Analysis: Woman Hollering Creek

In Woman Hollering Creek (1991), a collection of short stories, Sandra Cisneros shares urban experience of the present-day Chicano. The stories tell stories of devotion to family, culture, and religion.  They also detail characters feelings of not being ethnic enough, yet not being Anglo enough either.  The characters also deal with fidelity and infidelity in romantic love. 

The collection starts off with an essay about a young girl and Lucy, her friend. The narrator of “My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn,” brings attention to all the things about Lucy that make her appear “more” Mexican than herself, pointing out how she falls short.  “I'm going to sit in the sun, don't care if it's a million trillion degrees outside, so my skin can get so dark it's blue where it bends like Lucy's” (3).  By the end of the story, she lists all of the things she will do with Lucy, making it seem as though they are the same person, there will be no autonomy between the two.  The narrator wishes, “we could be sisters” (5), because to be like Lucy would mean that she would be closer to Mexican culture she seeks.

In a later story, “Salvador Late or Early,” Cisneros introduces the reader to Salvador, the oldest child of 5, who often finds himself in charge of his younger siblings.  Salvador, takes on the role of parent to his younger siblings, while his mother cares for the baby.  There appears to be no father present in the home.  He puts aside his own needs and wants to ensure his brothers needs are met.  Even from a young age his devotion to his family is unwavering.  

A later story, “Mericans,” the reader is introduced to three children waiting for their “awful grandmother” outside a local church.  “Awful grandmother” offers prayers, and pesos for those prayers, for her family that does not attend mass.  The devout adoration that “awful grandmother” exhibits, is common amongst Hispanic Catholics.  They hold a belief that fervent prayer will call to the Saints to intercede on the behalf of the devout, “like La Virgen de Guadalupe, the awful grandmother intercedes on their behalf” (17).  The narrator, apparently the oldest child waiting, has trouble identifying with her traditional grandmother, although she is not American enough be identified as such by tourists. 

“Tepeyac” tells the story of the narrator who returns home after an absence, and finds his grandfather’s home and storefront have been demolished.  The narrator feels lost, detached from important stories of his family history, without these monuments.  He reflects that he will be the historian for his family, “who would’ve guessed, after all this time, it is me who will remember when everything else is forgotten” (23).

Cleofilas is introduced in the title story of the collection, “Woman Hollering Creek”.  She is the epitome of a hopeless romantic.  Her idyllic family life growing up only enforces her misconceptions of romance, love, fidelity and infidelity.  After marrying, she moves far away with her new husband and finds quickly that real life is far different from the stories she’s read and tele novellas she’s watched.  Her husband becomes abusive, and despite the expectation that she leaves him if he ever hit her, she stays.  It wasn’t until her 2^nd pregnancy that she asked a nurse for help, and left her husband and her new town for the home of her youth.

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Cisneros, Sandra. Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. 1991