Writer Sandra Cisneros Finds the Poetry of the World

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2023

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Writer Sandra Cisneros has been making sense of the world on the page since 1984’s The House on Mango Street. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we wanted to replay our 2022 conversation with the beloved poet.

We discuss her first poetry collection in 28 years, Woman Without Shame (4:40), why she chooses to write ‘dangerous’ pieces (6:18), and the significance of her poem, “My Mother and Sex” (8:38). Then, we walk through Sandra’s coming of age between Mexico and Chicago (15:16), the sixth-grade teacher that guided her entry into art (19:39), her epiphanies on class in graduate school (23:49), the “Pilsen Barrio” that shaped her seminal novel, The House on Mango Street (29:05), and how Studs Terkel informed her lifelong approach to story (30:17).

On the back-half, we discuss the loves and losses that inspired Sandra’s early sensual poems (36:36), how she documented her power through “Neither Señorita nor Señora” (40:04), a painful period captured in “Year of my Death” (50:30), the day her mother visited her writer’s office in San Antonio (57:56), and why she still has more to say (and write) at age 67 (59:59).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San by writer and poet Sandra Cisneros. Her debut book was called The House on
0:48.8	Mango Street. It told the story of a 12-year-old Chicana growing up as Cisneros did in a Latin neighborhood of Chicago.
0:57.2	Since the book's release in 1983, it sold over 6 million copies and has become required reading in middle schools, high schools, and universities across the country.
1:09.0	It's also made her a key figure in the Mexican American artist movement, which aims to tell our stories
1:16.4	with candor and complexity. Those same qualities can be found in woman without Shame, her first poetry collection in 28 years.
1:26.6	The book was published around this time last year, but it was recently released in paperback
1:32.0	and can now be found wherever you do your reading.
1:36.0	With Hispanic Heritage Month upon us, I wanted to highlight Sandra and all the work she's contributed
1:42.1	to the culture for nearly four decades.
1:45.4	We talk about growing up between the two worlds of Chicago and Mexico, the influence of
1:50.6	her mother and radio host Studs Turkle, her tumultuous time at the famed
1:56.3	Iowa Writers Workshop, the highs of Mangostreat and the lows that followed, and how in her 60s she feels like she's just getting
2:06.0	started. Like the David Byrne talk we played this past Sunday, this is also just one of
2:11.8	my favorites from 2022.
2:14.0	However, I do want to note that at the 45 minute mark,
2:18.0	there is a mention of suicide.
2:21.0	It's part of a larger conversation around mental health, especially within the Mexican community.
2:27.0	It's really brief, but I just wanted to mention it to all our listeners here at the top and make sure that you're aware of that before
2:34.7	getting started. Most of this conversation however is a celebration of her
2:40.1	fascinating life and her remarkable work, which again if you haven't checked out a house
2:46.3	on Mango Street or her new poetry collection, Woman Without Shame, you can do so wherever you get your books. We'll be back this
2:55.7	coming Sunday with a new episode featuring writer Zady Smith. Zady is one of the
	...

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