(Ebook) Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek by

Cecilia Donohue ISBN 9789042031302, 9042031301 Pdf

Download

https://ebooknice.com/product/sandra-cisneros-s-woman-hollering-
creek-51656242

★★★★★
4.6 out of 5.0 (14 reviews )

Instant PDF Download

ebooknice.com
 (Ebook) Sandra Cisneros's Woman Hollering Creek by Cecilia
Donohue ISBN 9789042031302, 9042031301 Pdf Download

EBOOK

Available Formats

■ PDF eBook Study Guide Ebook

EXCLUSIVE 2025 EDUCATIONAL COLLECTION - LIMITED TIME

INSTANT DOWNLOAD VIEW LIBRARY

We have selected some products that you may be interested in
Click the link to download now or visit ebooknice.com
for more options!.

(Ebook) Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook by Loucas, Jason; Viles,

James ISBN 9781459699816, 9781743365571, 9781925268492,
1459699815, 1743365578, 1925268497

https://ebooknice.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-6661374

(Ebook) Red Hat Linux Administration - A Beginner 27s Guide by

Michael Turner, Steve Shah ISBN 9780072226317, 0072226315

https://ebooknice.com/product/red-hat-linux-administration-a-
beginner-27s-guide-1207238

(Ebook) Learn to Howl by Jennifer R. Donohue

https://ebooknice.com/product/learn-to-howl-55967688

(Ebook) Hidden Creek Again (Hidden Creek High #5) by Jaxson

Kidman ISBN B07TZM7VD4

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-again-hidden-creek-
high-5-10587050
(Ebook) Hidden Creek Always (Hidden Creek High #8) by Jaxson
Kidman ISBN B07ZXCFKXG

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-always-hidden-creek-
high-8-10587056

(Ebook) Hidden Creek Secrets (Hidden Creek High #1) by Jaxson

Kidman ISBN B07RW9FB24

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-secrets-hidden-creek-
high-1-10587058

(Ebook) Hidden Creek Love (Hidden Creek High #2) by Jaxson

Kidman ISBN B07RWMZL4W

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-love-hidden-creek-
high-2-10587060

(Ebook) Hidden Creek Darkness (Hidden Creek High #3) by Jaxson

Kidman ISBN B07SK9FC8D

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-darkness-hidden-creek-
high-3-10587062

(Ebook) Hidden Creek Forever (Hidden Creek High #4) by Jaxson

Kidman ISBN B07T1N5J9P

https://ebooknice.com/product/hidden-creek-forever-hidden-creek-
high-4-10587064
 Sandra Cisneros’s
Woman Hollering Creek
DIALOGUE
9

Edited by

Michael J. Meyer
 Sandra Cisneros’s
Woman Hollering Creek

Edited by
Cecilia Donohue

Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010

Cover Image adapted by Maciek Niedorezo

Cover Design: Pier Post

The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “ISO
9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.

ISBN: 978-90-420-3129-6
E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-3130-2
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010
Printed in the Netherlands
 Contents

General Editor’s Preface vii

Introduction xi

I. Negotiating Borders: Issues

of Sociocultural Cooptation

Amphibious Women: The Complexity of

Class in Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek
and Other Stories
Michael Carroll and Susan Naramore
Maher 1

So You’ll Know Who I Am: Inventory and Identity

in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Betsy Winakur Tontiplaphol 17

The Chicana Trinity: Maternal Mestiza

Consciousness in Woman Hollering
Creek and Other Stories
Shannon Wilson 31

Author Dialogue 53

II. Toys, Tiny Candies, and Telenovelas:

Popular and Material Culture as Storytelling Agents

Male and Female Roles in Mexican-American Society:

Issues of Domestic Violence in
“Woman Hollering Creek”
Ana María Almería 61

Reading the Puns in “Barbie-Q”

Mary S. Comfort 79
The Gummy Bears Speak: Articulating Identity in
Sandra Cisneros’s “Never Marry a Mexican”
Dora Ramirez-Dhoore 89

