Biography is the story of one’s life. Since the core text of the unit will be Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street, it will be important to have a working knowledge of Cisneros’s background.
Born on December 20, 1954, author Sandra Cisernos was raised in a Mexican-American family in Chicago.19 Cisneros was born the third of seven children and is the only daughter.20 While Cisneros was growing up, her family often travelled back and forth between Chicago and Mexico, returning to a new home in Chicago most of the time.
Due to access to the public library system, Cisneros was an avid reader in her youth, escaping into the world of the written word.21 She wrote her first poem when she was ten years old.22 In high school, she was encouraged to explore her creativity and write poetry, as well as being the editor of her school’s newspaper.23 Cisneros earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Loyola University in 1976 and her Masters of Fine Arts from University of Iowa in 1978.24
Her work experience includes working to prevent high schoolers from dropping out in addition to being a creative writing teacher to students of many different ages.25 Her first published work was a book of poetry, Bad Boys, printed in 1980.26 Cisneros was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1982, which allowed her to work on The House on Mango Street.27 Her best known prose is the 1985 Before Columbus Award-winning work The House on Mango Street, which was published in 1984. It has since become a significant piece in the contemporary American literary canon, taught in schools throughout the United States.28
In 1995, Cisneros was recognized for her contributions with a MacArthur Fellowship. Cisneros’s work expands beyond just the novel. Further works include a poetry book My Wicked, Wicked Ways, a children’s book Have You Seen Marie?, and a collection of short fiction Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories.29 Cisneros has also published a collection of essays, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life. Barack Obama awarded Sandra Cisneros a National Medal of Arts on September 22, 2016.30 Cisneros is the founder of the Macondo Foundation, an organization that promotes social engagement among writers.31 As the director of the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation, Sandra Cisneros is able to provide grants to Texas writers.32
A proud dog mom of four, Cisneros currently resides in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.33
