Sanda Cisneros, author of “The House on Mango Street,” signed
books for audience members after a discussion and reading on
Friday afternoon.
Esteban Cortez / The Collegian
Audience members came from all over the Valley Friday for the appearance of author of “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros, who participated in an hour-long chat with Fresno State professor Alex Espinoza.
Professor Alex Espinoza teaches English and creative writing and has published books, awards and fellowships to his credit, as well as being an old friend of Cisneros.
“Sandra is a dedicated mentor and teacher of young writers, scholars and artist-activists for whom she provides support and guidance via both the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation and the Macondo Foundation,” said Espinoza.
Dr. Vida Samiian, the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities also praised Cisneros and said her visit was of great value to the university.
“We are pleased to be able to attract such a notable author to our community and host these inspiring events on campus as part of our first-year of programming for the Center for Creativity and the Arts,” said Samiian.
After a brief introduction, Espinoza asked Cisneros how she got her start as a writer.
“I like to tell people that if you’re a writer, you’re always a writer, you’re always an artist, you always see the world in an artistic way,” Cisneros said. “And I tell children, ‘If you’re the kind of person that talks to trees ”” and the trees talk back to you,’ then you are probably an artist.”
Cisneros told the attentive crowd that her artistry didn’t translate into writing until she was in middle school when a teacher inspired her.
Cisneros pointed to the value that a teacher can have in the development of their students.
“I thought she was being mistaken ”” so I better not disappoint her,” said Cisneros. “My grades went up because this teacher had faith and belief in me. That’s when I began writing poetry at that time.”
Cisneros, who has written extensively about the Latina experience in the United States, won an American Book Award for “The House on Mango Street.”
“I had just turned 22 years old, and I started my second semester in writers school. One day we were in a seminar talking about houses in literature, when I realized that all of the houses we were talking about, none of them were like my house. Those houses, that wasn’t my house. I said to myself, ‘Oh, what am I doing here?’ I felt that they all felt sorry for me, and then I felt ashamed; then I felt I’d never see my house in a work.”
Cisneros said that over that weekend after the seminar she went from depression to rage, citing the courage that propelled her into the flipside of depression.
“I’ll show them. I’m going to write the book,” said Cisneros. “And I started writing then. I wrote what I knew that no one in the room [of the seminar] could tell me that they knew I was wrong. And subsequently, when I teach writing now I ask my students, ‘What is it that no one else knows but you?’”
Pointing out how modern society wants everything to be done fast and using the allusion of all the prescribed drugs available for every type of ailment, Cisneros warned that these wonder drugs also cover up the reality that an artist must have free in order to create.
“That’s the real reason: to transform all that blackness that’s in our heart to light,” said Cisneros. “And if you don’t do that work to transform it, it comes out in negative ways ”” you know drinking or violence, or depression, rage, shame, all the negative energy ”” if you don’t do something with that, it’ll do something to you.”
Cisneros finds inspiration to write when she’s depressed.
“I have to be sad, I have to cry ”” so that I could write until I’m not sad anymore. If I take that pill, how am I going to feel, how am I going to write,” said Cisneros. “Everything in the universe comes to us for a reason, including grief and death and sadness, if we didn’t have the big exploding cigars in our lives, we wouldn’t sit and process it and be able to graduate to the next level.”
Espinoza said Cisneros has built a literary reputation that is being incorporated into the classroom. On Jan. 21, the English Department and the San Joaquin Valley Writing Project presented a Cisneros-related symposium for elementary, secondary and community college teachers at Fresno State.
“You know I never expected to make any money from art,” said Cisneros. “I always tell young artists ‘Expect you’ll never make a penny from your art, would you still do it?’ If they say ‘No’ then I tell them ‘Well, you’re not an artist’”
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