STARTING POINT
Write your name. For each letter in your name, try to think of a word that describes you.
Remember you are only allowed to use words that are positive. When you finish, show the
words to your neighbour.
Happy Inspiring L…
D…
E…
My Name
by Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros (1954–) is a Mexican-American author. Most of her writing is influenced
by her ethnic background and reflects her
multicultural roots and struggles. When she
was a child her family moved back and forth
CHECKpoint
*What is said
about the greatgrandmother in
this part of the
text? 
In English my name means hope. In Spanish it
means too many letters. It means sadness, it
means waiting. It is like the number nine. A
muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father
plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving,
songs like sobbing.
It was my great-grandmother’s name and now it
is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me
in the Chinese year of the horse – which is supposed to be bad luck if you’re born female – but I
think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like
the Mexicans, don’t like their women strong.
My great-grandmother. I would’ve liked to have
known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she
wouldn’t marry. *Until my great-grandfather
threw a sack over her head and carried her off.
Just like that, as if she were a fancy chandelier.
That’s the way he did it.
And the story goes she never forgave him. She
several times between Chicago and Mexico. As
a young woman, she often felt trapped
between two cultures. Books and writing
helped her to find herself.
looked out the window her whole life, the way so
many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I
wonder if she made the best with what she got or
was she sorry because she couldn’t be all the
things she wanted to be. Esperanza . I have
inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit
her place by the window.
At school they say my name funny as if the
syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of
your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out
of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick
as sister’s name – Magdalena – which is uglier than
mine. Magdalena who at least can come home and
become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza.
I would like to baptize myself under a new
name, a name more like the real me, the one
nobody sees. Especially as Lisandra or Maritza or
Zeze the X. Yes. Something like Zeze the X will do.
An excerpt from The House on Mango Street 1984
14
Language Workshop
A Where one or two words are
underlined, do the following tasks:
1 from the context, guess what they mean
2 write down all the possible meanings you find
3 consult a dictionary
BFor the underlined phrases with more
than two words:
1 try to explain their meaning to a fellow
student
2 use the underlined phrases in a new text
15
VIEWpoints
A Relating to the story:
1 What does your name mean?
2 How did you get your name – find out!
3 Would you, like Esperanza “…like to ­
baptise myself under a new name”?
Why/why not?
4 Esperanza says: “But in Spanish my
name is made out of a softer something,
like silver” What impression of the
Spanish language do you get from this
statement? How would you describe the
Norwegian language? Maybe your native
tongue is not Norwegian – how does
this language “feel”?
B Relating to the outer world
“When I read about the great-grand mother that was captured, it made me
think of …”
Continue the sentence.
creative stunts!
A Story writing: Choose task one or two
and write the story from great-grand mother Esperanza’s point of view.
1 Use the situation described in the quote
as a starting-point for your text.
“Until my great-grandfather threw a
sack over her head and carried her off.”
2 Esperanza says , “I don’t want to inherit
her place by the window”. Write a text
where you describe what Esperanza’s
grandmother saw from her window.
B Who are you? Pick three items and take
a picture of them. Then present yourself
in one of these ways:
1 Write a text about why you have chosen
these items and what they say about you.
2 Make a multimedia text about yourself,
using music, pictures and words.
C Inspired by the text “My Name”, write a
short text about your name.
16
“What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose
By any other name would
smell as sweet.”
William Shakespeare(1564–1616),
English dramatist. Romeo and Juliet (1595).
RULE OF THUMB
Words that show family
relationships are only capitalised
when they are part of a name,
not otherwise.
ex. My son is named after my
grandfather.
My nephew is named after
Grandpa John.