“As a woman and a writer…I’m always aware of being on the frontier. Even if I’m writing about Paris or Sarajevo, I’m still writing about it from the border position that I was raised in.” Sandra Cisneros. Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia.

A natural storyteller, Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, (1984) awarded the Before Columbus American Book Award, has enchanted both children and adults. Raised on the border, the only girl among seven offspring, Cisneros revels in social consciousness, cultural, and gender issues. She graduated from Loyola University and entered the prestigious University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she received an M.F.A. in 1978. Aware that mainstream American literature neglected the Latino/a experience Cisneros began to fill that void. The author of poetry and story collections, Bad Boys (1980), My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Loose Woman (1994), Woman Hollering Creek and other Stories (1992), Cisneros published a children’s book, Hairs: Pelitos (1994), and has written for Americas Review, Glamour, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and Village Voice. Her most recent book is Caramelo (2003).