Her Own Drummer

Last spring, the writer Sandra Cisneros returned to San Antonio to meet with her accountant, address some computer issues, and have her mother’s fur hat professionally cleaned. Cisneros has lived in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, since 2013, but she resided in San Antonio for most of the 29 years prior, living in the King William District, where she stirred controversy for painting her Victorian cottage periwinkle. Her visit coincided with Fiesta San Antonio, and Cisneros appeared on the float “March To Your Own Drummer”—a fitting theme. “I think I can quote Fidel Castro here,” she says. ‘“History will absolve me.’”

“I think everybody, every young person, should be given a grant to travel to a place where you don’t speak the language.”

In 1984, the same year was published, Cisneros moved from Chicago to San Antonio to serve as literature director at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. She drew on her Texas experiences in her writing and, while in San Antonio, also founded the Macondo Writers Workshop, dedicated to community-building and social change. Cisneros’ works—in 2015, she released a career-spanning essay collection —have earned her high honors, including the MacArthur Fellowship, a Texas Medal of the Arts, and during her spring visit, a Texas Institute of Letters Lifetime Achievement Award.