You are a human animal. You are a very special breed, or you are the only animal, who can think,

who can reason, who can read. Hello and welcome to Bookworm.

I'm Michael Silverblatt.

Today's show is the first part of a series

entitled Imaging the Us,

an exploration of autobiographical writings,

which is a collaboration between Bookworm and the Getty Center

for the history of art and the humanities.

This collaboration looks at the relationship between autobiographical writings, memory art and the humanities. This collaboration looks at the relationship

between autobiographical writings, memory, and the articulation of an us. Today I have Sandra Cisneros

here. She's a poet and fiction writer, and her books include The House on Mango Street,

Goose Woman, My Wicked Wicked Ways, and Woman-Hollering Creek.

We're going to talk a little bit about the role of memory in writing.

Sandra, do you find that autobiography is the significant springboard to your writing?

Well, you know, people assume that everything I write is autobiographical, and when they

assume that in some ways it's almost as if I've done my job, because I've convinced them that it

seems so true and so real, that they can't just assume it happened to me. I do use my life as a canvas, so to speak,

but I don't want to limit myself with just my life

when there are so many other lives around me that I'm spying on

or have access to privy to some information through people telling me stories. And then there's your

imagination too, if you only base it on your life. You've cut off this jet blood of other

ideas that might come to you. Do you feel that autobiographical writing can help create a cultural identity. Do you look at your work as being a

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