Woman Hollering Creek - Essay Example

The novel I have chosen is Women Hollering Creek which was published in 1991. It is written by Sandra Cisneros. She is of Mexican heritage but is born in Chicago in 1954. She grew up with her Mexican father, her Mexican-American mother, and her six brothers. This can be difficult for Sandra as an only daughter, since in a traditional Mexican family, their home life is guided by gender-based roles. They moved back and forth from Chicago to Mexico frequently. Because of this, she was not able to make lasting friendships. She turned to reading books and writing poetry as a defense against her loneliness.

In the tenth grade, she was encouraged by her teacher to join the school’s literary magazine and she eventually became its editor. After high school, she went to Loyola University in Chicago where she studied English. In 1974, she realized her passion to write about her experiences as a Mexican-American after attending a creative writing class titled "Ghost Voices: Writing from Obsession”. After graduating from college, she was again encouraged by a professor to enroll at the Iowa Writer's Workshop which is a greatly esteemed graduate school for aspiring writers. This workshop marked a turning point in Cisneros's writing career. Her first published work was published in 1980 entitled Bad Boys. Her other work includes The House on Mango Street (1984), My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1987), Hairs = Pelitos (1994), Loose Woman: Poems (1994), Caramelo or Puro cuento (2002) and Vintage Cisneros (2004).

Cisneros is known to write about the Chicana identity, the challenges of being a cultural hybrid, and experiencing poverty. I hope to see the distinct characteristics of her Mexican-American heritage in the characters in “Woman Hollering Creek”.