Elizabeth K. Johnston
The House on Mango Street
will be an integral part of this unit in terms of both reading and writing. Cisneros writes in a style that is appealing and accessible to students at all skill levels, which is important to a classroom of heterogeneously grouped teens. Cisneros uses the stories of her life as fodder for her fictional vignettes, a craft I’d like students to learn in their own writing. Cisneros’ collection of vignettes begins with the innocence of childhood, the fond memories of friends, and the bond shared with family. She then chronicles several of Esperanza’s adventures out into the world, writing about events that take away innocence-ones that challenge what Esperanza knows and believes. Yet she ends up back at home, writing for those who couldn’t get out of the neighborhood, or the cycle of poverty.
In this sense,
The House on Mango Street
is a perfect text for students to study structurally and aesthetically as a model for colorful storytelling that traces a circular journey and is grounded in rich cultural history. As we read “My Name,” and other vignettes in
Mango Street,
the students will emulate Cisneros’ writing process of using old family stories, legends, or anecdotes commonly shared orally in order to explore stories of their own. For example, Esperanza uses her name to tell a story about herself, her grandmother, and her desire to break the cycle of unfair gender expectations. She recalls an old story about her grandmother (whose name she shares) being carried off in a sack and taken as a bride to illustrate her family’s traditional “place” for women. The students will later use their own names and any personal family stories, legends or traditions to tell a fictionalized story that makes meaning of their experience, while featuring elements of author’s craft and theme.
As I mentioned earlier, students always seem to love hearing a story read aloud. Couple this with Cisneros’ remarks about her stories, and it makes perfect sense to use audio at this stage of the unit. “For me, a story’s a story if people want to
hear
it; it’s very much based on oral storytelling. And for me, a story is a story when people give me the privilege of listening when I’m speaking it out loud” (Cisneros, interview, 1992). We will alternate between reading Cisneros’ text, and listening to a CD of Cisneros reading
The House on Mango Street
in class. Cisneros’ unique voice only adds to the personality of her already captivating vignettes from which students learn about Esperanza, the book’s young Latina protagonist, her neighborhood, her family, her journey, her obstacles, and her strength. Hearing Cisneros read her own writing helps the reader envision what the author intended for her stories. Cisneros writes as a representative of those who are frequently disenfranchised, therefore it is important to hear Cisneros’ voice as Esperanza as it helps to capture the essence of her character; it is also a helpful tool for the students to continue studying the techniques of storytelling for an audience.
At this point in the unit, I will have reminded the class that while Cisneros draws on her rich personal experience to tell her stories, we cannot assume that her work is autobiographical, nor should we confuse Esperanza with Cisneros. Rather, we should draw on our knowledge of storytelling, as well as our own experiences, to understand the reasons Cisneros traces Esperanza’s journey; we should explore the reasons Cisneros might choose to retell the stories of those traditionally left out of American history and popular culture, from her perspective. Of this notion, Cisneros responds in the following quotation during an interview with Gayle Elliot: “I can’t stand when I read authors that don’t know anything about our community writing about us, or even when I read men who do know our community but don’t know the half of the communitydon’t know the women’s halfwriting about us. I feel like Latino men misrepresent Latina women.” As with the children’s books, students will follow the protagonist’s journey, identify and analyze elements author’s craft, make personal connections, and write about the themes Cisneros tackles in n
The House on Mango Street.
