5.4.09

happy silver, house on mango street

On Friday Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street turned the big 2-5 and to mark the occasion, Vintage has released a special anniversary edition. On a more local level, the San Antonio Central Library (aka "The Enchilada Library") celebrated with music, cake, roving paleta carts (mango, ¡por supuesto!), a chanclas decoration station and a reading and book signing by none other than Miss Cisneros herself.

San Antonio, Bexar County and The State of Texas each issued proclamations to honor her groundbreaking work. Cisneros, donning her very cool Virgen de Guadalupe cowboy boots, read her yet-unpublished (and first-ever) story about her King William neighborhood, "Have you seen Marie?"

At once a beautiful tribute to her barrio and an intimate love letter to San Antonio, the piece chronicles Cisneros' hunt for her missing cat, Marie. As I sat outside the library in the heart of downtown, listening as the wind carried her voice, I couldn't help but feel reconnected to the cultural heartbeat of a city I spent 18 years in.

As someone so aptly put it during the celebration, Cisneros is San Antonio. And I couldn't agree more.

To one who has inspired so many: ¡Felicitaciones y feliz cumpleaños!

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