Summary Of Sandra CisnerosLittle Miracles, Kept Promises

In the story "Woman Hollering Creek" Sandra Cisneros discusses the issues of living life as a married woman through a character named Cleofilas; a character who is married to a man who abuses her physically and mentally .Cisneros reveals the way the culture puts a difference between a male and a female, men above women. Cisneros has been famous about writing stories about the latino culture and how women are treated; she explain what they go through as a child, teen and when they are married; always dominated by men because of how the culture has been adapted. "Woman Hollering Creek" is one of the best examples. A character who grows up without a mother and who has no one to guid and give her advise about life.

Since than Chicanas have been accused for being traders and have been oppress by society. The author analyzed the roles Chicanas play in Mexican families and how they follow patriarchy views. For example, the mother in the story is describes as unworthy, week and insignificant within the family. However, Mama Luna as well as the young Chicana are being projected otherwise independent, smart, strong, and confident. Viramontes in her story she represents them as warrior Chicanas fighting against the conquistadores that killed many and took away our history.

In the essay The Myth of the Latin Women, Judith Ortiz Coffer, an educated women and from Latin descent, elicits imagery of stereotyping in Hollywood movies and contrasts stereotypes to real life through diction in order to get society to feel guilty for assuming how they act, and ultimately changings society's views on Latina women. First, Coffer portrays imagery of Latina women in Hollywood movies in order to get society to feel embarrassed for judging Latina women so quickly. Take, for example, how Coffer stating "The big and little screens have presented us with the picture of the funny Hispanic maid, mispronouncing words and cooking up a spicy storm in a shiny California kitchen. " This would cause society to realize the effects of stereotyping

A life in the city of Seguin, Texas was not as easy as Cleofilas, the protagonist of the story thought it would be. The author, Cisneros describes the life women went through as a Latino wife through Cleofilas. Luckily, Cisneros is a Mexican-American herself and had provided the opportunity to see what life is like from two window of the different cultures. Also, it allowed her to write the story from a woman’s point of view, painting a vision of the types of problems many women went through as a Latino housewife. This allows readers to analyze the characters and events using a feminist critical view. In the short story “Women Hollering Creek” Sandra Cineros portrays the theme of expectation versus reality not only through cleofilas’s thoughts but also through her marriage and television in order to display how the hardship of women in a patriarchal society can destroy a woman’s life.

A deeper examination of Cisneros’ famous short story, “Woman Hollering Creek” will highlight the liberation of those barriers. In this particular short story Cisneros speaks about the main character, Cleofilas, and her struggle with her abusive husband, Juan Pedro. Cleofilas had to live in a society where the women were simply there to assist their husbands, and God forbid she second guessed him. Living and struggling with the everyday battle of stereotypes, she decided to leave her husband at the end of this short story. This all developed the strong independent female role Cleofilas took on by the end of the story. The main character was forced to believe by her family and her husband that she wasn’t worth anything without a man; this made her doubtful of her abilities and her human capital. In the interview by Martha Satz, Cisneros says, “I think many of my stories come from dealing with straddling two cultures, and certainly it's something I'm going to deal with in future stories” (Cisneros 30). Here, Cisneros agrees that her stories have to do with the endless topic about coming from two cultures and the stereotypes it brings along. From firsthand accounts the Mexican American culture is embraced by “machismo”, or that male superiority. “Woman Hollering Creek”

Social standards may confine individuals from pursuing their own personal interests. Through the relationship between societal standards and individual interests, Sandra Cisneros’ short story, “Woman Hollering Creek,” introduces the roles of men and women in a Hispanic culture. The protagonist, Cleofilas Hernandez, is trapped in an abusive relationship with her newly-wed husband, Juan Pedro. However, Cleofilas tolerates the toxic relationship due to the social norms of her society, which reveals that the Hispanic culture revolves around a patriarchal society and that women have to be submissive to their husbands. As the story progresses, Cleofilas abandons the gender norm to lead an independent lifestyle.

Sandra Cisneros is an influential, activist poet who is engaged in teaching the Chicano community and is a strong voice for the Latino community through her writing. Cisneros has a Mexican father and a Chicana mother which made her part of the two different communities. Cisneros’s work is often influenced by her observations of the people in her community and her writings include many different types of communities. In “His Story” and “Woman Hollering Creek” communities of women influence Sandra Cisneros’ characters. Some of the communities help and others hinder. Overall, the communities impact each narrator's sense of identity.

