Who Is Cisnero's Letter To The Virgin

As Clemencia struggles with identifying as both sides of La Malinche, Chayo, of “Little Miracles, Kept Promises” searches for a way to accept the Virgencita de Guadalupe as a source of power and not passivity. Cisneros writes Chayo in a different scenario than Cleofilas or Clemencia; she is writing to the Virgin in thanks because she finally understands who the saint is – it is through this letter that Cisneros details Chayo’s transformation from a girl with no connections to a woman connected to both the Virgin of Guadalupe and her fictional La Gritona. Even as she is not explicitly mentioned, La Gritona makes her appearance as Chayo appreciates that there is more power in the Virgin, and in herself, than she ever knew before. Chayo writes her letter to the Virgin in thanks on the news that she is not pregnant, but she still feels the pain of her femininity. There is not power, she believes, in being a woman; she
In her home, Chayo “push[es] the furniture against the door” to not let the Virgin in, the Virgin in this case is her physical representation in Chayo’s mother and grandmother (126). As both women impose their religion onto Chayo, she lashes back in a way that would physically separate her from them – she does this first by having sex. The Virgin of Guadalupe represents a purity maintained until marriage so Chayo attempts to destroy that connection first; however, her plan backfires when she faces a pregnancy scare. All of her attempts to distance herself from the Virgin vanish as she mentally prepares to be a mother. It is after she finds out that she is not pregnant, that Cisneros begins writing Chayo from a figure desperate to disconnect with her culture, to a woman struggling to embrace herself and her religion, La Gritona and the Virgencita de