, Ultima. The House on Mango Street has also been compared to Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, which also deals with women finding their own independent space (both literally and figuratively) in which to write.