BY RUBY MORA​

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This edition centers around works by the iconic Sandra Cisneros, whom I’ve recently been reading more works of.

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*The House on Mango Street 

This classic work has been in my periphery for decades mainly due to never getting assigned to read it in public school or even college. I’ve heard so many people praise this collection of vignettes and it’s been on the To Be Read list in my mind long before I actually had a physical TBR stack (it’s a tall stack and I have no shame about it). I’ve gone without ever picking it up until I strolled aimlessly around the local Barnes & Noble one day, as you do, and left with this book. 

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It is everything I thought it would be and then some, to say the least. 

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The House on Mango Street describes a community through the eyes of young Esperanza Cordero as she adjusts to her new home and new neighbors on Mango Street. It’s such a beautiful depiction of a community and of the importance of knowing where you come from, in addition to having a glimpse into so many lives and how these lives experience womanhood, innocence, trauma, complacency, patriarchal perceptions of beauty, and others. It’s no doubt that this is a read for anyone and everyone and I feel like so many people could take away different things from reading this unique and beautifully written prose. 

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Loose Woman

Cisneros, come to find out, also wrote poetry. When I found this out and first heard about Loose Woman, I was ecstatic and looked up fragments from some of the poems up until I was able to pick this collection up. Cisneros writes as if she’s lived a million lives, and it’s especially apparent in this collection. It’s summer evenings of many possibilities. It’s that past love that you wonder about every now and then. It’s the ferocity of being a woman unwilling to conform to society’s definitions of womanhood. Loose Woman is absolute empowerment and pain, what ifs and why-nots, longing and lust. Compared to the previously mentioned work, many of the poems in this collection speaks on subject matter that probably shouldn’t be read by the younger crowd, but it should still be read by those who are mentally prepared and willing to dive in. 

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*Available at Reading Public Library