The House on Mango Street

Text: The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Fun fact: This book is the first book that I ever read in Spanish (even though it was originally published in English). I was 16. Our entire discussion surrounding this book was the language and the world in which Esperanza describes as a young Latina. Reading this book now at 23 in English and in a critical English Teacher sort of way is so different.

Personally, I really love this book. It holds such a special place in my heart for many many reasons. It tells such a magnificent story of a latina navigating her way through her adolescence in a neighborhood she is less than pleased with and how she grows, learns, and understands what life is like for latin american women in the U.S.

"Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with shiny knives. They are stupid people who are lost and got here by mistake," (Cisneros 28).

This might be selfish of me, but for this reason, I don't know that I would want to teach this book in my classroom. I really love this book for a Latin American Studies context, even an an upper level Spanish course (like I did) or a Spanish Immersion English class perhaps.

The vignettes are stunning and Cisneros describes the innocence of a young latina in the most beautiful, sometimes humorous, and real way. It makes me feel every emotion throughout the short 110 pages and it is a magnificent work of prose.

That is what I love so dearly about this book. This book is what made me decide to study Latin American Studies in college. That is why I feel I can never teach this book to an English class, I need there to be plenty of time to go over immigration, Latinx identity in the U.S. and border identity in order to feel like I can properly teach this book. It could be feasible in an English class, but if I was ever going to teach it, I would want to make sure it gets plenty of time and gets to go into plenty of depth, which I don't know would be possible or not.