The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros: The Immigrant Woman Essay

Immigrant Esperanza is a young girl who finally moves with her family to a house on the Mango streets. It is a crumbling small red house located in a poor urban neighborhood. This is contrary to the expectation of Esperanza who was hoping for a better house. Esperanza who is mostly accompanied by her younger sister Nenny meets with other residents of the street and describes how life was hectic in the streets. Majority of her neighborhoods are Hispanic, including Esperanza, whose dad is a Mexican Immigrant and whose mother is Latina. The house on the Mango Street is trying to illustrate an analytic framework that attempts to shade light the interlocking settings of superiority and power impact on the marginalized groups like the immigrant women in the society. Incorporation with more recent theories likes "This Bridge Called My Back', the House on the Mango Street takes into consideration various stratification such as race, class and gender which do not occur in isolation from each other but are interwoven together. Moreover, the article has also incorporated the concept of intersectionality theory as seen on various discriminatory acts like the color of hair and separation of boys and girls in the society. Hence the overall outlook of the story aims to shed light on the challenges and empowerment of identity in terms of race and gender in society.

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The house of mango streets has extensively explored the theme of racial and gender identity and has dealt with these themes appropriately. First, the book has brought out racialism on the housing structures of people in the streets including Esperanza and her family and how it has been dealt with in the story. Esperanza reveals that they had been on a constant move shifting from house to house with their six-member family. Recalling at the time when they lived in the Loomis a nun from her school passed and saw her playing and had to branch and ask a few questions concerning where she was staying. The nun asked the writer, "Where do you live?" Then Esperanza replied quickly by pointing out where she lived which was just a few distances from the playing spot but, surprisingly, the nun continued to be curious and continued asking perhaps for confirmation and certainty. She asked again, "you live there?" and the Esperanza reaffirmed, though this made her feel like the place they were living was not actually worth staying and it was at this point that, that she realized that, she had to have a house, a better house which was more than that in the mango streets ( Sandra, pp. 4-5).

The book deals with the theme of gender identity by first creating awareness of the separation of boys and girls since both genders were separately in their own world. She asserts that, "The boys in their universe and we in ours" Esperanza has acknowledged her identity in the streets, and she is not happy with the situation since girls and boys were not allowed to make friends (Sandra, pp. 9-10). Patients and ambition have been illustrated to be the way forward of dealing with the theme of racial discrimination and gender identity. Moreover, the story reveals how Esperanza refused to tolerate her gender and refused to follow the typical gender responsibilities. Just as in the book of the bridge called my back by the radical women, additional emphasis has been illustrated on how to deal with racial and gender identity. The book reveals that we should begin to realize that, we are not wholly at the mercy of the circumstances we experience in our daily life nor our lives are completely out of our control. Esperanza emulated this concept and became successful in the long run by searching for employment and refusing to follow some gender-related responsibilities (Moraga & Gloria, pg. 11-23).

Similarly, instances of sexism are manifested in the story when girls are not allowed to mix with boys. This is limiting Esperanza even in making friends. She gives an example of her brother as an example and says, "They have got plenty to say to Nenny and me while in the house, but outside they can't be seen speaking to girls." (Sandra, pg. 8). On the other hand, an instance of racism is seen when those who come to the neighborhood where Esperanza is living are discriminating them and viewing them as dangerous people, yet they are not. Moreover, discrimination regarding color is illustrated in the book, for instance, Esperanza says, "All are all brown, we are safe, however, when we go to a neighborhood of another color, our knees, goes shakity-shake." (Sandra, pp, 28-29). This makes the neighborhood residents to get worried about their color.

Immigrant women in today's globe are faced with numerous challenges including being abused and homelessness issues. These are unique challenges that they encounter in their dire circumstances of life which is mostly accompanied by racial and gender identity. Immigrant women can apply the concept of constructivism theory to tackle the stumbling blocks of oppression and abuse especially from men through self-sufficiency and championing for better transitional processes. The house on the mango street has depicted these challenges though shedding some light by how Rosa Vargas has been abused by the man who made her has so many kids. Left in the hands of suffering, it is not her fault but she cries every day lamenting of the man who left her with such a burden of taking care of the many kids. "The man left even without leaving neither a dollar for bologna nor a note explaining how to come." (Sandra, pg. 29). Moreover, she faces a challenge of finding a good housing to stay with her children hence opting for entire life in the factory.

