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Maria Elena de Valdes "examines the 'highly lyrical narrative voice' of The House on Mango Street in relation to textual representations of 'a poetics of identity' as a Chicana writer."

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The "Dual"-ing Images of la Malinche and la Virgen de Guadalupe

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The "Dual"-ing Images of la Malinche and la Virgen de Guadalupe

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Leslie Petty examines the conflict of "black/white, good/bad, clean/dirty dualities" which play a prominent role in Esperanza's coming of age.

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Regina Betz discusses some of the literary technique employed by Cisneros, referring to the chapters as "poetically-composed vignettes that include the use of 'Spanglish.'”
She also discusses how Esperanza experiences feelings of belonging in her community.

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Library of Congress: A Growing Community

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Library of Congress: A Growing Community

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This LOC page gives a broad overview of immigration to the US, but with a couple sections that center on immigrants from Mexico, particularly during the mid to late 1900s.

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Mexican - A Growing Community - Immigration...- Classroom Presentation | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress

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Mexican immigration in the 20th century came in three great surges of growth. The first surge began in the 1900s. Revolution in Mexico and a strong U.S. economy brought a tremendous increase in Mexican immigration rates. Between 1910 and 1930, the number of Mexican immigrants counted by the U.S.

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This timeline adds even more detail to our understanding of Mexican immigration in the mid to late 1900s.

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1836

On the February 23, Mexico's, Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, takes possession of San Antonio.

On March 6, day 13 of the siege, Santa Anna's forces breach the Alamo defenses. All the defenders of the Alamo, 189 men, are killed.

On April 21, after joining forces with Sam Houston's army, Juan Seguin defeats the Mexican army in the Battle of San Jacinto-a battle that lasted all of 18 minutes.

1846

In April, Mexico and the United States go to war over disputed territory.

On June 14, Military Commander of California Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo is awakened by an angry mob of Anglo settlers-forcing him to sign the Articles of Capitulation to make California an independent republic.

1895

Cuban rebels stage an insurrection, led by the poet Jose Martí.

1898

On February 15, in Havana Harbor, Cuba, an explosion destroys a U.S. battleship-killing 266 men aboard. The United States subsequently declares war on Spain. The war lasts 13 weeks.

The Cuban Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Cubano) strikes a deal with the U.S. Congress; in exchange for the rebels' cooperation with U.S. military intervention, the United States promises to leave Cuba at the end of the war.

The United States acquires Puerto Rico through war and claims it as a territory.

1901

Under the Platt Amendment, the United States limits Cuban independence as written into the Cuban Constitution. The United States reserves the right to build a naval base on Cuba and enforces that Cuba cannot sign treaties with other countries or borrow money unless it is deemed agreeable to the United States. With these parameters in place, the U.S. government hands the government of Cuba over to the Cuban people.

The Federación Libre de los Trabajadores (Workers Labor Federation) becomes affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, which in turn breaks from its prior policy of excluding non-whites.

1910

The Mexican Revolution begins as a revolt against President Porfirio Diaz. The railroads that had once served as a means for trade and development now serve as the main escape from the violence of the revolution.

1917

Puerto Ricans are granted U.S. citizenship.

In February, Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1917, which enforces a literacy requirement on all immigrants.

On April 6, the United States declares war against Germany, joining WWI.

With many able-bodied American men off to war, "temporary" Mexican workers are encouraged and permitted to enter the United States to work.

In May, the Selective Service Act becomes law, obligating Mexican immigrants in the United States to register for the draft even though they are not eligible.

1932

The United States government begins to deport Mexicans. Between 300,000 and 500,000 Mexican Americans would be forced out of the United States in the 1930s.

1943

On August 23, Macario Garcia becomes the first Mexican national to receive a U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor, yet is refused service at the Oasis Café near his home in Texas.

Prompted by the WWII labor shortage, the U.S. government launches an agreement with Mexico to import temporary workers (braceros), to fill the void in agricultural work.

1944

D-Day invasion of Europe on June 6.

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 is passed, providing settlements for veterans. Mexican American veterans, however, have trouble receiving these benefits.

Operation Bootstrap, a program initiated by Puerto Rico to encourage industrialization and to meet U.S. labor demands, fuels a large wave of migrant workers to the United States.

