CREATING DISCURSIVE SPACE THROUGH A RHETORIC OF DIFFERENCE: CHICANA FEMINISTS CRAFT A HOMELAND

In the novel The House on Mango Street, Esperanza, the main character, recalls being asked by a nun from school where she lived. She remembers the nun’s response: There…. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded. I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. (emphasis in original) (Cisneros 5) As the novel progresses Esperanza grows from a child to a teenager and continues to long for a house. The dream house becomes not only one she can “point to,” but one in which she can retain her identity and her culture. “One day I’ll own my own house, but I won’t forget who I am or where I came from,” says Esperanza (Cisneros 87).