The House on Mango Street is a series of short stories that relays the Hispanic childhood experience; but I believe any culture can relate to this book. These short stories hold many dimensions and meanings, it will leave you thinking upon what the moral of each story was and how it applies to your life and experiences. As I read this book, I found it easy to interpret the stories in several diverse ways sometimes with both joyful and sorrowful conclusions. Sandra Cisneros connected with readers in a beautiful but still simply written manner. Cisneros wrote herself in the production to her book, “so that the sentences are pliant as branches and can be read in more ways than one.” But my favorite line from her introduction is “She thinks people who are busy working for a living deserve beautiful little stories, because they don’t have much time and are often tired.”

 Marco Antonio Alardin, assistant professor of Spanish at Cal State University, shared his thoughts and connection with the book. Alardin said that the book is for expressing a section of the Hispanic experience. He expressed that he resonated with the way Cisneros was feeling about the world and how she went against her gender norms.“How she is feeling about the world and how she feels about the relationships between women and men,” Alardin said. The story that stuck with him was “Beautiful and Cruel,” he explains that in this short story the author speaks about how she is the “ugly daughter” and wants to become a beautiful villain like in the movies instead of getting married and becoming a “tamed” housewife.“In the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one whose drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own and she will not give it away,” said Alardin. He says that this story and passage really stuck with him because it shows how her mind is creating rebellion and going against gender norms. Through all the stories and depictions this book carries, it is a great source to understanding the history of many Hispanic experiences.