36 Facts About Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20,1954 and is an American writer.

Sandra Cisneros is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street, and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.

Sandra Cisneros is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, was awarded one of 25 new Ford Foundation Art of Change fellowships in 2017, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature.

Sandra Cisneros has held a variety of professional positions, working as a teacher, a counselor, a college recruiter, a poet-in-the-schools, and an arts administrator, and has maintained a strong commitment to community and literary causes.

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 20,1954 to a family of Mexican heritage, the third of seven children.

Sandra Cisneros's great-grandfather had played the piano for the Mexican president and was from a wealthy background, but he gambled away his family's fortune.

Sandra Cisneros's paternal grandfather Enrique was a veteran of the Mexican Revolution, and he used what money he had saved to give her father, Alfredo Cisneros de Moral, the opportunity to go to college.

However, after failing classes due to what Sandra Cisneros called his "lack of interest" in studying, Alfredo ran away to the United States to escape his father's anger.

Sandra Cisneros' one strong female influence was her mother, Elvira, who was a voracious reader and more enlightened and socially conscious than her father.

For high school, Sandra Cisneros attended Josephinum Academy, a small Catholic all-girls school.

Sandra Cisneros was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1976, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1978.

Sandra Cisneros was a writer-in-residence at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Sandra Cisneros has worked as a college recruiter and an arts administrator.

Sandra Cisneros' writing is often influenced by her personal experiences and by observations of many of the people in her community.

Sandra Cisneros once found herself so immersed in the characters of her book Woman Hollering Creek that they began to infiltrate her subconscious mind.

Sandra Cisneros has been instrumental in building a strong community in San Antonio among other artists and writers through her work with the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Sandra Cisneros del Moral Foundation.

Sandra Cisneros founded the Alfredo Sandra Cisneros del Moral Foundation in 1999.

Sandra Cisneros co-founded with Bryce Milligan the Annual Texas Small Bookfair, the forerunner to the Inter-American Bookfair.

That Sandra Cisneros had garnered enough attention to be taken on by Vintage Press said a lot about the possibility for Chicano literature to become more widely recognized.

Sandra Cisneros spoke of her success and what it meant for Chicana literature in an interview on National Public Radio on 19 September 1991:.

Quintana states that Sandra Cisneros's writing is accessible for both Anglo- and Mexican-Americans alike since it is free from anger or accusation, presenting the issues in an approachable way.

Sandra Cisneros's writing has been influential in shaping both Chicana and feminist literature.

Sandra Cisneros enjoys manipulating the two languages, creating new expressions in English by literally translating Spanish phrases.

For Sandra Cisneros, Spanish brings to her work not only colorful expressions, but a distinctive rhythm and attitude.

Works by Sandra Cisneros can appear simple at first reading, but this is deceptive.

Sandra Cisneros invites the reader to move beyond the text by recognizing larger social processes within the microcosm of everyday life: the phone conversation in "The Marlboro Man" is not merely idle gossip, but a text that allows the reader to dig into the characters' psyches and analyze their cultural influences.

Sandra Cisneros's writing is rich not only for its symbolism and imagery, deemed by critic Deborah L Madsen to be "both technically and aesthetically accomplished", but for its social commentary and power to "evoke highly personal responses".

When Sandra Cisneros describes the aspirations and struggles of Chicanas, the theme of place often emerges.

Chicanas frequently occupy Anglo-dominated and male-dominated places where they are subject to a variety of oppressive and prejudicial behaviors; one of these places that is of particular interest to Sandra Cisneros is the home.

Sandra Cisneros explores the issue of place in relation not only to gender but to class.

Sandra Cisneros dies grief-stricken by the edge of the river after she is unable to retrieve her children and it is claimed that she can be heard wailing for them in the sound of the wind and water.

Sandra Cisneros received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1981 and 1988, and in 1985 was presented with the American Book Award by the Before Columbus Foundation for The House on Mango Street.

Sandra Cisneros has further received the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN Center West Award for best fiction, and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award for Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.

Sandra Cisneros was recognized by the State University of New York, receiving an honorary doctorate from Purchase in 1993 and a MacArthur fellowship in 1995.

In 2003, Sandra Cisneros became part of the second group of recipients of the newly formed Texas Cultural Trust's Texas Medal of Arts.

Sandra Cisneros was honored with the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame's Fuller Award in 2021.