she has a new tattoo on her left arm that she calls "the Buddhalupe"

"People to me are like walking Smithsonians, and when they die, all this goes with them unless you document it. (...)

"I never saw an upholsterer in American literature," Ms. Cisneros said. Her father, Alfredo Cisneros, had an upholstery business in Chicago that is now run by three of his sons. "He was such an example of generosity and honest labor," she said. "I didn't want people to erase him."
The New York Times: Telling a Tale of Immigrants Whose Stories Go Untold. Sandra Cisneros' second novel, Caramelo, has just been published and apparently her first, The House on Mango Street, is on its way to joining the canon. I haven't read it, but I clearly remember coming across it when I was shopping for textbooks in college and browsing the readings for other classes. Wasn't that a great way to find books? Mango Street has been on my "sooner or later" list ever since.
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