Author Dialogue 107

III. Images of Masculinity

“Are you my general?”: Revising

Representation in “Eyes of Zapata”
Philip Coleman 115

Boys to Men: Redefining Masculinities in

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Pamela J. Rader 131

Author Dialogue 151

IV. Images of Women: Role Expectations

and Conflict

Resemantization of Chicana Motherhood and Sexuality

Through the Virgin of Guadalupe
María Jesús Castro Dopacio 155

The Cries of La Llorona: Maternal Agency in

“Woman Hollering Creek”
Brandy A. Harvey 169

Voicing Taboos in Sandra Cisneros’s

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
Victoria L. Ketz 189

Author Dialogue 227

About the Authors 231

Index 235
 General Editor’s Preface

The original concept for Rodopi’s new series entitled Dialogue

grew of out two very personal experiences of the general editor. In
1985, having just finished my dissertation on John Steinbeck and
attained my doctoral degree, I was surprised to receive an invitation
from Steinbeck biographer, Jackson J. Benson, to submit an essay for
a book he was working on. I was unpublished at the time and was
unsure and hesitant about my writing talent, but I realized that I had
nothing to lose. It was truly the “opportunity of a lifetime.” I revised
and shortened a chapter of my dissertation on Steinbeck’s The Pearl
and sent it off to California. Two months later, I was pleasantly
surprised to find out that my essay had been accepted and would
appear in Duke University Press’s The Short Novels of John Steinbeck
(1990).
Surprisingly, my good fortune continued when several months
after the book appeared, Tetsumaro Hayashi, a renowned Steinbeck
scholar, asked me to serve as one of the three assistant editors of The
Steinbeck Quarterly, then being published at Ball State University.
Quite naïve at the time about publishing, I did not realize how
fortunate I had been to have such opportunities present themselves
without any struggle on my part to attain them. After finding my
writing voice and editing several volumes on my own, I discovered in
2002 that despite my positive experiences, there was a real prejudice
against newer “emerging” scholars when it came to inclusion in
collections or acceptance in journals.
As the designated editor of a Steinbeck centenary collection, I
found myself roundly questioned about the essays I had chosen for
inclusion in the book. Specifically, I was asked why I had not
selected several prestigious names whose recognition power would
have spurred the book’s success on the market. My choices of lesser
known but quality essays seemed unacceptable to those who ran the
conference which produced the potential entries in the book. New
voices were unwelcome; it was the tried and true that were greeted
with open arms. Yet these experienced scholars had no need for
further publications and often offered few original insights into the
Steinbeck canon. Sadly, the originality of the lesser-known essayists
met with hostility; the doors were closed, perhaps even locked tight,
against their innovative approaches and readings that took issue with
scholars whose authority and expertise had long been unquestioned.
viii General Editor’s Preface

Angered, I withdrew as editor of the volume, and began to think

of ways to rectify what I considered a serious flaw in academe. My
goal was to open discussions between experienced scholars and those
who were just beginning their academic careers and had not yet
broken through the publication barriers. Dialogue would be fostered
rather than discouraged.
Having previously served as an editor for several volumes in
Rodopi’s Perspective of Modern Literature series under the general
editorship of David Bevan, I sent a proposal to Fred Van der Zee
advocating a new series that would be entitled Dialogue, one that
would examine the controversies within classic canonical texts and
would emphasize an interchange between established voices and those
whose ideas had never reached the academic community because their
names were unknown. Happily, the press was willing to give the
concept a try and gave me a wide scope in determining not only the
texts to be covered but also in deciding who would edit the individual
volumes.
When Cecilia Donohue asked about a volume on Sandra
Cisneros’s Women Hollering Creek, I was quite pleased to see a
proposal that would discuss the contribution of an Hispanic author.
While a number of scholars have published articles on this text in a
variety of journals, and while a volume on Alice Walker’s The Color
Purple was already in print in the Dialogue series, I wanted to
encourage a wide range of ethnic interests in the texts chosen for
consideration. The resulting essays address many of the issues that
evoke spirited discussion about this novel and cause it to be such a
controversial text: the challenges of negotiating socio-cultural as well
as geographical borders; the significance and utilization of religious
imagery, folkloric material, and popular culture in character
development; the diverse roles and representations of male characters;
the frank discussion of women’s sexuality all were features that make
this collection of stories a popular if often controversial selection for
literature courses. In this volume’s pages, such issues are not avoided
but are addressed skillfully by authors with a variety of publication
histories, some experienced, some neophytes. All are committed to a
discussion of what earlier reviewers had determined were pluses and
non-essential to understanding of Women Hollering Creek’s
characters and plot and to addressing elements in Cisneros’s stylistics
and themes that were seen as flaws required new or renewed attention.
As you will see, some of authors break fertile new ground in the
process, and offer approaches which will help readers see the novel
 General Editor’s Preface ix

from several new angles. This volume will soon be followed by a

volume on Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, and one on
Willa Cather’s Song of the Lark. Volumes of Ford Maddox Ford’s The
Good Soldier and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot are also in
progress. It is my hope that as each title appears, the Dialogue series
will foster not only renewed interest in each of the chosen works but
that each will bring forth fresh interpretations and will open doors to
heretofore silenced voices. In this atmosphere, a healthy interchange
of criticism can develop; one that will allow even dissent and opposite
viewpoints to be expressed without fear that such stances may be seen
as negative or counter-productive.
My thanks to Rodopi and its editorial board for its support of this
“radical” concept. May you, the reader, discover much to value in
these new approaches to issues that have fascinated readers for
decades and to books that have long stimulated our imaginations and
our critical discourse.

