Sandra Cisneros, Author of "Caramelo" "Sustaining Myths and Stories of My People" A Book TV Panel on "Crossing Borders" January 10, 2004 Video #81 2:33:35 - 3:09:12

Professor Cisneros was born in Chicago and moved to San Antonio where the landscape matches her heart. She is a Spanish working class person. Her grandparents came to the United States to escape the Mexican Civil War. A grandfather worked his way up the railroads to Chicago. In commenting on the title of the panel "Crossing Borders," she suggested that it is also important to think about crossing gender and crossing class.

Her father was from middle class. Her mother from working class. Her father spoke like a woman and her mother spoke like a man. To swear in English allows her to cross gender and to keep from being frightened. Spanish has the power to caress and arouse her. But it can bludgeon you, too. But for a friend that grew up in Mexico, Spanish reminds her of the harassment she experienced in high school.

Her father wanted her to go to college and marry a nice man to take care of her. That was the Mexican tradition. But she went to graduate school in another city where her father couldn't watch over her. For a long time she took minimum wage jobs. Her father couldn't understand whey she couldn't get better jobs. Before he died there was peace. She received the prestigious Mc Arthur Award. He understood what $250,000 award was and so he began to understand. To understand what is was to become a writer.

The relationship with her father has taught her how to communicate with people she disagrees with. And to communicate with love and respect. This has been a valuable lesson for her.

She has crossed many borders in her life. She was mistaken for a gypsie. In Europe she was mistaken for a north African. She learned what it must have been like for her father to be an immigrant to the United States. She also talked about how she uses different language--White English and working class Spanish.

She was asked at a conference once what is multiculturalism. She responded that if you can think of someone who is the opposite of you. If you can think of yourself as that person then that is multiculturalism. These are difficult, difficult times. We need to know many different languages. It is our time to be peace makers. We are living in times of transition. Who are your people? What makes you different from anyone in the room. That's your people. Each one of us has a responsibility for peace. We can be bridges or we can be walls. Imagine how we can transform the world.