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Little Miracles, Kept Promises | Introduction

‘‘Little Miracles, Kept Promises’’ is a story in Sandra Cisneros’s collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (New York, 1991). The story consists almost entirely of letters left at a shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe at a Catholic church in a Mexican-American community in Texas. There are twenty-three notes; each is a petition or request for divine favor. Some letters are only a few lines, others run to nearly a page and the final one covers over four pages. The notes are from a variety of Mexican Americans, including a family breadwinner, a husband, a wife, several young women, a gay man, a student, and a grandparent. They are addressed to various divine or saintly personages, including the Virgin of Guadalupe, a title originating in a vision of the Virgin Mary granted to a humble believer in Mexico in 1531; San Antonio de Padua, and the Miraculous Black Christ of Esquipulas. The notes are signed and each person gives the Texas town where he or she comes from; some hail from cities like Houston and Austin, but the majority are from small towns.

Cisneros’s work is notable because she gives voice to the experiences of people in the Mexican- American community, a group that has until recently been underrepresented in American literature. With its humorous, compassionate, and poetic insight into Mexican-American life and culture, as well as its challenge to some of that culture’s traditions and assumptions, ‘‘Little Miracles, Kept Promises’’ is a typical example of Cisneros’s work. Taken in conjunction with the other stories in Woman Hollering Creek, as well as her earlier book, The House on Mango Street (1984), it helped to establish Cisneros’s reputation as an exciting new voice in American literature.

Little Miracles, Kept Promises Summary

Letters 1–4
The first note in ‘‘Little Miracles, Kept Promises’’ is from the Arteaga family, who thank the Virgin for protecting them when the bus they were riding in crashed. Next, a couple writes from San Angelo with thanks for the divine help their son-inlaw received after his truck was stolen. This is followed by an appeal from a poor family, who lost their possessions in a fire, for clothes, furniture, shoes and dishes. As a contrast, the next request is from a young San Antonio woman who asks for help in finding an acceptable man to marry. She swears there are none in Texas.

Letters 5–8
A brief note appeals for help in getting a wellpaid job; a grandmother begs for intervention on behalf of her young granddaughter who has kidney cancer. Gertrudis Parra from Uvalde asks for peace and prosperity, and also that the demons who are blocking her path might be removed. A one-line note from a woman asks that she may be taught how to love her husband again.

Letters 9–12
Moises Ildefonso Mata of San Antonio addresses the Seven African Powers that surround the savior. He asks them to be good to him and allow his Illinois lottery ticket to win and to protect him from the evil eye of the envious. A man appeals for help in getting his employer to pay him the wages he is owed for two weeks’ work. His family in Mexico depends on the money he sends them. Victor A. Lozano of Houston thanks Saint Sebastian for answering his prayers. Rubén Ledesma, a girl from Hebbronville, Texas,... » Complete Little Miracles, Kept Promises Summary