1948

Dr. Hector Garcia, a witness to racial injustice, begins holding meetings for Mexican Americans to voice their concerns, and in March they establish a new Mexican American movement: the American GI Forum.

This group gets national attention after a Latino soldier killed in action, Pvt. Felix Z. Longoria, is refused burial in Texas. Then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, appalled by this blatant bigotry, makes arrangements for Longoria to be buried at the prestigious Arlington National Cemetery.

1961

On April 17, 1,400 U.S.-trained Cuban exiles invade Cuba-within 72 hours, Fidel Castro's forces easily defeat the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Aspira (Aspire) is founded to promote the education of Hispanic youth and acquires a national following, serving Puerto Ricans wherever they live in large numbers.

West Side Story is made into a film; the role of Anita goes to a Puerto Rican, Rita Moreno, who takes home an Academy Award for her performance.

Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, is assassinated in a C.I.A.-backed plot.

1966

Striking workers are subjected to physical and verbal attacks throughout their peaceful demonstrations, and on March 16, the Senate Sub-Committee on Migratory Labor held hearings in Delano.

March 17, the morning following the hearings, Cesar Chavez sets out with 100 farm workers to begin his pilgrimage to the San Joaquin Valley. After 25 days, their numbers swell from hundreds, to an army of thousands.

On Easter Sunday, the state capital is finally in sight. With public sympathy mounting and the spring growing season upon them, growers finally agree to meet with union representatives.

1968

On March 6, a walkout is planned and coordinated among East L.A. high schools. Approximately 10,000 students peacefully walk out of four schools and are joined by parents and supporters. Police are sent to maintain order-and things get out of hand.

Following the police riot, on March 7 the students walk out again. The walkouts continue for two weeks until the demands are met.

Just days after the opening of the HemisFair in San Antonio, Chicano high school students stage walkouts-first in San Antonio, then in 39 towns across Texas, eventually spreading to nearly 100 high schools in 10 states.

Jose Angel Gutierrez is the mastermind behind much of this activism.

1970

Herman Badillo is elected into the U.S. House of Representatives, making him the first Puerto Rican to serve in Congress.

In Crystal City, Texas, Jose Angel Gutierrez forms a political party, La Raza Unida ("The United Race").

Elections in April see an unprecedented victory for Chicanos. Gutierrez is elected county judge and La Raza Unida controls not only the school board, but city and county government as well.

1974

Willie Velasquez of San Antonio organizes thousands of voter registration drives across the Southwest, encouraging the Latino population to vote.

He notices, however, that the problem is not the number of Latino voters, but the electoral system. He later would file voting rights lawsuits-never losing a case.

Congress passes the Equal Educational Opportunity Act to create equality in public schools by offering bilingual education to Hispanic students.

1980

In the spring, Fidel Castro announces that any Cuban who wishes to leave may do so. Shortly after this declaration, a ramshackle armada sails from South Florida to the port of Mariel.

Over a period of five months, more than 125,000 Cubans arrive in South Florida.

The newly arrived Cubans are quickly branded as mentally ill or criminal, following a CBS News story. Although only 4 percent are from mental hospitals, more than 25,000 have criminal records.

The media perpetuates the stereotype of mentally ill or criminal in shows and movies, such as Miami Vice and Scarface.

The English-only campaign comes roaring back, with Emmy Shafer again at the helm. In the 1980 election, voters approve the ordinance to end official bilingualism.

1996

Proposition 187 is ruled unconstitutional, on the grounds that only the federal government has the authority to regulate immigration. Eliseo Medina spearheads the movement to file lawsuits against Proposition 187.

Medina becomes the first Mexican American Vice President of the Service Employees International Union.

2003

Hispanics are pronounced the nation's largest minority group-surpassing African Americans.

CHLI is the premier organization founded by members of Congress to advance the Hispanic Community's Economic Progress with a focus on social responsibility and global competitiveness.

2010

With no new comprehensive federal immigration policy in place, states began to enact their own.

In April, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signs the broadest and toughest anti-illegal immigrant law in U.S. history. The legislation, SB-1070, cracks down on anyone harboring or hiring undocumented immigrants and gives local police unprecedented powers.