Different perception has existed on how immigrant women are viewed judged let alone their success and continued gender racist challenges. Immigrant women in the United States are a diverse group with different levels of education and hence are viewed to be having different access to resources and support by other citizens of the state. Many people view them as an option, not as a priority (Seller, pp. 87-88). More than one in every four immigrant women in the United States holds a bachelor which is a representative of 27% compared with 30% of the United States born women. Among the 10 largest sending countries for female immigrant are Mexico, China, Philippines, India and Vietnam. These women have good qualifications; however, according to how many employers view them as not worth getting first class white collar job as compared to the actual citizens, their qualifications are not recognized hence making them be viewed as those who can only undertake low skilled labor despite their qualifications (Seller, pp. 103-133).

Moreover, they are viewed as those who don't deserve a better quality of life. This is because they have sought refuge in a foreign country hence the best they do is to survive but not to seek other priorities like becoming wealthy or leading a luxurious lifestyle. Immigrant women are vulnerable to live in poverty as compared to US-born women. This fact has made the immigrant women miss out on such issues and health concern as having insurance coverage (Seller, pg.167). They Have been viewed as an option making them face multiple barriers in accessing basic health coverage since the government want to give priority to its citizens first. For instance, the federal law prohibited many immigrant women from means-tested benefit programs such as Medicaid in its early years of legal status (Seller, pg. 171). Besides, many researchers have argued and judged immigrant women as secondary workers, that is, they are supposed to join the existing labor force mainly as a response to family income shocks and are supposed to be hired temporarily for unskilled labor to support their husbands and children's (Seller, pp. 78-79). Notably, as men assimilate and financial problems ease, their spouse's participation in the labor market expected to decline to the level similar to those of native-born women. This view is; however, at odds with findings indicating married immigrant women make labor supply decisions influenced by their opportunities that exist in the labor market as the natives do rather than on the condition of their husbands (Seller, pp. 155-178).

Notably, these women, on the other hand, have been successful. The success of female immigrants, particularly in the United States, is not rare. Back in 2015, there existed as the story which emphasized the success of immigrant women through entrepreneurship (Gardner, pp. 47.54). Many immigrant women have made a mark in various bits of American business. Moreover, some part of the success involves theorization of being fearless and freedom from male control. These women have always played an integral part in building the present American economy. For instance, Albright besides being an immigrant, she was also a refugee. Her family fled their native homeland which was in the Czech Republic in 1948 for the United States after the rise of communism and lived in Colorado (Gardner, pg. 121). She went to become one of the foremost high serving diplomats in the United States. She became the first female secretary of state during the time of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton (Gardner, pg. 233).

Conclusion

Finally, immigrant women have constantly faced continual gender racist challenge. While there are benefits and achievement and successful stories, associated with immigrant women. They have continuously; faced gender-based discrimination and political violence especially in their home countries that have made some of them seek refuge (Gardner, pp, 235). Besides, gender discrimination has made these women go to the extent of being homeless. The united nation and other human advocacy groups have acknowledged that extreme discrimination has continued to exist and this is against the principle of respect for human rights.

Works cited

Gardner, Martha M. The Qualities of a Citizen: Women, Immigration, and Citizenship, 1870-1965. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2005. Print.

Kollmann, Tobias, Tobias Herbst, and Sandra Cisneros. Sandra Cisneros "the House on Mango Street": A Description; [scholarly Paper (advanced Seminar)]. Munchen: GRIN-Verl, 2005. Print.

Moraga, Cherrie, and Gloria Anzaldua. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2015. Print.

Seller, Maxine. Immigrant Women. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994. Print.