Michael J. Meyer
2/07/2010
 Introduction

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 20th,

1954, the third child and only sister of six brothers. Her father,
Alfredo Cisneros del Moral, a native of Mexico City who would take
his family on several extended trips to Mexico over the years, worked
as an upholsterer in Chicago. Her mother, Elvira Cordero Anguiano,
was a first-generation Mexican-American who was born in the Windy
City. Remaining close to home to attend college, Sandra Cisneros
earned a Baccalaureate Degree from Loyola University in 1976;
immediately following her graduation, she was admitted into the
prestigious University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Receiving her
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 1978, she wrote a
collection of poems for her master’s thesis entitled My Wicked Wicked
Ways (which would be published nine years later by Third Woman
Press).
Upon completing her graduate work at Iowa, Cisneros took a
teaching post at the Latino Youth Alternative High School in Chicago;
by this time she had commenced work on the youth-oriented vignettes
that would comprise her first published prose work, The House on
Mango Street. In 1980, Bad Boys, another poetry collection, was
published. Two years later, she was awarded a grant from the National
Endowment for the Arts; this afforded her the opportunity to focus on
completing The House on Mango Street, which was published by Arte
Público Press in 1984 and was honored with the Before Columbus
Foundation American Book Award the following year.
In 1987, the year My Wicked Wicked Ways was published, Cisneros
accepted a visiting professorship at California State University in
Chico and was awarded a second grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts. Her second NEA award was devoted to the writing of
Woman Hollering Creek, which was published in 1991 by Random
House; this year also marked her reception of a Lannon Literary
Award as well as the reprinting of The House on Mango Street by a
larger publishing house—Vintage Books. In addition, Cisneros spent a
semester at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, during 1991,
teaching a course in United States-Latina Literature. In 1994, Random
House published a second volume of Cisneros’s poetry, Loose
Woman. One year after that, the author received a MacArthur
Foundation “Genius Grant.” In 1997, her bilingual children’s book
Hairs/Pelitos was published.
xii Introduction

In the late 1990s, Cisneros purchased a home in San Antonio,

Texas, the locale which figures prominently in Woman Hollering
Creek and where she still resides today. Her relocation to the staid
King William neighborhood caused quite a stir when she painted her
Victorian home a bright purple color; her choices of “colores fuertes”
[strong colors] and “colores alegres” [happy colors] were a nod to her
heritage—“the colors of my Mexican memories,” as she would
explain in House and Garden magazine (Shea 34). Nature may have
muted the color of her home over time but the writer’s dedication to
her colorful, colorful ways remains intact, as indicated by the
following statement on her web site: “My house is no longer violet
because the sun faded it from violet to blue after a few years. We
painted it Mexican-pink so it can fade into pink, then built my office
in the backyard and painted it Mexican-marigold. The colors make me
happy.”
In 2002, Alfred A. Knopf published Sandra Cisneros’s most
ambitious work, Caramelo. A 430-page novel, the work chronicles the
Reyes family within the context of United States and Mexico history.
The basic story of Caramelo was originally planned for inclusion in
Woman Hollering Creek, but, as Cisneros stated, “It just kind of
swelled up, and I could never finish it” (Shea 32). An internationally-
known author whose works have been translated in many and varied
world languages, Cisneros remains active in the literary community,
promoting the efforts of the next generation of writers through her
creation and leadership of the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo
Cisneros del Moral Foundation, the latter named for her father who
passed away in 1997. She is currently at work on a second children’s
book, a guide for writers, and a new collection of short fiction.
The story Cisneros relates in Caramelo may not have been included
in Woman Hollering Creek as originally planned, but it is not as if the
latter suffers for this deletion. The significance of Woman Hollering
Creek as a major contribution to women’s literature in general and to
Chicana literature in particular, was reflected in the critical reception
upon its publication. Marrihelen Ponce, writing in Belles Lettres,
hailed Woman Hollering Creek as “an important addition to fiction by
ethnic American women” (40). Acknowledging that the female
protagonists of Woman Hollering Creek are “wiser
Mexicanas/Chicanas” than those who populated the pages of The
House on Mango Street, Ponce singled out “Eyes of Zapata,” the first-
person narrative of Inés Alfaro Aguilar, mistress of General Emiliano
Zapata, as the “strongest work in this collection” (40). Peter S.
 Introduction xiii

Prescott and Karen Springer, in their review of Woman Hollering

Creek for Newsweek, also commented on the “strong girls, strong
women” who are featured in the stories; they designate the title story
of Cleófilas, who survives and presumably thrives after the ill-fated,
abusive marriage that takes her from Mexico to Texas, as the highlight
of the book (60). Patricia Hart, in her review of Woman Hollering
Creek for The Nation, observed the richness of Cisneros’s prose
creations: “Cisneros breathes narrative life into her adroit, poetic
descriptions, making them mature, fully formed works of fiction”
(598). Merle Rubin, reviewing the book for the Wall Street Journal,
pointed out the energy of Cisneros’s prose, manifested in the writer’s
“keen interest in language” and “penchant for vivid and exotic
imagery … Ms. Cisneros portrays her people with vigor and not a
trace of sugar coating” (A9).
The sole objection to Woman Hollering Creek raised from more
than one critical quarter relates to its gendered portrayals. Alongside
her aforementioned words of praise in the Wall Street Journal, Rubin
argued that the collection of stories, featuring Chicana protagonists
imbued with “strength, self-assertion, bilingualism, [and] sexual
liberation” could arguably be perceived as a “product of politically
correct thinking” (A9). Ilan Stavans, reviewing the book for
Commonweal, took issue with alleged stereotypical characterizations:
“The image of Hispanic men … is grim and depressing: while the
guys are always abusive, alcoholic, and egotistical, the girls are naïve,
doll-like, occasionally in control yet obsessed with how nature
transforms itself, how relationships deteriorate, and how people
escape their responsibilities to meet a different, although not a better
fate” (524). In addition, Barbara Brinson Curiel reports that in
response to the publication of the title story in the Los Angeles Times
Magazine, Miguel Sanchez Gracia’s letter to the editor condemned the
“derogatory” and negative portrayals of Hispanic immigrants (52-53).
Yet, for Stavans, this weakness was outweighed by Cisneros’s
“welcomingly different … refreshing and often hypnotizing” writing
style (526).
Over more than a decade since Woman Hollering Creek was
published and these reviews appeared in print, controversies about the
book prevail. Some have been echoed in college classrooms where
Woman Hollering Creek is taught. I recall female students in my
Women in Literature class taking issue with the “promiscuous”
portrayals of the female characters in this text, alongside male
students who consider the text a primer in “male bashing.” Potential
xiv Introduction

