Woman Hollering Creek
Read Woman Hollering Creek Online
Authors: Sandra Cisneros
WOMAN HOLLERING CREEK
and Other Stories
“Cisneros is the impassioned bard of the Mexican border.”
—
Boston Globe
“The author seduces with precise, spare prose and creates unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page. She is not only a gifted writer, but an absolutely essential one.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
“[Cisneros’s] feminist, Mexican-American voice is not only playful and vigorous, it’s original—we haven’t heard anything like it before.… This book should make [her] reputation as a major author.”
—
Newsweek
“One of the more original and refreshing voices to emerge on the fiction scene in recent years … a natural writer whose unrestrained, subtly accented, and light-as-a-feather prose distinguishes her new book.”
—
San Francisco Chronicle
“Wonderful—moving, vivid, honest and very clearly the work of an author who feels great love for the people she writes about.”
—
Mirabella
“Her triumphant, earthy shout is about life as the multifaceted women in her stories live it.… Cisneros’s prose is the kind you can taste and feel: the dusty summers of San Antonio, the colors and sounds and flavors of life in full bloom. The voices in her stories are uniquely Chicana: The emotions they evoke are universal.…
Woman Hollering Creek
offers a gift to the uninitiated, the chance to taste deeply of Hispanic culture while accompanied by a knowing and generous guide.”
—
Houston Chronicle
“These stories vibrate with life, they breathe and laugh and weep and rage. Cisneros’s world is … described with fire and love, and some just plain terrific writing. Brava Cisneros!”
—
San Diego Tribune
“[Cisneros is] a writer who takes bold chances with a firm hand; [her] words seek the line between story and music. And, as in many Cisneros stories, we are taken across the bridge of sadness with a long ribbon of laughter gurgling like the creek. These are wise works by a writer whose poetry of language matches her most basic power of story.”
—
Miami Herald
“Cisneros is a fearless writer boldly plunging into complex characters and risky situations, and in
Women Hollering Creek
she displays a virtuoso range. Cisneros has a poet’s ear and eye.”
—
Elle
“A brave author. She gives her heart to her readers like a birthday present wrapped in tears. Cisneros is the whisper that you strain to hear from the mouth of a lover.”
—
Kansas City Star
“An interwoven tapestry of visions and experiences … vigorous, punchy and imagistic … Ms. Cisneros’s work merges place and mind to yield a unique vision of the Southwest.”
—
Dallas Morning News
“Cisneros challenges her reader to see life as it really is—full of unrequited passions and solitary confusions, with moments of connection real but few and far between.… Cisneros has a fresh voice that helps us read ourselves … a collection that can’t be ignored.”
—
Detroit Free Press
FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, MARCH 1992
Copyright © 1991 by Sandra Cisneros
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1991.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
ARTE PUBLICO PRESS
: “Mexican Movies” by Sandra Cisneros was first published in the
Americas Review
, Volume 16, No. 3-4.
Reprinted by permission.
TRADITION MUSIC COMPANY
: Excerpt from the song “Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio” by Santiago Jimenez.
Copyright © by Tradition Music Co. (BMI).
Reprinted by permission.
Some of the stories in this work were originally published in
Americas Review
,
Grand Street
,
Humanizarte
,
Los Angeles Times Magazine
,
The Saguaro
,
Story
, and
The Village Voice Literary Supplement
.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cisneros, Sandra.
Woman hollering creek and other stories / Sandra Cisneros.—1st Vintage contemporaries ed.
p. cm.—(contemporaries)
“Originally published in hardcover by Random House, Inc., New York, in 1991”—T.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-8041-5088-0
1. Mexican Americans—Fiction. 2. Mexican-American Border Region—Fiction. I. Title.
[PS3553 I78W66 1992]
813′. 54—dc2o 91-58002
v3.1
For my mama,
Elvira Cordero Anguiano,
who gave me the fierce language.
Y para mi papá
,
Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral,
quien me dió el lenguaje de la ternura
.
Estos cuentitos se los dedico
con todo mi corazón
.
Acknowledgments
Mi Querido Público
,
Some of the early stories in this collection were written while I was living in the guest bedroom of my brother and
hermana
-in-law’s house, Alfred Cisneros, Jr., and Julie Parrales-Cisneros. For the open-door policy, for the luxury of that room when I needed to be writer, thank you.
Gracias
to my mother,
la
smart cookie, my S&L financial bailout more times than I’d like to admit.
To the National Endowment for the Arts for twice saving me in one lifetime. Thank you. Always, thank you. My life, my writing, have never been the same since.
Rubén, late or early,
una vez o siempre—gracias
.
La casita
on West Eleventh Street. A borrowed blessing! Thank you, Sara Stevenson and Richard Queen, for your generosity.
Las
readers
de conciencia
—Helena Viramontes, Liliana Valenzuela, Sonia Saldívar-Hull, Norma Alarcón. Song researchers—Laura Pérez
y
María Herrera-Sobek.
A todas, gracias
.
Las
San Antonio girlfriends—Catherine Burst, Alba DeLeon, Sophia Healy, Joan Frederick Denton,
y la
Terry
“Mujer de Fuerza”
Ybañez. Tex-Mex text inspected by Juanita
“La Tejanita”
Luna-Lawhn.
Agradecimientos. Un beso y apretón para cada una
.
La
Yugo sister—Jasna
“Caramba”
Karaula. Sister,
hvala
.
Los
San Antonio
vatos
—Ito Romo, Danny Lozano, Craig Pennel, César
“Ponqui”
Martínez—
gracias, muchachos
.
My thanks to
los mero meros—El
Erroll McDonald
y la
Joni Evans
de
Random House. For fierce support and fierce faith.
Praise to
la bien bien linda
Julie Grau, my editor.
Ay
, Julie, believe me, I am eternally grateful for your unflagging
cariño
, patience, and sensitivity through the labor and delivery of this book.
Gracias a la Divina Providencia que me mandó la muy
powerful
y
miraculous literary
protectora
, Susan Bergholz
la brava. Hay que hechar gritos, prender velitas, hacer
backflips.
Te abrazo con mi corazón
, Susan.
Por todo
.
Damas y caballeros, un fuerte fuerte aplauso
for my most special reader, the most special friend.
El
Dennis Mathis.
Mi Ojitos
.
Virgen de Guadalupe Tonantzín, infinitas gracias. Estos cuentitos te los ofrezco a tí, a nuestra gente. A toditos. Mil gracias
. A thousand thanks from
el corazón
.
También yo te quiero
y te quiero feliz
.
—C
RI
C
RÍ
(F
RANCISCO
G
ABILONDO
S
OLER
)