Mexican-American women, sometimes referred to as “Chicanas,” are oftentimes expected to be submissive daughters and ultimately wives, as the ownership of their bodies is passed from father to husband. From how they dress to whether or not they wear makeup to even the length of their hair is commonly controlled by their fathers and husbands. They are expected to fill their gender role as a caregiver---a mother---to serve their children and their husbands. This differs from the cultural oppression faced by other minority women.

The role of strong female roles in literature is both frightening to some and enlightening to others. Although times have changed, Sandra Cisneros’ stories about Mexican-American women provide a cultural division within itself that reflects in a recent time. The cultural themes in Cisneros’s stories highlight the struggle of women who identify with Mexican-American heritage and the struggle in terms of living up to Mexican culture – as a separate ethnic body. The women in Sandra Cisneros’ stories are struggling with living up to identities assigned to them, while trying to create their own as women without an ethnic landscape. In Sandra Cisneros’ stories “Woman Hollering Creek: and “Never Marry a Mexican” the role of female identities that

The story illustrates the overlapping influences of women’s status and roles in Mexican culture, and the social institutions of family, religion, economics, education, and politics. In addition, issues of physical and mental/emotional health, social deviance and crime, and social and personal identity are

Another important issue that Cisneros addresses is gender roles in the Latino community. In Mexico, being born a male is of higher prestige and value than being born female (Pigeon, J). Therefore, women are raised to become wives a role in which she must obey her husband, since he is the head of the family. Cisneros demonstrates this assumption throughout the story by showing the way Cleofilas

Despite being outcasted by other feminist groups such as the mainstream Chicano movement, and the second wave feminist movement, they wanted to set themselves apart through the use of their own personal experiences with gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, class structure, and so forth. This term relates to Mexican-American and Hispanic women who oppose the traditional “household wife” role. They challenged the fundamental ideologies women, and young women are taught at an early age, and breaks away from the idea that men have dominion over women. This can also be categorized as a movement that fights against stereotypes against women. This term is important in context to our reading’s because this movement paved way for Chicano women to make their voice heard in their community. Just like we familiarize ourselves with key men in the Chicano movement, women also wanted to describe their experiences, and social injustices they were challenged with because they were women on top of other

Cisneros’ family bounced back and forth between Mexico and the United States for most of her youth, which led to firsthand experience in the difficulties of growing up as a multicultural person (Doyle. 54-55). As an adult, she settled in San Antonio, Texas, but that feeling of not belonging to either culture never left her. She drew on this feeling as inspiration for many works, including “Woman Hollering Creek,” a short story about a Mexican woman, named Cleofilas, brought to live in the United States by her new husband. She is excited to leave her lazy brothers and old-fashioned father behind, and dreams of the endless possibilities that

In other words, her mother had been influenced by American values. For this reason, she pushed her daughter to become more like the dominant society (American) and less like the minority group (Mexican). As Anzaldúa integrated to American culture she continued to experience discriminatory circumstances. For instance, while she attended “Pan American University” she had to enroll in speech class “to get rid of [her] [accent]” (Anzaldúa 374). Then, when she “taught High School English” she was discouraged by the principal to using Chicano literature in her class (Anzaldúa 379). On the other hand, the resentful minority group (Spanish speakers) expected her not to use the “oppressor’s language” (Anzaldúa 375).The impact of all these events, influence Anzaldúa to believe that “by the end of this century English, and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos” (Anzaldúa 378). This is important, because Anzaldúa writes, “ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity” (378). If her prediction becomes reality, then most of what surrounds me (and others like me) will disappear.

In the book The House on Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros presents a series of vignettes that involve a young girl, named Esperanza, growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Esperanza Cordero is searching for a release from the low expectations and restrictions that Latino society often imposes on its young women. Cisneros draws on her own background to supply the reader with accurate views of Latino society today. In particular, Cisneros provides the chapters “Boys and Girls” and “Beautiful and Cruel” to portray Esperanza’s stages of growth from a questioning and curious girl to an independent woman. Altogether, “Boys and Girls” is not like “Beautiful and Cruel” because Cisneros reveals two different maturity levels in Esperanza;