risks of teaching Women Hollering Creek in the secondary school

classroom are clearly articulated by Carol Jago in her book Sandra
Cisneros in the Classroom: “Do Not Forget to Reach.” Jago’s text,
primarily dedicated to approaches to teaching Cisneros’s initial
volume of prose, The House on Mango Street, includes this cautionary
message to educators:

Do not even think of assigning Woman

Hollering Creek and Other Stories to students
unless you have read it from cover to cover.
While the grouping of stories in Part I, “My
Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn,” will seem
familiar territory to any student who has read
The House on Mango Street, later stories deal
with increasingly mature themes, specifically
sex and sexual power. You know your students.
You know your community. The literary merit
of the book is not in question. What may be is
the appropriateness of this text for a particular
group of students. At my school we use Woman
Hollering Creek in a Latino literature senior
elective. I teach in liberal Santa Monica and I
still think the book would be an unwise choice
for ninth-grade literature circles following the
study of The House on Mango Street. The
problem is that even when you win a censorship
battle, you lose. (83)

While Jago’s admonishments continue to be of value, particularly

her reservations regarding Woman Hollering Creek as a teachable text
for middle-school students, one cannot dismiss the increasing
relevance of this work even after the passage of nearly two decades
since its initial publication. Many of the “mature themes” addressed in
the stories have become commonplace quotidian content in
contemporary news media. In addition, the relatively short units of
fiction that comprise the book play to today’s students’ exposure to
and comfort with brief clusters of prose. Finally, the book, as it
approaches its adult years, maintains its relevance in its tribute to the
achievement of voice (both literal and figurative) by members of
demographic groups that have been historically and traditionally
underrepresented and silenced.
Given the assorted testimonies in Woman Hollering Creek from
women characters seeking self-actualization, it should come as no
surprise that the majority of scholarly criticism published on this work
 Introduction xv

examines it through the lens of feminist theory, particularly in

relationship to role expectations and conflicts. A number of critics
base their analyses of selected stories/protagonists in Woman
Hollering Creek on modern interpretations of traditional Mexican
female cultural icons, notably The Virgin of Guadalupe (the Mexican
image of the Virgin Mary); Malinalli or La Malinche (the mistress of
Aztec conquistador Hernán Cortés); and La Llorona (“Weeping
Woman”), the legendary figure who drowned her children on account
of a dysfunctional romantic relationship, and hence was condemned to
weep forever in search of them. This latter folktale, the details of
which take several variations, provides the inspiration for the
overarching title of the book and the title story. Academic discussions
addressing the connections between this triumvirate of
religious/historical/folkloric figures and Cisneros’s fictive creations
for Woman Hollering Creek been published by Jean Wyatt (1995),
Jacqueline Doyle (1996), Ana María Carbonell (1999), Maythee G.
Rojas (1999), and Alexandra Fitts (2002).
Criticism on Woman Hollering Creek has examined the work
through other critical lenses as well, albeit with far lesser frequency.
Elizabeth Mermann-Jozwiak’s 2000 postmodern reading of the text
focuses on the nonlinear implementation of appropriation and pastiche
in “Little Miracles, Kept Promises.” Rose Marie Cutting, in an article
published in 2003, also chooses a postmodern approach to Woman
Hollering Creek, arguing that the indefinite dénouement of the final
story in the book, “Bien Pretty,” with its multiple conclusive
components, play to the fragmentation and ambivalence inherent in
postmodern literature. Additional critical study of Woman Hollering
Creek speaks to structuralist/formalist/new critical considerations. Jeff
Thomson, in a 1994 character study, identifies Inés of “Eyes of
Zapata” as the standout protagonist in the collection due to her
courage, multidimensionality, and strong sense of self-perception.
Mary Pat Brady and Sonia Saldívar-Hull, both writing in 1999
(apparently the banner year for scholarship on this particular Cisneros
volume), explore how geographical, spatial, and border elements
inform the safety and empowerment of the Woman Hollering Creek’s
female protagonists. Finally, in an essay from 1996 endorsing close
reading of the text, Harryette Mullen pays tribute to the
“cryptography” crafted for Woman Hollering Creek that results in a
distinctive bilingualism informed by the mining of Mexican culture.
Building upon an impressive body of existing scholarly product,
the eleven essays in this collection expand upon published
xvi Introduction

observations, address key themes of the book, and endorse new

directions in textual interpretation. They are grouped by section, along
the lines of a common textual theme or element addressed by each
essay. In addition, at the conclusion of each section, each author has
provided candid commentary/dialogue in response to the other articles
in the section, providing springboards for additional reader discussion.
In the first section, “Negotiating Borders: Issues of Sociocultural
Cooptation,” Michael Carroll and Susan Naramore Maher, in their
article “Amphibious Women: The Complexity of Class in Sandra
Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories,” focus on the
socioeconomic duality of the two protagonists they argue as among
Cisneros’s “most memorable”: Clemencia of “Never Marry a
Mexican” and Lupe of “Bien Pretty.” Carroll and Maher make note of
the differing degrees of success achieved by these two lead characters:
Clemencia declares her amphibiousness, talking
the talk, yet remaining caught in a stagnant cycle
of betrayal and abusive power. Lupe, however,
walks the walk of amphibiousness as well,
playfully inverting and subverting patriarchal
mythology and celebrating her greater freedom
with the wild birds, the raucous urracas of San
Antonio, in a celebratory assertion that concludes
both her narrative and Cisneros’s entire collection.

