Rice Sandwiches

I went to a reading last night by my favorite author, Sandra Cisneros. The Austin Public Library Foundation sponsored the reading in honor of the 25th anniversary of the publication of The House on Mango Street. As with most things good that have happened in my life, my husband introduced me to her writing.

When we first met, he owned a copy of The House on Mango Street, a collection of powerful short essays about the lives of Latinas in poverty. I read it voraciously. I could identify with the narrator of almost every story. It seemed that her stories were about me.  

My all-time favorite short essay is "Rice Sandwich," about a little girl who wants to eat in the "canteen" with the kids who bring lunch to Catholic school every day. After relentlessly pleading and begging her mother to please pack her a lunch, her mother agrees, but they don't have lunch meat so all her mother can pack her is a sandwich made out of rice. The little girl couldn't be happier. She walks in to school with her lunch and a note from her mother asking the mother superior to let her daughter eat in the canteen. But the little girl is not prepared for the humiliation that awaits her.

Every time I read that story, I weep. Seriously, not just tear up a little, but really cry a flowing river of tears. I guess it's because the story reminds me so much of when I was a little girl and how badly I wanted to take a lunch to school. My dad always said no because we already got a free lunch at school. I couldn't stand those free lunches, especially on the day they served Tortilla Soup. It was so gross.  Everything was all mixed together. It looked like it had already been processed in someone's stomach. I longed for the day when I could bring a lunch box to school filled with goodies from home and then one day, I met my friend Julie Farmer.  She brought a lunch to school every day and she hated that. Funny how life is sometimes, but what a perfect opportunity for both of us! I gave Julie my free lunch ticket and I got to eat her delicious bologna or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  

Anyway, last night Sandra Cisneros read two new short stories.  Like the rest of her writing, they were powerful and funny. I did not realize Sandra was such a funny person. I should've known since her stories can be very funny. Her last story was about her mother dying when Sandra was 53 and how that made her feel like an orphan in the world. In the story, two little girls who just lost their mother also lose their cat, Marie. 

"Have you seen Marie?" the little girls walk around asking in the neighbors. 

"Marie, where are you?!" they call out.  

They don't find Marie but in the process of looking for Marie they discover that they are really looking for their mother. When they finally start asking about their mother, her spirit responds: "'Here I am!' says the Wind."  

"Here I am! say the Trees."  

"Here I am!' says the River." 

As usual I am not doing her story justice.  It was beautiful and as with most of her stories, by the end, I was sobbing like a baby. But the beauty of being in a room full of Sandra Cisneros fans is that when I looked around most people were sobbing, too.  

TTYL.