Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros

Woman Hollering Creek and other stories is a collection of short stories by Sandra Cisneros first published in 1992. The collection is split into three parts, with the first two parts being very short stories with most being only a couple pages. In the third part, the stories are longer and quite powerful.

The two stories that stood out as being very memorable are, “Woman Hollering Creek” the title story, and “Never Marry a Mexican.” The latter is my favorite in the collection. It deals with things that her mother taught her and how she has to come to terms with the way Mexicans, including herself, are categorized and labeled in the US. This is one of the best short stories I have read in a long time.

The issues of identity and growing up are relatable to most people and Cisneros does a great job of highlighting issues that people have to deal with. She presents a complex main character that has to come to terms with her infidelities, which she is both proud and not proud of at the same time. The story is told to some other person, almost in recollections and she does a great job of showing how complex our relationships with each other can be.

Cisneros shows a much more mature work than The House on Mango Street, which she wrote when she was quite young.

Woman Hollering Creek and other stories was published a few years after Mango and really showcases her writing ability. Each story is different and yet they all deal with love and relationships. From a woman fantasizing about being in love with Zapata, to an immigrant women in an abusive relationship, the stories are all powerful and definitely worth a read.
Discover Sandra Cisneros again and enjoy her wonderful, poetic, and at times dark writing style.
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The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street

Published 1984

The House on Mango Street is a coming of age story by Sandra Cisneros first published in 1984. I remember reading this story in Middle School and thinking that this was the first time I was able to really relate to a character. The short novel is written in a series of vignettes dealing with memorable experiences growing up in a poor Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago. The stories deal with issues of identity and growing up to relationships and sex. The main character describes her experiences and her friends who are discovering many things about relationships and what it means to become a woman.

We are currently planning an introduction to literature course and this is one of the books that keeps coming up because we are looking at different recurring themes in literature including banned books and why people protest literature. This and the rest of Sandra Cisneros works were banned in Arizona in 2012 following a law banning works that “gave students a one-sided approach to history promoting Latino Activism.” Cisneros gave a reading at my University in 2012 promoting her new book and in the Q and A was asked what she thought about Arizona banning her books. She said it was great, that she was having one of her best years in book sales. The unintended publicity found a new generation of readers for her and she was grateful.

The House on Mango Street is available on the Kindle for $5.99. Pick up your copy of the latest banned “anti-American” book and see what all the fuss is about.

For more on the Arizona debacle follow this link.

http://www.votolatino.org/blogs/sandra-cisneros-among-authors-banned-tucson-arizona

Check out our Facebook Page and Like us to keep up to date on the latest Kindle Literature news. You can share this post or any others on your social media of choice and bookmark the site for future posts, free Kindle books, and the best Kindle novels. Make sure you subscribe and check back for more. You can follow me on twitter @seframos. Happy Reading.