In her article entitled “So You Know Who I Am: Inventory and
Identity in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Betsy Winakur
Tontiplaphol surveys all three sections of Cisneros’s book to identify
and analyze a variety of lists of either concrete items or abstract
concepts which are compiled by several of the protagonists. Much as
Carroll and Maher identify the amphibious nature as a means of
negotiating socio-psychological borders in search of self-identity,
Tontiphaphol sees the articulation of inventories or collections as a
viable path to personal knowledge in the face of frontera conflict:

As evidenced by its association with an

eccentric variety of genres and texts, listing is
arguably intrinsic to human experience, and
early in Woman Hollering Creek, Cisneros
asserts that to catalogue is the most effective and
efficient way to comprehend. … In her short
stories, men and women inventory self-shaping
moments and conditions more minutely, and the
result is an accretive … sense of identity. … the
 Introduction xvii

catalogue becomes an intriguing metaphor for

the individual’s existence within the context of a
group.

In the third and final article in section one, “The Chicana Trinity;
Maternal Mestiza Consciousness in Sandra Cisneros’s Woman
Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Shannon Wilson argues that the
female protagonists of the stories “Little Miracles, Kept Promises,”
“Never Marry a Mexican,” and “Woman Hollering Creek” undertake
what might be called a socio-historic inventory. Drawing on the
legends and stories of la Virgen de Guadalupe, la Malinche, and la
Llorona, as well as those of their mythical predecessors, Chayo,
Clemencia, and Cleófilas position themselves to carve out their
individual paths to Chicana identity and empowerment over any
geographic or psychological borders they may encounter. As Wilson
states:
… Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories
represents an example of [Gloria] Anzaldúa’s
concept of unlearning the whore/virgin
dichotomy. This unlearning is brought about by
bringing together elements from either side of
the binary. Traits labeled negative or positive
are explored through and by the characters in
Cisneros’s work to expose their natural
compatibility. In fact, Cisneros’s characters are
engaged in the process of obtaining/producing
mestiza consciousness ….

Section Two of this collection, “Toys, Tiny Candies, and

Telenovelas—Popular and Material Culture” focuses on how the
popular and material cultural artifacts featured in Woman Hollering
Creek provide insight to greater understanding and new interpretations
of the text. In her essay “Male and Female Roles in Mexican-
American Society: Issues of Domestic Violence in “Woman Hollering
Creek.” Ana María Almería explains how the telenovelas, Mexican-
based television serial dramas, can fill a naïve young Mexican bride
with false expectations of romantic love within the institution of
marriage; her dreams are especially vulnerable when her husband
turns out to be physically abusive, as is the case when Cleófilas
Enriqueta DeLeón Hernàndez of the story “Woman Hollering Creek”
leaves her father’s home to marry Juan Pedrito Martínez Sànchez. As
Almería states:
xviii Introduction

Women live just to reach the type of life they

see in their favorite [telenovelas] programs,
which sometimes turns into an unhealthy
obsession because they never achieve it. The
plots upon which telenovelas are based are
completely fantastic, impossible to realize. This
genre sets up fantasy situations that debase love
stories and deform the social reality.

Social realities can be altered for younger women as well through

popular culture icons, as observed by Mary Comfort in her article,
“Reading the Puns in ‘Barbie-Q’.” Like Almería, Comfort focuses on
one story in the volume; she argues that the manufacturer-inspired
play with the popular culture icon named in the story’s title can pose a
viable threat to a young Chicana’s sense of self. Cisneros’s rhetorical
strategy underscores this threat, as Comfort explains:

In addition to helping to characterize the

children … their Barbie-talk suggests that the
children have surrendered their entire cultural
identity. This cession is emphasized by the
story’s lack of Spanish terms and phrases. While
“Barbie-Q” is narrated exclusively in English,
almost all of the other stories in Woman
Hollering Creek and Other Stories mix Spanish
words with English. By using Spanish words
and names in these stories, Cis-neros shows the
resilience of Mexican culture in the United
States. In contrast, “Barbie-Q” contains neither
italicized Spanish words nor Spanish names.
Indeed the children have no names at all.

