I've got the bad blood in me I think

the mad uncle, the bit of the bullet.

(Brothers, 25)

She lives alone now.

Has abandoned the brothers

the rooms of fathers

and many mothers.

(Poet 37)

Poor Sandra Cisneros, growing up in a family of six boys. Each paired off with another, leaving her alone--but each tried to protect her from the dangers of the big bad male world, making her feel as though she had six extra fathers. (Daughter, 11) Cisneros' feeling of isolation due to her gender would increase when her real father tried to translate the Spanish siete hijos (seven children) into English. He ended up telling everyone he had "seven sons."

Cisneros retreated into her books, as was typical when she felt alone, and found the fairy tale of "Six Swans," by the brothers Grimm. In this tale, an evil witch holds six brothers captive; only their youngest sister--who the family initially wanted to throw away-- can save them. It must have been a recurring daydream for Cisneros--to help her brothers by doing something the family couldn't. Wouldn't it be welcome if those boys showed their sister gratefulness and praise, and realized that she was just as worthy--if not more so--than their own selves?

Unsurprisingly, nothing of the sort happened in Cisneros' early life. Her parents set grand plans for their sons' successes-doctor, lawyer, newscaster-but assumed that marriage would be Cisneros' only goal and only fate. However, Cisneros had the "bad blood"-she wanted to run wild, break out of the mold her family set for women, and make a name for herself without the limitations of a man. She made a "mad" decision, by attempting something ruinous for a poor little girl--but surely her "madness" has paid off.

Cisneros always had to struggle to secure her identity as a woman, an independent person in a man's world. In her work, she now asserts herself as equal to--if not better than--the men she loves, and the men who oppress her and her characters. Many readers don't appreciate the way she portrays men--stereotyping most of them as machos, chauvinist, womanizing, violent guys with raging testosterone levels. "Excepting the man-hated (sic) central idea, I do favor her richness in language," comments a reader named An W. on Pleiades Book Reviews. Another anonymous reader adds, "Her emphasis on 'machismo' borders on boredom. The book [Woman Hollering Creek] is an anthology of 'machismo bashing' and tends to get old after a while." (Pleiades)

Cisneros dismisses this criticism; she considers that although "I strike terror among the men…I can't be bothered what they think." (Loose, 114) For Cisneros is like a certain woman, "in the movies...one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel. She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away. Her power is her own. She will not give it away." (House, 89)