In the two pieces, Cisneros details many definitions that can be applied to a person’s understanding of home. In, “No Place Like Home,” she describes how traveling to Iowa for graduate school really pushed her to understand what she defined as a home. It was in Iowa where she and her roommates would read a variety of works from different authors and historical figures like Juan Rolfo, Nicanor Parra, Malcolm X, etc. She differentiates how living in Iowa for grad school was compared to living in Chicago, saying that Iowa allowed her to become more attached to the book she was writing at the time. By closely observing the different messages in these works, Cisneros found that her definition of home was within the different books she had since she enjoyed reading different works of literature. Using these personal experiences, Cisneros goes against the common definition of a physical place and defines it as a place where you, as a person, feel comfortable and safe while also having the opportunity to express yourself freely along with allowing yourself to grow into the person you want to be.

 

Using Cisneros’s definition of home, I feel like there are numerous places for me that feel like home. One place is the different basketball courts in Whitestone where my close friends from high school and I would spend an entire day playing full court 5 on 5, King of the Court, 500 and refresh ourselves by going to the nearby McDonald’s or the deli a block or two away. We would always play the different kids that would come there and challenge them to a game and that would lead to us making more friends to play basketball with down the line. Honestly, whenever I’m spending time with my friends, whether it’s going on big adventures in Manhattan or Queens to doing little things like hanging out at each other’s houses watching movies or playing video games together, I truly feel at home. At the same time, another place I would call home is anywhere I can take a second and just have peace and quiet to think about the many different things that can run through my mind in a day. Of course, listening to music with my headphones on full blast is definitely there just to cement the whole idea of me disconnecting and getting lost in my own thoughts and stuff. Then I’d probably fall asleep right after.