Crossroads; Sandra Cisneros

But for crossroads, one of the many ways in which the success of Hispanic writers is measured is by their acceptance into mainstream publishing houses. Random House has just published Sandra Cisneros' latest book of short stories. The book captures the experiences of a Chicano woman growing up in the Midwest. From Albuquerque, Marcos Martinez reports. Sandra Cisneros' collection of short stories is called Woman Hallering Creek. The title story is an actual place name in Texas, and Cisneros' story is an updated version of the popular folk tale La Yorona, The Crying Woman. He is one of the characters that says in one of the stories, those who suffer have a special power, and that is a power to understand someone else's pain. And I think that that is the power that's coming through in Chicano writing that we're

writing about other people's pain. And it can be very healing to recognize and to read about someone that is going through a parallel pain as your own, even though our experience is grounded in America that's very different than the America we see presented in American literature. But Cisneros' writing is not all about pain. Her stories include a broad range of topics, from historical fiction to love stories, and the recollection of childhood experiences like the story Mexican movies. I like the Pedro Infante movies best. He always sings writing a horse, and wears a big sombrero, and never tears the dresses off the ladies, and the ladies throw flowers from a balcony, and usually somebody dies. Not Pedro Infante, because he has to sing the happy song at the end. Sandra Cisneros recalled her Chicago childhood in a 1985 collection of autobiographical stories called House on Mango Street.

That book was originally published by Art de Publico Press, and is now being reissued on the vintage label. The transition is becoming more common, among a handful of Latino authors. We've been publishing by small presses, or vanity presses, or university presses, and until we come by way of New York. Even though our book has come out, and it's identical, say for example House on Mango Street, which came out by Art de Publico, and now is becoming out this spring by vintage, even though it's the same book, but because it's coming out with the vintage label, people are going to re-look at it and look at it as a legitimate work, as opposed to an illegitimate work. So, in some sense, you know, my coming through Random House and through New York now is my green card, because I always see Chicana writers as being legal aliens in American literature. We are American writers. Cisneros tells stories that transcend any particular region or group. She recently demonstrated her humorous talent at a bookstore reading in Albuquerque. She reads from the story, Bianne Pretty, which tells of an unlikely love affair between a young woman writer, House sitting in Texas, and a young man from Michoacán, who works

as an exterminator. Flavio entered my life via pink circular rolled into a tube and wedged in the front gate curlicube. Special promotion. La cucaracha pa churada pest control, over ten years of experience. If you are tired of roaches and hate them like many people do, they can't afford to pay a lot of money to have a house free of roaches, roaches, roaches. The most complex of the short stories in Cisneros' new book is the historical fiction, Eyes of Zapata. Cisneros became fascinated with the life of the common-law wife of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. She soon found, however, that there existed little historical information on the woman who bore two of Zapata's children. So she set out to tell the story of Inés Alfaro. When I see our future in our past, Emiliano, one single thread already lived and nothing to be done about it. And I see the face of the man who will betray you, the place and the hour, the gift of a horse,

the color of gold dust, a breakfast of warm beer swirling in your belly, the hasienda gates opening, the pretty bugles during the honors, ta-de-ri, ta-de-ri, bullets like a sudden shower of stones. And in that instant, appealing of relief almost, and loneliness, just like that other loneliness of being born. Sandra Cisneros is the author of Woman Hallering Creek, published by Random House. She also has a book of poetry called My Wicked Wicked Ways and is now working on her first novel. Across roads, this is Marcos Martinez in Albuquerque.