Marco Rubio, a second-generation Cuban American, is elected U.S. Senator from Florida.

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1836 On the February 23, Mexico's, Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, takes possession of San Antonio. On March 6, day 13 of the siege, Santa Anna's forces breach the Alamo defenses. All the defenders of the Alamo, 189 men, are killed.

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Blind Spot: 'The House on Mango Street' by Sandra Cisneros

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Blind Spot: 'The House on Mango Street' by Sandra Cisneros

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This reflection offers a unique perspective on The House on Mango Street and Esperanza. The author had recently given birth to her first child. She discusses how reading this novel affected her outlook on not only being a young woman, but on raising a daughter too.

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Editor's note: We asked Tribune writers to reflect on a piece of the larger cultural puzzle (a popular TV show, a movie, a book, etc.) they were missing - until now.
I'm not sure how I went so long without reading "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros. The first time I remember taking note of it was in the mid-'90s when one of my college professors, hellbent on exploding the dead-white-man canon, put it on a list of books that should be required reading in America. Yet she didn't assign Cisneros's clear-eyed chronicle of life as lived by a Latina girl, so I didn't read it.

It wasn't until I became books editor for the Tribune that I started to feel true embarrassment: How was it possible I hadn't read this Chicago classic?

I feel lucky I waited.

I'm sure if I had read it at any age, I would have been arrested by its language. In a mere 110 pages, through a series of vignettes, the book constructs a neighborhood and illuminates the interior life of Esperanza. She's a child still, struggling to make sense of the adults around her. Esperanza tells us that she was named after her great-grandmother:

"She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. ... I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window."

Had I read this book sooner, I suspect I would have appreciated it. Cisneros' keen sense of detail, the strong rhythm of the prose, her sly sense of humor and the electric character of Esperanza make it irresistible. I doubt, though, that it would have leveled me the way it did last week.

We forget that the consumption of art is a two-way street: It's as much about the reader as it is about the book in front of them. A little more than a year ago, I became a mother, opening an emotional portal I wouldn't have been able to fathom previously. It's cliche, I know. But to ignore how it's changed the way I see and read and think would be naive.

Now when I read about Esperanza - and the gulf that's just beginning to crack open between the childhood she's lived and the adult she will become - I empathize not only as a daughter but as a woman who's trying to raise a daughter. From the first lines about the family's home on Mango Street, we sense Esperanza's disappointment and thinning patience with her parents' dreams:

"(I)t's not the house we thought we'd get. ... For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go."

By the end, we understand that Esperanza, like all of us, will fall victim to that old truism that you can never go home again. Perhaps becoming a parent is parallel: I can't imagine a way to go back to how I thought and felt before our child arrived.

In one of the more playful chapters, Esperanza offers her "scientific" view of growing hips.

"They bloom like roses. ... One day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them? Got to have room. Bones got to give."
jeday@chicagotribune.com RELATED: Blind Spot: David Bowie " Blind Spot: 'Dawson's Creek' and 'The O.C.' " Blind Spot: 'The Wire' "

Columnist John Warner offers his picks for great reads of the year - so far - including "The Italian Teacher" by Tom Rachman, "Bad Blood" by John Carreyrou, "The Overstory" by Richard Powers, "Sunburn" by Laura Lippman, "Red Clocks" by Leni Zumas, and "Just the Funny Parts" by Nell Scovell.

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Blind Spot: 'The House on Mango Street' by Sandra Cisneros

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Editor's note: We asked Tribune writers to reflect on a piece of the larger cultural puzzle (a popular TV show, a movie, a book, etc.) they were missing - until now. I'm not sure how I went so long without reading "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros.

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‘The House on Mango Street’ is poignant, moving 

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‘The House on Mango Street’ is poignant, moving 

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This article is a review of an adaptation of the book into a play by Amy Ludwig and directed by Alexandra B. Meda.

