Sandra Cisneros

The House on Mango Street

Luna 🌙

It’s such a regular occurrence she thinks these storms of depression are as normal as rain. 

Norma, I did it by doing the things I was afraid of doing so that I would no longer be afraid. 

aral

Esperanza. The one with marble hands called me aside. Esperanza. She held my face with her blue-veined hands and looked and looked at me. A long silence. When you leave you must remember always to come back, she said. (...) You must remember to come back. For the ones that cannot leave as easily as you. 

lara

Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.

Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.

Is a good girl, my friend, studies all night and sees the mice, the ones her father says do not exist. Is afraid of nothing except four-legged fur. And fathers.

Maybe the sky didn't look the day she fell down. Maybe god was busy. (...) 

But I think diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone. Like my aunt who happened to be walking down the street one day...

Sometimes you get used to the sick and sometimes the sickness, if it is there too long, gets to seem normal.

People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars they forget those of us who live too much on earth. They don't look down at all except to be content to live on the hills.

When you leave you must remember to come back for the others. A circle, understand? You will always be Esperanza. You will always be Mango Street. You can't erase what you know. You can't forget who you are.

Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to that Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away? 

They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.

The House on Mango Street quotes

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