Pictures Of Sandra

"You be you"

Call Her crazy
Call Her stupid
Call Her ugly
call Her weak
Call Her a slut
Call Her a freak

But She is kind
She is smart
She is beautiful
She is strong
She is funny
And She is great


Stop judgeing from her cover and turn her inside out
Open her like a book and read all that she's about
Stop focusing on the bad things and downing her for everythng she do
Just stop the madness, you don't understand what she goes through

She did nothing wrong, but has to be tourtured all day long
Why don't you stop worrying about her and criticizing her every move
Just let her be her, And focus on you being you


Tone: Straightforward, sympathetic


Theme: learn to just focus on yourself


Interpretation: basically my poem means that people need to quit  
judgeing and criticizing others to put them down because you never  
know what that person is actually going through

Loose Woman

They say I’m a beast.
And feast on it. When all along
I thought that’s what a woman was.

They say I’m a bitch.
Or witch. I’ve claimed
the same and never winced.

They say I’m a macha, hell on wheels,
viva-la-vulva, fire and brimstone,
man-hating, devastating,
boogey-woman lesbian.
Not necessarily,
but I like the compliment.

The mob arrives with stones and sticks
to maim and lame and do me in.
All the same, when I open my mouth,
they wobble like gin.

Diamonds and pearls
tumble from my tongue.
Or toads and serpents.
Depending on the mood I’m in.

I like the itch I provoke.
The rustle of rumor
like crinoline.

I am the woman of myth and bullshit.
(True. I authored some of it.)
I built my house of ill repute.
Brick by brick. Labored,
loved and masoned it.

I live like so.
Heart as sail, ballast, rudder, bow.
Rowdy. Indulgent to excess.
My sin and success—
I think of me to gluttony.

By all accounts I am
a danger to society.
I’m Pancha Villa.

I break laws,
upset the natural order,
anguish the Pope and make fathers cry.
I am beyond the jaw of law.
I’m la desperada, most-wanted public enemy.
My happy picture grinning from the wall.

I strike terror among the men.
I can’t be bothered what they think.
Que se vayan a la ching chang chong!
For this, the cross, the Calvary.
In other words, I’m anarchy.

I’m an aim-well,
shoot-sharp,
sharp-tongued,
sharp-thinking,
fast-speaking,
foot-loose,
loose-tongued,
let-loose,
woman-on-the-loose
loose woman.
Beware, honey.

I’m Bitch. Beast. Macha.
Wachale!
Ping! Ping! Ping!
I break things.
Allusion:

• Diamonds and pearls tumble from my tongue. Or toads and serpents
• The mob arrives with stones and sticks
• to maim and lame and do me in.
• I am beyond the jaw of law.
• I’m la desperada, most-wanted public enemy.

Tone: The tone is confident, carefree and straightforward


Figurative language: 

• when I open my mouth,

           they wobble like gin.

• Ping! Ping! Ping!
• I break things.

Theme: The theme of this poem is that people are always going to say  
what they want you to be and things to put you down but you should  
find out and accept what you are and ignore who says otherwise.


Final interpretation: This poem means just accept who you are  and  
take pride in it because only you can be you.

"His Story"

I was born under a crooked star.
So says my father. 
And this perhaps explains his sorrow.
An only daughter
whom no one came for
and no one chased away.
It is an ancient fate.
A family trait we trace back
to a great aunt no one mentions.
Her sin was beauty.
She lived mistress.
Died solitary.
There is a well
the cousin with the famous
how shall I put it?
profession.
She ran off with the colonel.
And soon after,
the army payroll.
And, of course,
grandmother's mother
who died a death of voodoo.
There are others.
For instance,
my father explains,
in the Mexican papers
a girl with both my names
was arrested for audacious crimes
that began by disobeying fathers.
Also, and here he pauses,
the Cubano who sells him shoes
says he too knew a Sandra Cisneros
who was three times cursed a widow.
You see.
An unlucky fate is mine
to be born woman in a family of men.
Six sons, my father groans,
all home.
And one female,
gone


In this poem Sandra describes her status in a Mexican-American family as seen from her father's point of view. It is expressed in Sandra's tone in the line where she stated "And this perhaps explains his sorrow, an only daughter who no one came for", this displays the father's unhappiness with the fact that his daughter is unmarried. She goes further into her families dilemmas throughout the poem. She talked about her aunt being known to the family as a mistress and dying "solitary", she also spoke of her cousin who was well known in her promiscuous profession and abandoned the family to be with a colonel and other army men. By the end of the poem it became clear that Sandra's father showed little hope in his daughter being anything more than a lonely woman. Its almost as though he saw this as being her fate the day she was born from the poets use of examples. Her father mentioned all the bad luck the women in their family had. She said that her father read the papers and a girl with her exact name was arrested for audacious crimes. Her father beilieved she was cursed and her outcomes would be no better than the women he talked about. I think this poem is very relate-able to people whose families are religious or have a firm belief in curses.

My Name is Yours

Determined and Strong in Spirit
Within is all I believe in
Silent but quick witted
As Emotional as any other

Born with a attitude
Messenger Of God I am
Innocent but devilish
A fashion i know too well

Friend to all
Enemy to none
Heavy heart
Known to some
I am ANGEL
Who are you?


I wrote this poem to express what I think my name means and why I believe it was given to me. My mother doesn't have the same name as me therefore I wrote my poem in a different state of mind then Sandra Cisneros. When I stated that I was silent but quick witted I meant that I am usually very discreet about my feelings but I do know how to elaborate on them when its time to. The line innocent but devilish signifies that there can be two sides to me, though I try to do the right thing we all make mistakes. I concluded my poem with Friend to all Enemy to none Heavy heart known to some because I try to be a friend to everyone I meet and I never approach someone with an intent to be mean or cruel and most people know that I am a kind person. Angel is my name and my life has been a completion of all these things but it all comes back to the name that my mother has given me.

Your Name Is Mine

And holy to me And your spirit
And that twin of divine
Death granted me in my sex
A complete breath And this silence
I trust And howl This body this

Spirit you gave me
A gift of Taxco rain
Fine as silver
An antique pleasure
Obsidian and jade
The centuries I knew you

Even before I knew your man
Sex mother me the elegance                                                                   Of your jaguar mouth
                                     - By Sandra Cisneros

I chose this poem because I think it expresses how a daughter feels about her mother and her reflection on what her mother has given her. Throughout the poem she insinuates how she has her mothers spirit and jaguar mouth. When I first read this poem I thought the tone was going to be bitter and I thought she was going to feel disgrace with having her mother's name but after reading the poem I realized she was accepting her mother's traits as well as her name.

Who is she?

She was born in Chicago in 1954, the third child and only daughter in a family of seven children. She studied at Loyola University of Chicago and the University of Iowa (M.F.A. Creative Writing 1978). She taught creative writing at every level except first grade and pre-school, a college recruiter, an arts administrator, and as a visiting writer at a number of universities including the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her books include a chapbook of poetry, Bad Boys (Mango Press 1980); two full-length poetry books, My Wicked Wicked Ways (Third Woman 1987, Random House 1992) and Loose Woman (Alfred A. Knopf 1994); a collection of stories, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (Random House l991); a children's book, Hairs/Pelitos (Alfred A. Knopf 1994); and two novels, The House on Mango Street (Vintage 1991) and Caramelo (Knopf 2002). Vintage Cisneros, She is published in 2003, is a compilation of selections from her works. The president and founder of the Macondo Foundation, an association of socially engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity, and honor our communities; and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation.