User talk:Victoriashakespeare/sandbox

Anthony: Peer Edit
Peer Review: Anthony Perrino (Make sure to make section title)

Despite its high praise by critics and the Latino community, The House on Mango Street has also received criticism and in some cases has been banned from school curriculum. The book was part of the Mexican-American studies program that began in public schools in Tucson, Arizona. State legislature ultimately banned the program and the books that made up the curriculum under statute H.B. 2281 (Diaz). (I WOULD ADD MORE INFORMATION DISCUSSING THE LAW'S INTENTION.) In retaliation to the law, teachers, authors, and activists [headed by Tony Diaz] (NOT NEEDED), formed a caravan in Spring of 2012 that moved across the southwest doing workshops in major cities along the way. The caravan, called the Librotraficante Project, started at the Alamo and ended in Tucson orchestrating workshops distributing the banned books, and informing attendees of the H.B. 2281 (Hoinski). It additionally allowed for author participating. Cisneros travelled with the caravan reading The House on Mango Street and running workshops about Chicano literature along the way. She brought numerous copies of the book with her, distributed them, and discussed thematic implications of her novel as well as talked about the books autobiographical elements (Fernandez).

(Section Title)

Cisneros first began writing about the protagonist, Esperanza, when she had just finished graduate school. She says Esperanza was born from personal feelings of displacement she had while writing. Cisneros had just left the University of Iowa and had felt marginalized as a person of color, a woman, and an individual of lower socioeconomic status. The House on Mango Street became a way for her to solidify her identities through reflection in writing. Not wanting to write directly about herself, the book took form in a combination of genres pulling mantles of poetry, autobiography, and fiction. Some parts of the book directly reflect Cisneros’ life, while others stray. Esperanza is one of two children, with a younger sister. In reality, Cisneros was the middle child and only girl with two older brothers and four younger brothers. While writing, Cisneros explains that because she was new to fiction, she craved simplicity initially so she made Esperanza’s family smaller than her actual family had been. She thought it would be easier to write about fewer family members.

The act of writing generally was something that Cisneros’ family and father specifically did not initially support. Her father never wanted her to be an author. When she was growing up, the only famous Latinas were those on TV, and in the seventies they were seen most often on television as weather girls. Cisneros envisioned her as a newscaster for that reason.

Cisneros says that the goal of The House on Mango Street was to make the novel accessible to everyone. She states that she wrote the book initially as a catharsis, not even realizing that [it would eventually become a voice for Latinos and enveloped in the works of great Latino literature] (KIND OF CONFUSING, REPHRASE). She wanted it to be lyrical enough to be appreciated by poetry enthusiasts, but also accessible enough that laymen could read and enjoy the novel. She wanted it to resonate with children, adults, and ages in between, in totality choosing to keep the novel short so that even the busiest of parents and adults who worked long shifts like her father always had, could still find time to read it.

Comments

Victoria, really good job. Before I leave my comments, I want to let you know that I used All Caps to point out the small edits you need to do. I wasn't trying to scream at you its just the only way I could point out where I thought you should edit. Anyways, I would start off by saying that it would make your article easier to follow if you utilized section headings. This way the information you add to the article is structured and provides an easy format to follow. You did a really nice job of presenting a neutral viewpoint throughout your writing, but I would look to add more information into why the book was banned. By adding this information on the reasoning for the ban, you will be able to display the differing views pertaining to this case. You did a great job of adding who was involved with the Arizona case and the different steps they took to advocate against the ban. Really nice job with citations. The only thing I would work on would be the flow of your draft and the transition from one section to the next. Good luck with your next edits! --Aper1123 (talk) 15:18, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

I sent my edits to you via google docs, let me know if you have any questions! (Jane) Jbv15 (talk) 15:46, 21 November 2016 (UTC)jbv15