User:Victoriashakespeare/sandbox

I would like to add in details of the banning of the books in the MAS program from Tucson, Arizona. I would also like to discuss the work that Cisneros did while traveling with teachers who protested Bill 2281 in Tucson. She traveled across the southwest doing lectures and courses regarding banned literature and her book

After doing more reading I would like to further discuss the genre/structure/writing style and outline how that affects reader's interpretation and understanding of the story. Additionally, I would like to write about how the book is labeled as "child's fiction" but how it could also be labeled as "adult poetry"

Despite its high praise by critics and the Latino community, The House on Mango Street has also received criticism and in some cases has been banned from school curriculum.  The book was part of the Mexican-American studies program that began in public schools in Tucson, Arizona.  State legislature ultimately banned the program and the books that made up the curriculum under statute H.B. 2281 (Diaz).  In retaliation to the law, teachers, authors, and activists headed by Tony Diaz, formed a caravan in Spring of 2012 that moved across the southwest doing workshops in major cities along the way.  The caravan, called the Librotraficante Project, started at the Alamo and ended in Tucson orchestrating workshops distributing the banned books, and informing attendees of the H.B. 2281 (Hoinski).  It additionally allowed for author participating. Cisneros travelled with the caravan reading The House on Mango Street and running workshops about Chicano literature along the way.  She brought numerous copies of the book with her, distributed them, and discussed thematic implications of her novel as well as talked about the books autobiographical elements (Fernandez).

Cisneros first began writing about the protagonist, Esperanza, when she had just finished graduate school.  She says Esperanza was born from personal feelings of displacement she had while writing. Cisneros had just left the University of Iowa and had felt marginalized as a person of color, a woman, and an individual of lower socioeconomic status. The House on Mango Street became a way for her to solidify her identities through reflection in writing.  Not wanting to write directly about herself, the book took form in a combination of genres pulling mantles of poetry, autobiography, and fiction.  Some parts of the book directly reflect Cisneros’ life, while others stray.  Esperanza is one of two children, with a younger sister.  In reality, Cisneros was the middle child and only girl with two older brothers and four younger brothers.  While writing, Cisneros explains that because she was new to fiction, she craved simplicity initially so she made Esperanza’s family smaller than her actual family had been.  She thought it would be easier to write about fewer family members.

The act of writing generally was something that Cisneros’ family and father specifically did not initially support.  Her father never wanted her to be an author.   When she was growing up, the only famous Latinas were those on TV, and in the seventies they were seen most often on television as weather girls. Cisneros envisioned her as a newscaster for that reason.

Cisneros says that the goal of The House on Mango Street was to make the novel accessible to everyone.  She states that she wrote the book initially as a catharsis, not even realizing that it would eventually become a voice for Latinos and enveloped in the works of great Latino literature.  She wanted it to be lyrical enough to be appreciated by poetry enthusiasts, but also accessible enough that laymen could read and enjoy the novel.  She wanted it to resonate with children, adults, and ages in between, in totality choosing to keep the novel short so that even the busiest of parents and adults who worked long shifts like her father always had, could still find time to read it.

FINAL DRAFT (WARNING none of my paragraphs are stand alone, they will all be inserted into pre existing sections in the article and therefore when read in this way can sound a bit random and missing a lead or intro sentence, must be read in article to fully contextualize)

Despite its high praise by critics and the Latino community, The House on Mango Street has also received criticism and in some cases has been banned from school curriculum.  The book was part of the Mexican-American studies program that began in public schools in Tucson, Arizona.  State legislature ultimately banned the program and the books that composed the curriculum under statute H.B. 2281 (Diaz).  In retaliation to the law, teachers, authors, and activists headed by Tony Diaz, a teacher from the MAS program formed a caravan in spring of 2012 that moved across the southwest conducting workshops in major cities. The caravan, called the Librotraficante Project, originated at the Alamo and ended in Tucson orchestrating workshops distributing the banned books, and informing attendees of H.B. 2281 (Hoinski). It addition, Cisneros travelled with the caravan reading The House on Mango Street and ran workshops about Chicano literature.  She brought numerous copies of the book with her, distributed them, and discussed thematic implications of her novel as well as talked about the book’s autobiographical elements (Fernandez).

*THE REST OF THIS WAS PULLED FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH CISNEROS AND THEREFORE DOES NOT HAVE INTEXT CITATIONS*

Cisneros first began writing about the protagonist, Esperanza, when she had just finished graduate school.  Cisneros created Esperanza from personal feelings of displacement she felt while writing.  She had recently graduated from the University of Iowa and had felt marginalized as a person of color, a woman, and an individual of lower socioeconomic status. The House on Mango Street became a way for her to solidify her identities through reflection in writing.  Not wanting to write directly about herself, the book takes form in a combination of genres pulling mantles of poetry, autobiography, and fiction.  Certain parts of the book directly reflect Cisneros’ life, while others stray.  Esperanza is one of two children, with a younger sister. In reality, Cisneros was the middle child and only girl with six brothers, two older and four younger. While writing, Cisneros explains that because she was new to fiction, she initially craved simplicity, which resulted in Esperanza’s family being smaller than her actual family had been.  She believed it would be easier to write about fewer family members.

Cisneros’ family and father specifically did not initially support her writing.  Her father never wanted her to be an author.   When she was growing up, the only famous Latinas were those on TV, and in the seventies they were seen most often on television as weather girls. Cisneros and her father envisioned herself as a newscaster for that reason.

Cisneros asserts that the goal of The House on Mango Street was to make the novel accessible to everyone.  She states that she wrote the book initially as a catharsis, not even realizing that it would eventually become a type of voice for Latinos and become enveloped in the works of great Latino literature.  She wanted it to be lyrical enough to be appreciated by poetry enthusiasts, but also accessible enough that laymen could read and enjoy the novel.  She desired the book to resonate with children, adults, and ages in between, and in totality chose to keep the novel short so that even the busiest of parents and adults who worked long shifts like her father always had, could still find time to read it.

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. “House on Mango Street Celebrates 25 Years.” National Public Radio. By Renee Montagne, 9 Apr. 2009. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story. php?storyId=102900929. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.

de Valdes, Maria Elena. "The Critical Reception of Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street." Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Tom Burns and Jeffrey W. Hunter, vol. 193, Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center, proxy.library.georgetown.edu/login ?url=http:// go. galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p= LitRC&sw=w&u=wash43584&v=2.1&it=r&Id=GALE%7CH1100059813 &asid=3cb113de1a70899aae048bf4ae302d7 5. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016. Originally published in Gender, Self, and Society: Proceedings of the IV International Conference on the Hispanic Cultures of the United States, edited by Renate von Bardeleben, Peter Lang, 1993, pp. 287-295.

Diaz, Tony. “The House on Mango Street Goes to Trial: #MayaVsAZ.” The Huffington Post, 21 Dec, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tonydiaz/the-house-on- mango-street-goes-to-trial_b_6391022.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.

Garonzik, Rebecca Rae. "'To name that thing without a name': exploring the link between poetry and the child's voice in Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street." Letras Femeninas, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011, p.139+. Literature Resource Center, proxy. library.georgetown.edu/login?url= http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p =LitRC&sw=w&u=wash43584&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA338418237&asid =ed9e1e2147a6f235f72ee9989707ff4b. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.

Hoinski, Michael. “GTT, The Papers Trail, San Antonio.” The New York Times, 8 Mar, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/us/gtt.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2016.

(The exact format with the proper indentations would not transfer from my word document, however, everything else here besides the indentations should be formatted properly)Victoriashakespeare (talk) 22:41, 13 November 2016 (UTC)