SOURCE: "Self-Baptizing the Wicked Esperanza: Chicana Feminism and Cultural Contact in The House on Mango Street," in Mester, Vol. 22, No. 2, Fall, 1993, pp. 123-34.

In the following essay, Busch examines Esperanza's exploration of her Chicana identity in Cisneros's short story collection.

A counterstance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, like the cop and the criminal, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counterstance refutes the dominant culture's views and beliefs, and, for this, it is proudly defiant. All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counterstance stems from a problem with authority—outer as well as inner—it's a step towards liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the...