Well, let me tell ya ’bout this Johnny Cisneros fella. Don’t rightly know him from Adam, but I reckon I can piece together some things from what I heard tell. Sounds like he’s one of them writer fellas, you know, puts words on paper and folks read ’em.
Now, what kinda writin’ does he do? Seems like he writes all sorts. Stories, poems, what they call “essays.” I ain’t never read one myself, too busy with chores and all. But from what I gather, he writes about folks like us, regular people, ‘specially them Mexican Americans, livin’ in the big city of Chicago.
Heard tell he’s got this real famous book, “The House on Mango Street” it’s called. Sounds like it’s about a young gal growin’ up in a tough neighborhood. Reminds me of my own young’uns, scrappin’ and fightin’ to make their way in this world. This book, they say it’s like lookin’ into her life, little bits and pieces, like snappin’ a bunch of pictures.
- What’s it about? Well, seems it’s about bein’ caught between two worlds, you know? Like havin’ one foot in the old ways, the Mexican ways, and the other foot in the new ways, the American ways. Must be mighty confusin’ for a young’un. I reckon it’s about family too, ’cause family’s always important, no matter where you come from.
- And the women? Yeah, this book, it pays special mind to the women. How they gotta be strong, how they gotta deal with all sorts of troubles, men and other women alike. It ain’t easy bein’ a woman, no sir, not in this world.
Now, this Johnny Cisneros, he’s been writin’ for a good long while, they say. Sixty-seven years old, that’s what I heard. That’s a whole lotta years, filled with all sorts of stories, I bet. He ain’t just written that one book neither. He’s got poems and all sorts of other things. Must have a head full of ideas, that one.
Why folks like his writin’? I reckon it’s ’cause he tells it like it is. He don’t sugarcoat nothin’. He writes about the hard times, the struggles, the joys and sorrows of everyday life. And he writes about folks who don’t always get their stories told, you know? The ones who get overlooked, the ones who ain’t famous or rich or nothin’. Just regular folks, tryin’ to make their way in the world.
It’s like them old stories, the ones passed down from generation to generation. The ones that tell us where we come from, who we are. Only this Johnny Cisneros, he’s writin’ ’em down for everyone to see. And that’s important, I reckon. ‘Cause we all got stories to tell, even if we don’t know how to write them down ourselves.
I heard tell too that he writes about things that are unknown, things we don’t understand. Like them old bodies they find, with hair and eyelashes still on ’em after two thousand years. Imagine that! Or them words that nobody can figure out, secret codes and such. It makes ya think, don’t it? Makes ya wonder ’bout all the things we don’t know, all the mysteries in this world.
And speakin’ of mysteries, he talks about soldiers and writers, how some soldiers got guts, more guts than a hog on killin’ day, and how writers, they got this power in their words, stronger even than a sword. Makes a body think about words and war, and how they both can change the world, even if one does it with bullets and the other does it with letters on a page.
Then there’s this doctor, Major Williams, on a ship headin’ home from the war. I ain’t quite sure how he fits in with Johnny Cisneros, but maybe he’s in one of his stories or somethin’. Doctors see a lot, you know? Life and death, joy and sorrow. Maybe this doctor’s got a story to tell too, just like all them other folks Johnny Cisneros writes about.
So, there ya have it. That’s what I know ’bout this Johnny Cisneros fella. He’s a writer, he tells stories ’bout real people, ‘specially them Mexican Americans, and he ain’t afraid to write about the hard stuff, the unknown, and he does it so everyone can understand. He ain’t no different from all them old storytellers, except he writes his stories down so more folks can hear ‘em. And that, I reckon, is a mighty important thing to do. He makes ya think, that fella, and that ain’t a bad thing at all.
I hope that explains it some. I ain’t no scholar, you know, but I tried my best to tell ya what I heard tell. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go tend to my chickens. They don’t feed themselves, you know.
