Celebrating 40 years since publication, “The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros is a beloved modern classic that tells a tale that spans generations.
Cisneros, who draws from her own Mexican American heritage, is one of the Latin community’s literary masters with a subtle message of empowerment in her storytelling.
The book has been translated into multiple languages in its four decades, and is taught in schools around the world.
The coming-of-age story packs a punch within the slim book, centering on a young Latina girl in Chicago in the US. Esperanza, who takes us on her journey, tells her story of living in a harsh neighborhood and dealing with less-than-ideal circumstances as the American dream crumbles around her and she decides how her future should be — on her own terms.
The book is a verbal collage, made of well-crafted vignettes and written in such crisp and clear prose that the reader could easily devour it in one sitting while feeling they had fallen into the pages and slipped into the world created by the author.
The mundane, the magnificent and the tortured all earn a place in Cisneros’ pages. The rage and the tangled feelings one must go through in order to navigate the modern world as a young girl are all at play.
Although written from the perspective of a young girl, it is a universal story that anyone of any age or gender should read. It is about carving out a space in the world and figuring out why you are where you are and if you belong there.
“The House on Mango Street” might be a fictional location but it is perhaps a place where we have all lived, if only in our minds.
