lesson 26 Memoir Excerpts of Sandra Cisneros

 Sandra Cisneros -novelist, poet, short story writer, artist, Chicago, Illinois 1954.

Notable works: The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

Cisneros' early life experience provides themes for her writing.  She is the only daughter in a family 

six brothers.  Her family's constant migration between Mexico and United States made her feel

like she was "always straddling two countries...but not belonging to either culture." Much of 

Cisneros' writing deals with the formation of Chicana identity and the challenges of being of 

Mexican descent in an Anglo-American culture.

HAIRS

Everybody in our family has different hair.  My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air.  And me,

 my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands.  Carlos' hair is thick and straight.  He doesn't need

 to comb it.  Nenny's hair is slippery-slides out of you hand.  And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair 

like fur.

But my mother's hair, my mother's hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and 

pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, 

holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she 

makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain

outside falling and Papa snoring.  The snoring, the rain, and Mama's hair that smells like bread. 

-How is family hair textures described in your family?  your father, mother, siblings

-What kind of maintenance stands out in your memory of your family's hair? ie: hair products, 

beauty salon and barber shop stories

But