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The magic of Sandra Cisneros' 1984 novel The House on Mango Street is its intimacy; though the world may seem foreign, dark at times and sparkling at others, the characters seem like family. The play follows a year in the life of a young Chicana, Esperanza (played by the gracious Elizabeth Nungaray), as she comes of age in a world ridden with racial tension, poverty, issues of sexuality and violence. Her journey is expressed in vignettes, the interconnectedness of which is conveyed poignantly through a talented ensemble whose members interchangeably play Esperanza's neighbors, friends and family. Adapted for the stage by Amy Ludwig and directed by Alexandra B. Meda, Greenway Arts Alliance's The House on Mango Street captures the grandiosity of Cisneros' prose while carefully balancing the contemporary relevance of its larger themes through the intimacy of its performance.

Ludwig's adaptation presents two versions of Esparanza, a young and an old, which supplement each other's story of what happened. The Fun Home-esque narrative style works seamlessly to underscore the unified nature of past and present in a way that dissolves the linearity of time. When telling the tragic story of her friend Sally's sexual assault, the audience witnesses a heartwarming moment of the two Esparanzas coming together, embracing as the younger one weeps. The older Esparanza, played by the powerful Estela Garcia, braids the younger's hair and wipes away her tears as they sit center stage. The scene highlights the hopeful fertility of storytelling - the boons of a wound - reminding us that no matter the circumstances, there will come a time to coddle the child within, and to make memories less haunting.

What accentuated the power of the performance was how in tune both Nungaray and Garcia were with each other. Aside from a few minor dialogue hiccups, the pair delivered much of Cisneros' original prose with the intensity and grace of spoken word poets.

A certain childish gaiety perfaced the play, a facet that lay principally in the hands of ensemble members Graciela Lizet Rodriguez and USC alumnus Christine Marie Mantilla. The two drove various scenes that explored girlish curiosity and fear about what awaited them in the faraway world of womanhood. The girls giggled about how their hips would "bloom like roses" with pregnancy, dipped their feet in the world of dangerous flirtation while tip-toeing the streets in a neighbor's old heels, and made up their minds that they would not be one of those women who "sit their sadness on their elbow." Perhaps some credit for the play's streak of joyful innocence should go to costume designer Beryl Brachman. With sunflowers in her hair and peach overalls, Esperanza appeared radiant with curiosity despite the underlying tragedy of her stories. Rodriguez was also exceedingly captivating in pink skinny jeans and a baby blue hoodie-like garment.

With a minimalistic set and complete lack of props, the play revolved around a bleak, three-story wooden structure that sat center stage. The structure transformed over Esperanza's many stories into a bicycle, a crowded yellow Cadillac, the porch of a house and everything in between. That being said, the minimalist approach to the mise-en-scène provoked a thrilling motif of physicality from the cast. Franceli Chapman of the ensemble consistently stole the spotlight with her fluid, joyful dancing; in an early vignette she plays Marine, a seductive young girl who smokes cigarettes and dances as Esperanza watches. With her arms raised high and a cigarette between her fingers, Marine's shadow grows into a consuming presence that captures the rebellious lining of innocence.

Perhaps most encapsulating of the divide between Mango Street and the rest of America was the story of a man who brings Marine, his pregnant wife, to the country. Esperanza and other neighbors speculate that the reason she doesn't leave her house is because she's afraid to speak English. Suddenly, Esperanza's assumption becomes reality: Her husband yells at her, demanding that she learn English. As her son sings the jingle of an English Pepsi commercial, she wails, "Speak English."

As the U.S. continues its battle with countless issues of race and immigration, The House on Mango Street reminds us what and who we are fighting for. In the play's finale, a teary-eyed Esperanza declares that one day she will "say goodbye to Mango Street." As the ensemble gathers around her, she says: "I'm too strong for her to keep me here forever."

What she means is, one day, she'll find a life that is free of the various issues that color her life in the impoverished suburb. What she means is, we need to find a way to help.

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'The House on Mango Street' is poignant, moving | Daily Trojan

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The magic of Sandra Cisneros' 1984 novel The House on Mango Street is its intimacy; though the world may seem foreign, dark at times and sparkling at others, the characters seem like family.

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Sandra Cisneros provides much of the needed context for the novel. Among other things, she explains the roots of the name of the novel, and answers whether Esperanza is based off of herself.

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Julian Olivares "examines Cisneros's use of imagery in The
House on Mango Street, analyzing the metaphor of the house and the dialectics of inside vs.
outside, here vs. there, integration vs. alienation, and comfort vs. anxiety."