Sandra Cisneros (1954– ), the only daughter in a family of seven children, was
born in Chicago. Her Mexican-American heritage, of which she is proud, is evident
in many of her short stories. Cisneros has had a successful and varied career. In
addition to being a poet and fiction writer, she has worked as an arts administrator
and has taught students who had dropped out of high school. She has written four
books of poetry and two books of short stories, The House on Mango Street and
Woman Hollering Creek. In many of her short stories, such as “Eleven,” Cisneros
creates a view of the world through the eyes of a child. The language of these stories
is simple and direct, but their ideas are serious and important