This book starts of my 2015 season and also pivots me into exploring more in the diaspora. I've primarily read and reviewed black female literary works, venturing outside the United States to include several of my fellow West Indians. In this year and a quest to finding more diversity, I am including some works by my fellow Latin heritage writers and perhaps giving space for a gentleman or two if his protagonist is a female person of color.
My 25th anniversary copy of the book, published in 2009, included a lengthy introduction of the author doing a first-person image study of herself in 1984. It felt so meta-poetic. She did a great job of reflecting back on that time, the surroundings, and imagining what the subject of the image was thinking when it was taken.
First-person narrative remains my favorite form of literature, contemporary fiction, and memoir reading. It felt like I was growing up with Esperanza, a fellow girl of the 80s. I remembered being young and wanting to do more than remain in my hometown and done the Mrs. I wanted my B.S. and to go conquer the world.
The tiny vignettes in this book invite the reader to explore the larger themes of culture, heritage, misogyny, patriarchy, independence, and place. Written in a purely poetic form, while it feels chronological through the lives of the people we meet on Mango Street, it can easily be opened at any place and experience the brilliance of this classic volume.