>> Rachel Martin: I mean, I know
you have a lot of choices
at the National Books Festival,
but I'm sure glad
you made this one because
you're in for a treat.
[Applause]
And I'm so pleased that on this
beautiful Washington Day in August,
when it's usually like
125, give or take,
that you chose to be here because
what's going to transpire is going to
be special. I can almost
guarantee you that.
So we are marking an
auspicious anniversary.
How many people have read
"The House on Mango Street"?
[Applause]
It's a beautiful, profound book.
And it tells, although
it's not a memoir. Right.
But there is so much
of Sandra in this book.
She uses her character,
Esperanza Cordero, to tell the
story of a young 12 year old
girl making sense of her world
from a corner of Chicago,
a Hispanic neighborhood,
and trying to find her way.
And through this book, we
understand Esperanza's world,
and we get to know a little bit
about Sandra's world, how she
makes sense of it.
And if you have read Sandra's
work, you understand that
you can't separate the
work from the woman.
They are integral.
She writes from her experience,
from her heart, from her soul.
And so all of us, as her
admirers and readers think
we know her because that's what
we do when we when we become
obsessed with an author and we
read everything they write and
and they become our friend, but
we're going to have a different
conversation that I think will
illuminate things about her that
you may not know.
So this show we created called
Wild Card, it's an interview show.
Let's be real. There's
nothing like crazy about it.
But what we get to do through
the benefit of these questions
on these cards is open up a door
into someone in a different way,
using particular questions that
we've thought really hard about.
And so even though we may
think we know from the pages
of Mango Street some of
Sandra's life and innermost
thoughts, we're going to try to
get at those a different way
through this conversation.
So thank you for being here.
Thank you for being game.
>> Sandra Cisneros: If you will
permit me, there are only one thing
that may not be on the cards
that I need to mention to my fans.
Absolutely.
>> Sandra Cisneros: And that is that
I've been working since 2017
on "The House on Mango
Street", the opera.
[Applause]
Yeah, a lot of people
don't know that.
And we just premiered the
workshop production like the
week before last at the
Glimmerglass Festival in
Cooperstown, New York.
But the big premiere, the real
premiere with sets and costumes
and full orchestra, is next summer
at the Glimmerglass Festival.
So please come.
>> Rachel Martin: Definitely.
[Applause]
And before we get
to the game, I actually did want to
ask a question about how this
sits with you now. This story.
Right, because this has
been many years that you
wrote this story,
these essays that are so
beautifully hung together and
this young girl was deep in you.
I wonder how she--
Have you kept her with you,
understanding that there are
echoes of her in you obviously.
But have you kept her close?
Have you thought about how her
life has evolved along yours?
>> Sandra Cisneros:
Well, I'm 69 and I will be 70
at the end of the year, but
I'm still 11 years old inside.
I feel like I'm all the years
just like you are lodged in
one year in your life. And it's
never the one that the public sees.
So I feel I have to be very
careful not to overuse that
voice, because it's my natural voice
to speak in a young girl's voice.
And perhaps it came out because
when I was writing the book,
I was censored by others
and by myself, especially about
what I was living. So I had to
go to an earlier time to give
myself permission to get past
my own auto censor, to speak
about things in an environment
that to me then was rather hostile.
>> Rachel Martin: And when you think
about the words that you put down,
the particular stories
you chose to tell, I mean,
when's the last time you read this?
>> Sandra Cisneros: Probably
a couple of days ago.
[Laughter]
Because I'm still working on
tweaking the opera, you know.
So I haven't let the book go.
I've developed the characters.
I've have had to telescope characters.
I've had to create an arc
because, as you know,
"The House on Mango Street" is based
on an experimental novel writing
based on the boom writers.
I wasn't looking to write a
beginning, middle end type of story.
I wanted a book that you could
open at any page and read
just one, or you could
go from left to right.
A different kind of storytelling. And
later on I found out books like that.
But when I was writing it,
I didn't know about them.
I thought I was inventing it.
But there are communities and
writers like Maud Martha,
the wonderful Gwendolyn Brooks.
There's an under looked fabulous
novel written in vignettes.
And, you know, other writers
like Lilus Kikus by the amazing
Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska,
another story cycle,
and other books that are
written in story cycles.
But I was trying at the time to
do something experimental, and
now with the opera, I've had to
create a linear story and
build to a climax and a
denouement, and also flesh out
characters, telescope
characters flesh out.
And I'm learning more and more
about the characters.
They're still talking to me
after all that time, and
the new 40th anniversary
edition of the book is out now.
I think it'll be for sale.
And there's new introductions,
but I think that I'm still
writing about the characters
because they're still speaking to me.
>> Rachel Martin: Is there a character
that came to the fore
in a new way for you?
>> Sandra Cisneros:
Yes. Lucy and Rachel,
you know, they have a
small part in the novel,
but they have a more voice,
a more fleshed out
characters in the opera.
Because I realized they
were migrant children.
I didn't realize that when
I was writing the book.
Now, as someone looking back,
I realized they spoke funny
because they probably came to
the Midwest with parents who
were migrants and then they ran
out of money, as many migrant
people do, and got
stuck in the Midwest.
And so you have children that
are from South Texas who speak
a unique border Spanish, and
a very unique way of speaking
English. So I got to understand
them as I spent more time
with them now, all these years later.
>> Rachel Martin: Okay.
With your permission,
I want to let everyone know
we're going to save 15 minutes
at the end of our conversation
for your questions. Okay.
So we'll be able to get to
that. I feel good about this.
Yes. Let's do it.
>> Sandra Cisneros: Thank you.
>> Rachel Martin: Let's do it. Okay,
so there's three rounds, folks
in this game. And there are a
couple of things to remember.
You have two tools at your disposal.
You have a skip.
So if a question isn't
resonating with you can just
say skip please.
And I'll replace it with another
question from the deck.
And you have a flip.
The flip puts me on the spot.
You can ask me to answer
the question before you.
You do not have to deploy
either of these tools,
but they are there for you. Okay?
And when we get to the end,
there's a special treat.
I'm not going to tell you what it is.
>> Sandra Cisneros: Food.
>> Rachel Martin: Mhm-hmm.
[Laughter]
>> Rachel Martin: It's
not Rice Krispie treats.
Just in case you can't.
>> Sandra Cisneros: I would
like Rice Krispie treats.
>> Rachel Martin: I love
a good Rice Krispie treat.
Okay. Three cards.
The thing with this game is
that you get to pick 1, 2 or 3.
I'd like you to ask every question.
>> Sandra Cisneros:
Okay. Can you put them near me?
>> Rachel Martin: Yeah, but
you can't read them, Sandra.
>> Sandra Cisneros:
I'm not reading.
>> Rachel Martin: Oh, you're
feeling them? Oh, I like it.
Two.
What was a moment when you
felt proud of yourself as a kid?
>> Sandra Cisneros: I wish I could say
there were moments when I was
feeling proud, but I--
The only ones I remember
was feeling ashamed.
You know, I d