Reading "Woman Hollering Creek" (well, the first half) was like going into a Chinese restaurant and being able to get 8 different types of dim sum for the price of one. Am I the only one who thinks that reading Cisernos' work is like...reading the work of numerous authors? Her use of voice allows her audience to hear the inside thoughts of her characters as well as their speaking voices. One story sounds like a telenovela, another, a tragedy, another a scene from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. It is almost as if "Woman Hollering Creek" is an anthology of Chicano Literature, each story as individual as the character telling it.
What I loved most about this book was the imagery. I was able to see "tri-ish" and hear her heels and see her hoop earrings and mini-skirt. I was able to smell the corn in the little girl's hair and I could feel the boredom that comes with being in a family of devout Catholics. I also appreciated, as some of you stated, that this book seemed -real-. It seemed like literal literature. A non-fictional fiction. There were no traces of devils or dyed skin in this book. Only stories I could hear actual people saying, whether it be in a kindergarten playground or in a skeezy, smoke clouded bar.
Though I feel we got a glimpse of what "Chicano Culture" is in the last book, I feel like this book exemplifies the hybrid culture that embodies Mexican-Americans who live around the border or around the United States and Canada. This book shows the joys and difficulties and that accompany Chicanos throughout their lives. The Latino influences and the "American" ones (who is to say who is an "American", Mexico is in America but that is another can of worms).
My main point is that this book is...real.
Oh, and when they Cisernos mentions "La Llorona", I remembered this scene from the movie "Frida". Beautiful. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQ31m4Yt0s"
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I agree with the dim sum comment, however, I find that although all those stories are different and form a different voice, they are at their core the same story. It deals with the same issues and its a great way to illustrate just how hard chicano life is.
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