SOURCE: Heredia, Juanita. “Down These City Streets: Exploring Urban Space in El Bronx Remembered and The House on Mango Street.” Mester 22-23, nos. 1-2 (fall-spring 1993-1994): 93-105.

In the following essay, Heredia examines two coming-of-age novels that represent urban life from a Latina feminist perspective: The House on Mango Street, by Cisneros, set in Chicago, and El Bronx Remembered, by Nicholasa Mohr, set in New York City. Heredia asserts that the protagonists in both novels develop a social consciousness and self-awareness of their roles within the public sphere that allows them to experience intellectual and psychological freedom from patriarchal domination.

Nicholasa Mohr and Sandra Cisneros exemplify new voices in their respective Latino literary traditions by addressing the topic of urban space from a Latina feminist perspective. Mohr was among the first Nuyorican writers in the 1970s to examine the role of women of Puerto Rican background in their...