4.5 stars: A pivotal Chicana text worth reading. Many of the reviews I've seen on here bash Cineros for her merging of poetry and prose and call it "simplistic," even "horrible." For anyone who has lived on the margins of society, this text will speak to you. Just as Anzaldua negotiates the borderland, Cisneros does with fiction. Cisneros is not catering to the Euro-centric literature we were taught to herald, but rather she is pushing back against that very concept by crafting a text that anyone can understand in a multitude of meanings. Some of the lines in this text are breath-taking; I had to write several down. The only reason I've docked half a star is because I would like to get closer to Esperanza. However, I understand Cisneros's strategy. By keeping readers at a distance, Esperanza maintains a semblance of individuality and sense of self separate from the reader, and Cisneros recreates the sense of marginalization felt by minorities in the US.