Criticism: Sandra Cisnos & Her Trade of the Free Word

“Sandra Cisneros and Her Trade of the Free Word,” in Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature (Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs)

Sandra Cisno contributes to the mission of expanding Chicano and Mexicano literature. Her book, Caramelo is one of the first Chicano novel novels to appear in Spanish without the condition of first becoming a bestseller in English. Cisno creates pop culture figures within the novel that our cultural workers at different levels and displayed the richness of Chicano and Mexican culture. Cisno expands on the cultural and symbolic meaning of femininity by expanding on the meaning of rebozos in Caramelo. The rebozo in Caramelo is displayed as a weapon, personified voice for the protagonist, (the grandmother) and an icon of nationalism, and eventually a cover for the dead grandmother. Throughout the novel, the rebozo has a language of its own, which previously had not been characterized by any other Chicano author. The rebozo becomes the connector of nationalism, language, and home.

Because she didn’t know what else to do, Soledad chewed on the fringe of her
rebozo. Oh, if only her mother were alive. She could have told her how to speak
with her rebozo. How, for example, if a woman dips the fringe of her rebozo at
the fountain when fetching water, this means,-I am thinking of you. Or, how if
she gathers her rebozo like a basket, and walks in front of the one she loves and
accidentally lets the contents fall, if an orange and a piece of sugarcane tumble
out, that means,-Yes, I accept you as my novio. Or if a woman allows a man to
take up the left end of her rebozo, she is saying,-I agree to run away with you.
How in some parts of Mexico, when the rebozo is worn with the two tips over
her back, crossed over her head, she is telling the world,-I am a widow. If she
allows it to fall loose to her feet,-I am a woman of the street and my love must
be paid for with coins. Or knotted at the ends,-I wish to marry. And when she
does marry, how her mother would place a pale blue rebozo on her head, mean-
ing,-This daughter of mine is a virgin, I can vouch for it. But if she had her lady
friend do it for her in her name, this meant,-Unused merchandise, well, who
can say? Or perhaps in her old age she might instruct a daughter,-Now, don’t
forget, when I’m dead and my body is wrapped in my rebozos, it’s the blue one
on top, the black one beneath, because that’s how it’s done, my girl. But who was
there to interpret the language of the rebozo to Soledad? (105)

Cisneros, Sandra. Caramelo. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002.