Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros (born in Chicago in 1954) is an American novelist, poet and short story writer of Mexican heritage. She writes in English, and she is one of the most recognized voices of Chicano literature, one that gives shape to the experiences of Latinas and Latino communities in the United States. Her work reaches well beyond those communities and is widely read in schools.

She was the only daughter among six brothers. Her family moved often between Chicago and Mexico City, and during her childhood they rented apartments in poor neighborhoods on the South Side. Later they bought a house in Humboldt Park, a largely Puerto Rican neighborhood on the West Side, and its streets and people would later inspire her first novel. She studied English writing at Loyola University Chicago, graduating in 1976, and earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa in 1978. Before she published widely, she taught high school dropouts and worked in administrative roles.

Her novel The House on Mango Street (1984) is told by a young narrator who observes her neighborhood through short, simple and vivid passages. Her recurring themes include Chicana identity, the tension between Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, sexism and poverty. A National Endowment for the Arts fellowship allowed her to spend a year in Vence, France. She then held writer-in-residence posts at several American universities and worked as an arts administrator in San Antonio, Texas. With Caramelo she turned to a multigenerational story about a Mexican family.

Her legacy lies in bringing Latino experience into mainstream American literature, to the point that The House on Mango Street is often taught as a coming-of-age novel. In 1998 she founded the Macondo Writers Workshop, which offers socially engaged workshops for writers. She now lives in Mexico.