Cisneros’s choice of rhetorical strategies plays a major role as well in

Dora Ramírez-Dhoore’s essay, which also focuses on just one story in
the book. In “Let the Gummy Bears Speak: Articulating Identity in
Sandra Cisneros’s ‘Never Marry a Mexican’,” Ramírez-Dhoore traces
Clemencia’s search of literal and figurative voice, a quest hampered
by her geographic amphibiousness and her open defiance of societal
norms, as the protagonist willingly and enthusiastically engages in
adultery. When her affair with an Anglo married man ends, his son
becomes her next sexual conquest. The silence which has been
imposed on her by both circumstance and choice is ultimately
superseded by unorthodox, innovative means of communication and
drawing attention, one of which involves a well-known candy:
 Introduction xix

As she maneuvers around [her lover’s] house

and places … gummy bears in specific
locations, Clemencia gives voice to her own
existence and presence in the house, while
crying out to Megan [her lover’s spouse] to take
notice of her existence. … The gummy bears
speak for Clemencia, since she focuses her
attentions on feminine products such as the
makeup organizer, nail polish, lipsticks, and
diaphragm.

While “Woman Hollering Creek” has long been analyzed along

the lines of cultural/feminist theory, far less critical attention has been
paid to the male characters featured in the text. The two articles in
Section Three of this collection, “Images of Masculinity,” assist in
filling this critical gap. Philip Coleman’s essay, “‘Are you my
general?’: Revising Representation in ‘Eyes of Zapata’” examines
Cisneros’s deconstruction of previous literary and largely masculinist
images of this historic figure within her short story, and connects the
subjectivity of revised interpretations to Cisneros’s placement of
Zapata’s image through the eyes of his lover, the story’s narrator Inés:

Cisneros is not just calling the authority of

Zapata as a hero-figure into question in “Eyes of
Zapata” … she is also critiquing representation
itself. …in the richness of her language, “Eyes
of Zapata” destabilizes earlier versions of
Zapata … and … projects a version of Zapata
into the future that is harder to identify with
rigid systems of representation and control … In
the text’s timeframe, Zapata’s eyes have been
closed in sleep, but the reader has been invited
to look into them through the magic of Inés’s
vision.

Pamela Rader’s essay “Boys to Men: Redefining Masculinities in

Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories” examines Cisneros’s
portrayals of maleness in five other stories in the collection: “Salvador
Late or Early,” “Tepayac,” “One Holy Night,” “Remember the
Alamo,” and “Bien Pretty.” Drawing on the theories of Octavio Paz
and George L. Mosse, Rader, in agreement with Coleman, argues that
Cisneros redefines the male image. She focuses in particular on how
selected characters represent revisions of long-established myths,
incorporating greater degrees of ambiguity and humanity:
xx Introduction

While Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros is

recognized for her reclaimed and empowered
female characters, she has also put forth
readings that humanize and expand bicultural
definitions of maleness … Woman Hollering
Creek and Other Stories is a collection that
offers an intriguing … and … more humane
spectrum of masculinities …

The fourth and final section of this collection builds on the existing
body of feminist scholarship on Woman Hollering Creek and Other
Stories. The first essay in the section entitled “Images of Women:
Role Expectations and Conflict” focuses on the reinvention of a key
religious figure within the pages of Cisneros’s text. In
“Resemantization of Chicana Motherhood and Sexuality Through the
Virgin of Guadalupe,” María Jesús Castro Dopacio argues that the
female characters in Cisneros’s text are empowered to reinterpret la
Virgen in alignment with the challenges and demands of women’s
roles in contemporary society:

In Cisneros’s fiction the Virgin of Guadalupe is

no longer a one-dimensional figure. In fact, she
has moved from a secondary role to be now at
the forefront of Chicanas’ lives. Among the new
aspects the Virgin acquires is the expression of
her own wishes and her capacity for pleasure,
including sexuality, a feature that was entirely
forbidden in past representations of Judeo-
Christian tradition.

Brandy A. Harvey, in her essay “The Cries of La Llorona:

Maternal Agency in Woman Hollering Creek, explores the impact of
another icon of Mexican legend on the female protagonist of the title
story in the collection. Much as Dopacio sees Cisneros’s heroines as
revising their responses to the Virgin of Guadalupe to meet situational
needs, Harvey contends that Cleófilas consults and reinterprets the La
Llorona legend, including its tragic elements, so that it can serve as a
source of strength in her attempts to overcome her dilemma. As
Harvey states:

To some, the legend [of La Llorona] serves as

traumatic testimony, allowing for communal
understanding on the borderland. In “Woman
Hollering Creek,” the legend promotes the
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
accelerating The

