Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestizo, (1987) by Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana writer. This largely nonfiction volume also includes poetry. In it Anzaldua analyzes the experiences of Mexicans/Chicanos in the United States.

Latino: Women's Voices from the Borderlands (1995) is edited by Lillian Castillo-Speed. This collection of writings from 31 Latina writers includes short stories, excerpts from novels, and essays that describe lives on the borders of languages, races, and communities.

Cuentos: Stories by Latinos (1983), is edited by Alma Gomez, Cherrie Moraga, and Mariana Romo-Carmona. These stories describe the lives of Latina women in their struggle to overcome the challenges of living in complex cultural contexts.

Chicana Creativity & Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature (1996), is edited by Maria Herrara-Sobek and Helena Maria Viramontes. This collection of poetry, prose, criticism and visual art includes literature by and about Chicanas.

The Woman Warrior (1976), by Maxine Hong Kingston. Cisneros has cited this book about the family history, myth, and the memories of an Asian-American woman as an inspiration for writing The House on Mango Street.

The House on Mango Street (1983), by Sandra Cisneros. Cisneros describes her first novel as a string of little pearls. Each little pearl, each story, can be read and understood on its own, or the whole collection can be seen as a necklace, to be read as a whole.

Storyteller (1981), by Leslie Marmon Silko. A collection of stories by a Native American writer who explores her Pueblo heritage and weaves myths, autobiography, and the history of her community into her tales that highlight the importance of stories as a form of knowledge.