Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20, 1954, in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of a Mexican father and Mexican-American mother. She was the only daughter in a family of seven. Because her father missed his homeland, the family often moved from Chicago to Mexico City and then back again, leaving Cisneros feeling homeless. She developed a love of reading, and as early as the fifth grade had plans to go to college. During childhood and adolescence, she also developed the habit of writing poems and stories.

Cisneros earned a Bachelor of Arts from Loyola University of Chicago in 1976 and then attended the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, graduating in 1978 with an Master of Fine Arts degree. It was while studying in Iowa that Cisneros discovered her vocation to write about her experiences as a Latina woman living outside the mainstream of American culture.

Cisneros then taught at the...