Existing comment:
Sandra Cisneros, 1954-
Born Chicago, Illinois
Sandra Cisneros is the most prominent Latina voice in American literature. She drew upon her experience as the daughter of a working-class Mexican American family in Chicago in her first published work, The House on Mango Street (1984), which earned her the coveted American Book Award and became required reading in public schools and universities across the country. Cisneros was the first Latina to become a MacArthur Fellow (1995), and in 2002 the New York Times and other national newspapers selected her novel Caramelo as a notable book of the year. Cisneros projects herself in different ways in her many existing portraits, as if alluding to her free mind as a writer -- wearing pink wigs or animal print coats, or with her Virgin of Guadalupe tattoo exposed. Here we see her with her dog on the porch of her former residence in San Antonio, smiling at the viewer and wearing native Mexican attire.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, 2011 |