Today we read about author, Sandra Cisneros, and a short story of hers, “Merican” in American Literature.

Sandra was born in Chicago, Illinois to a mom who is Mexican American and a Mexican father. Every year they would travel to Mexico to spend the summer and then return to Chicago to find a new home and (her father) to find a new job. One of the things I like about Sandra is that her stories tend to have characters who have multiple identities as well as places that have multiple identities (very much like Sandra herself–http://www.sandracisneros.com/bio.php).

Evidently, about twenty years ago she settled in San Antonio with all of her animals in a lovely home located in the King William area of San Antonio (http://www.kingwilliamassociation.org/neighborhood/history.htm). You’ve got to love a gal like Sandra who moved into this pretty ritzy area with very nice, well kept Victorian homes and proceeded to paint her home violet. Currently, her home is painted a bright Mexican Rosa with Avocado green shutters and trim. I think she took some flack for not keeping up with the “Jones” and painting her home a staid white or beige. I love it! In fact, it’s making me ponder what David and I could paint the back of our home now…..

I don’t know if my Millennial friends have any “shoulds” that operate just underneath your consciousness that are constantly telling you who you should be and what you should wear and where you should live, but in my generation…there was a veritable cornucopia given to every boy and girl born along with their first blanket. As luck would have it, I was the kind of person who was always trying to buck the system. I think that is how my family sees me, anyway. But really, I didn’t let my wings flap out there full throttle very much (if at all) because of worrying about what others would think. So most of my rebellious outbursts ended up being half-assed attempts to be someone different (and not necessarily who I really was). Heck, it wasn’t until my late twenties or early thirties that I could truly tell you what my favorite color was (and not what my best friend’s was).

Here’s what I learned from Sandra Cisneros daring pink house….if you are a person who truly loves the color white or cream (In the book, “Smila’s Sense of Snow” there are something like 80 different definitions for snow) than paint your home your perfect shade of white/cream/beige or tan. But, if you have a taste bud living inside of you that would really love to paint your home aqua or purple or turquoise or some other color that isn’t the norm….then I want to challenge you to at least paint one wall of your home that color.

I have visited cities and towns in Mexico and in the Caribbean that have the most gorgeously colored houses, which make me feel happy. And some of these houses are really very simple and small but their colors announce that someone happy and alive and creative lives there.

If you ever visit my limestone home, please pretend that it is bright pink with avocado trim and if you paint your house/apartment door/condo a unique color–please send me a photo to post!

Little pink houses for little pink hearts!