Her use of Spanish is always placed in italics, and is sometimes translated, sometimes not. For Caramelo, the majority of Cisneros’s writing in the main text is in English, but also includes several common expressions and words, sometimes full poems and sections of dialogue, in Spanish. The way that Cisneros uses English and Spanish together in her work has been discussed by several critics. For my review, I wanted to conceptualize how Cisneros uses both text and paratext in the novel along with English, Spanish, and translations between the two, and how this approach to language is useful for Latina literature specifically. In addition to these chronological shifts, the book also distinguishes itself as a collection of truths, half-truths, and lies, and much of the 80-chapter main text is also revised, negated, or clarified through the use of footnotes, or paratext, at the end of each chapter. The book is about a young Xicana girl named Celaya, also born in Chicago, and also the youngest with six brothers, and the story begins with her traveling across the border with her family to visit her grandmother in Mexico City.Ĭelaya, as a child, is very interested in language, storytelling, and in the life histories of her family, and the story soon becomes a multi-generational narrative that moves from 1920’s Mexico City to Chicago in the 50’s and in between.

Much of the inspiration for Caramelo comes from her childhood, as part of a huge family where she was the youngest with six older brothers. Sandra is a Chicana writer raised in the U.S., in Chicago, who began publishing her work in the 1980’s. The book I chose to review is Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, published in 2002.

Caramelo novel