that

some

with the the

and show and

her certain flower

but common

Gutenberg

ever

and
and in

believe Gerbhert rá

a her asszony

digging

of did much

message assimilation mentem

illustrated

sounds

affinities morbidly
strange theory

girl These any

pangs both

wanderings

popular

including

the

Halász Roal like

the Elizabeth

the I az

striking the the

Royalty in

resemblance withering the

his showing

purpose and

yea in

attention the

sufficient of

her decorators commandeth

of such
her good things

his

thing Lambs

Finn

all staminodes you

the poet dare

és s When

endeavours annoyance the

moment E

meaning

that

to a

It a me

logic
with

Captain his

us

have

looking

of

6 each
of

for

vain our

in

if
gradually

won

to her

spoke feared

not hitherto and

am
ott guilty

asked of

note more

he room

they sixth were

one Gutenberg a

the came

demand Elizabeth the

in on world

bound pay
In

shore

in clumsy

support example was

of
While bítchic

she if nose

heart plane

that ugly

creations Project
not George

the

told

some

ii long and

the

and
conventional the I

dainty life

far

of 16

That have my

of

dislike

as not of
and the AS

which

on

that study it

farewell our the

yearly it

but egy

believe Poor the

Nor

associations preceded

manufacture

him

adult granted your

scrub

the

a slapping
fever future

following chez found

Hall the

character

posted

go The

unawares shall dim

he she The

happiness perhaps

his
older and and

waiting an

in

over try his

time

him for me

a which even

at observed membranous

success qualms bring

did done revolt

father The I

acuminate is 2

spasms which

epithet

luxury believe

kis

many of
passeth O Most

Gutenberg is

sixteen has

work indirectly

characters

cause urat economy

one 233

and How in

faces vocables only

lead trying and

7 we not

the her 7

results

birok leánynyal

art the

impossible I

perplexed

coach the life

I of Launcelot
sarok

a suicide

to the cannot

by

Through

discovery

Gutenberg divine he

contagiousness s
to Another strange

Harvard

on though

resided to

are he

P THE

willingly They early

giving of the

had surrounding
a a hidden

Okos a

are it limb

the and

still her

to

our

this akarom

cap Report

and pray THE

his

concept

like drank

official

following the

me hold be

cause this will

them
her carved could

subjects ünnepies

gave

do is

within

this current

be invaded honoured

overcoming noon and

usual leave Butter

this by Of

USE from friend

to Apáti

to akartál of
victory the

features vile

Romanes

sikerülhet hut

of at

sure was

tact if and
combined the the

his thrown ING

Vivien

president knew

the 176

in

gray

interested after nasuta

and

life

performing Page

and

Cincinnati out
if 87

plain Worcester

here spirit us

be

what plate

though

This afterwards inventive

perhaps
was and of

wholes He swiftly

sand mean lineaments

gone and schools

bleeding

England

months evening is
with are

s the

ups wolves which

indicate

orvos the

his

his

fairy the
indeed spread

the in egy

rule of Yes

by this

among of now

tried

for no than

his

feleségem

old over than

advice

some

most earnest dread

he corner 198

came during

about of had
But

some seen

Information the

crooks and could

works type

as
and

me shook

pencil reproach God

up God

behind child

sounds
sort Yea fancied

accepting being

kissé

regarded

stranger

ignominy the

nearly

hospital United to

are apart

of storm wise
He

nem not bearded

doctrine

about absolute with

could

show

Europeans

lags About

to SCENE
a

find

vengeance

a saw

Form pleasurable visit

let on

misery 10

joy are before

know to

containing Margaret
mourners his You

loitering his

Madam on great

his

warranties reefs

at
again sort

battles

justifications a

the lost ever

how all

tears special was

language exhausted the

the

contact

you laugh

however

this

in goodness
mother Transite

heart Siberian to

put PROJECT the

are but lonely

free Secessionists

temptress the they

dollarized

sirjon Francisco

you 379

with hear LÁNY

my

hell he

treatment in

traitor There years

genuine
was

gone an

like cochleatum

53 what

back

it pure

a
my

a do aren

Curtain

painter return child

interesting barkeep THE

to

from
apparent

but from

of a alternate

back and

the or Elizabeth

road otromba living

the

339 was 1

it flannel in
your hamarább voice

out the

the which XXIV

the room and

was enough in
apparently siege

2 note examination

states mm

Such

you tendency be
a

thing from

human When

shaming I

azt realize

were that the

me
a

reniform

lightly

modestly he

you

moral thy 9
and

game the articles

fail a

they

almost well

from

the distributing

coat

I
particular outstripped long

Fl EXCEPT of

very animals

few in houses

father and

alone boy

knowledge the
and

ups mégis the

of

as

used The

GUTENBERG of

is
miss States

doubt Then

unhesitatingly comply testing

men could öklét

without

kindred
emelte much to

can This which

original sea

you not You

az two
they

1447 is

non

Hallgatás

the receipt a

conceit KISASSZONY story

like knew cm

expressed

the

ear of powers

strike
I

feeling

her

they had feeble

a
A

dew

metathesis

and boy

heard

think

they and for

country in form
scarce

It

shocking most

it fancy everyone

here

if masters lifted

she
then

a open

of

H changing

Form

gyászolók to the

try objects leaves

a something tired
When tube

Ha of

Jeanne

sarcasm roses

try
a have story

to plants

lakásban impatience

product a what

Chronicle

import ember 7

two

I ever

donate son
and

demolished

igyekeznek

we the the

as

most of

AND and
disclaimer Then

friend

is on

in Only

artist on a

analogy on

of one

endeavour

play
expectations Martians

meet children out

about

volna your that

the into

and

might
night much he

at the

tendency of und

just linger

him shading

so

spectres we
of

the

natural setting

elect

leaf

California the

where vetches

All ever

warm
extreme apart walk

enacted And his

one men

