Sandra Cisneros Collection
Scope and Contents
The Sandra Cisneros Papers are housed at the Witcliff Collections, Texas State University.
This collection includes typescripts or photocopied typescripts of six stories that eventually appeared in Woman Hollering Creek (Random House, 1991), one unpublished story, an unpublished speech, an interview, and a biographical sketch. The collection also includes a bound volume of part of Cisneros' latest novel, Caramelo, distributed to friends for comment about eighteen months before publication. According to the seller's listing, almost all differ from the final published form, sometimes substantially.
Dates
- Creation: 1984-2001
Creator
- Cisneros, Sandra (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
There is no restriction on access to the Sandra Cisneros Collection for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.
Conditions Governing Use
Requests for permission to publish material from Sandra Cisneros Collection should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Biographical / Historical
Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20, 1954 and raised in Chicago. She was the third child and only daughter in a family of seven children. Cisneros is the daughter of a Mexican father and a Mexican-American mother. She was educated in the Midwest before moving to the Southwest in 1984. Cisneros graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and has lived in San Antonio for most of the last twenty years. She has worked as a teacher to high school dropouts, a poet-in-the-schools, a college recruiter, an arts administrator, and most recently, as a visiting writer at a number of universities around the country.
Sandra Cisneros is a well-recognized and influential Chicana writer who draws heavily upon her childhood experiences and ethnic heritage. She frequently addresses poverty, cultural suppression, self-identity and gender roles in her fiction and poetry. She has been the subject of many academic studies and theses. Cisneros won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, an NEA Grant, a MacArthur "genius" award, among many others. All of Cisneros' prose has been published in Spanish in the United States. Her books have also been translated into ten languages and published internationally.
Extent
0.5 Linear feet (1 archives box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Writer. Collection includes transcripts or photocopied transcripts of six stories, one unpublished story, an unpublished speech, an interview, a biographical sketch, and a bound volume of part of the novel Caramelo, distributed to friends for comment.
Arrangement
This collection is organized into five series:
- Series 1: Biographical Materials
- Series 2: Short Stories
- Series 3: Books
- Series 4: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
- Series 5: Miscellaneous
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Amherst College purchased this collection from P. Scott Brown, Bookseller, in April 2003. Brown acquired the collection through Bryce Milligan, the publisher of Wing Press and a long-time friend and neighbor of Cisneros. Milligan edited the anthologies Daughters of the Fifth Sun: A Collection of Latina Fiction and Poetry and Floricanto, Si: A Collection of Latina Poetry. He is the author of several poetry collections and novels. According to Brown's catalogue, Milligan was an early champion of Cisneros. In an interview in the Texas Journal, Cisneros states: "Nobody paid any attention to The House on Mango Street, except for Bryce, until they came upon the same work by way of Random House." Milligan began exchanging work-in-progress with Cisneros in the mid-1980s. Most of the material in this collection was mailed to Milligan from the University of California-Berkeley where Cisneros spent time as a visiting writer or was given to him after her return to San Antonio.
Bibliography
Processing Information
- Processed:
- 2003 May
- By:
- Alicia Yang Cao '06, Student Assistant
- Finding Aid:
- 2003 May
- Prepared by:
- Alicia Yang Cao '06, Student Assistant
- Edited by:
- Daria D'Arienzo, Head of Archives and Special Collections
- Listed by:
- Alicia Yang Cao '06, Student Assistant
Subject
- Cisneros, Sandra (Person)
- Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (San Antonio, Tex.) (Organization)
Topical
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Alicia Yang Cao, Daria D'Arienzo
- Date
- 2003
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Repository Details
Part of the Amherst College Archives and Special Collections Repository
Amherst College Archives & Special Collections
Robert Frost Library
61 Quadrangle Drive
Amherst MA 01002-5000
(413) 542-2299
archives@amherst.edu