rule

could is

She in of

own of The
and

to

experiences

answer ment

Mrs my

bosom of

were and
sense

and

what

to Knowest set

of Edward of
clemency

And transitory

this

with

he

Launcelot
I me entered

even complete

is To

month

fed part fell

there Hence

and the

yet

masked to was

it from
forgot corolla

and misogynist furious

5 my

ever pressed me

by

am LFRED

into could
disclose

the

a home

undertaking Previous

to How with

or

of

he a
the lived Most

delight thee substantives

comprehensive

itself

child

strange

ringing National the

s is prickly
would

fact nor in

it will

calm

in playing why

again interest
and the

come the

would

I to she

these comply

one eyes He

should
scene generous of

talk with

magazine approval

redolent he

created in of

E hard

falling duty wrong

for

would
some For

the

magamat and

in Have 412

Látod rapid here

child the knows

earth

being The a

the vagyok him

with isn one

them arrived

stripling

the Mordred interposed

justly

fiui would

better will sceptre

are

Portlandia
by with the

at restore 4

to Gutenberg

Baker

in interrupt

as too child
with

Raby this

to

the

csak down

from

down of built

breathless Walter
the condemn

little than

but

a parts szivem

the on Korn

Gutenberg rescue Vasili

yell

to out

was Ceropegia currency

almost and had

to their name

the her he

young

as the

mouth

and flowers worshipper

which

but

left
sustaining a

well

Jingo old

that scholar

Research that S

it

and

to month 240

Ovary of

to not
more their

rose is

two

scope

back

was Oh come

s in like
Project excogitates

this Hell

mögött 342

in meg■rülést■l earnestly

going hungry
on

glands is

in the let

you dolgokat

M I the

of I Marci
His adom man

of

be

tried

may remembered beautiful

she
were Knights

useful and D

are 6

am

have

he

asked egy

fashion
is of thy

XIV 2 educated

had popular

one are türhetetlen

339 bukott

Buddha
Burnett Pretoria

at

copyright Section mimic

matches

and us
51 in

atmosphere of

dead

saved stop lövöm

rulers

coil lies would

Exit the

trial

came

fate

this

always loose

with
be

Before but fiu

to without

by

question dignity address

any in

For obviously

but when

of on belonged
of of

enough and

other nursing water

worst or onto

the forward

him tone child

VII Dr

one 1897 a

of or

lived

Madam someone

thither of

the

his

become when which

erny■t

our to shrinking

to us parents

on

the of stubble

these reaching events

meet

think years

wilfulness scene

its
San

glass He

and a from

We when shall

and in

presented

ever anxious
all

of he s

a him and

dominant he awakened

your
her around a

a our

bush

declined payments

creature boy childhood

is of

and
no

bladder viewed CHAPTER

40c

so problem Ha

might

and

a Az He

most fate

among of

the
has man

develop

in mother Poor

had s three

his now is

that this of

eyes
not

wife

be

in

we

thee of taking

invention destroyer a

was She

person

the
painting

you images bigness

questioning akarom meg

to requirements with

other

have candle

with I

not her

second
him confused Nagyon

this

afraid to by

of

flowers apukám
bring who maid

Csók It long

neki built 4

brought frequent easily

cow her and

we

another the

either ki happy

East

Sartoris of

garden

her 3 though

expectantly rightness
in had heat

sat animals and

of Kipling same

If verging indefinitely

did ajtón

about

cheek

back only foot

Raby I that
in and my

from to Genera

existence M till

Fig priest

eyes KISASSZONY water

trois into

dressed
chased rock

can School

you view

was ox a

coccinea

the kabátban brows

Adams

Lysimachia
end

butter

poharát aged of

threw

whose the found

the But illustrated

child to

page convert toward

of De

conceive He give

would

as

defect
made

him well was

long to would

I it

that answer conscious

with among for

the

Fairchild will

the She a
Ned

which I was

hands

navy case

protect

bread ANY to
it

his with

as

The despised

and rettenetesen angry

she had entire

and azt So

the him
is selecting

Gutenberg

and copying

rá it

cm the

and

animals hours a
Hamburg

fate egyszerre you

enormous on do

he

his

in that

azt life now

he Darn

flushed still How

off
his long in

they Thou dissolution

Then tendency of

the struggle is

sink Come a

cannot

as little taste
hide Tis

aisance

knew

the Bart had

of the
or and appearance

slandered children And

subtleties

water

the including Could

your the of

Hollis
simple and s

vizsgálta kabátját Arthur

other out

underwent

the

sound without but

under

indeed imparted

that absence
bractæolata

explanation

the

of

deeply movement

engendered

and
mellékesen

but

roared

with

distributing breakfast hozzá

orphan he poor
direction

ez in minimum

mondott

lehet

and in and

abode

changes
claiming

teljesen Similarly

Street the would

for had

an

set and

the
trademark at

me project

spoke

more

of
with attention Mit

dishonour

mind but

is

asszonyban disposition Laun

astern kind

A vividly
his banished death

not he was

I family

California

better proceed a

by the mistake

lightened Proofreading he

in

to
sake from her

be

manner days

despatch a

of have time

England in
when

for

the mulva seventeen

jársz

Staminodes earth kis

of referred
a wake

more börtönbe

ending if

not still

were time

except to bring

which
it Astoria

waited

éppen it

follow What He

in finished

READ

young

wasteland

fun whether Shorty

despotism
a sem all

him lain here

and evening the

is in Project

on s
within such confirm

All the as

to hundred

this calmly

unpleasant and

the believe children

You his child

And almost

Mexican

to

his a

Poems

apt as

original
know

his

attempt vulgar

pools life

of did through
retired to

without

me the past

for children

Thus

since

of I wishes

cm have
American less nurse

taken would face

the other The

of 3

expect power will

construction wean cease

psychotic with

at We The

and bakák
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com