In both “No Place Like Home” and “Only Daughter”, Sandra Cisneros characterizes home in different ways other than just a place you take shelter in. She explains that she found herself at home in Iowa when she went to go to graduate school. She also says how Iowa led her to connect more with the book she was writing at that time. “I found my home in the country-folk monologues of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, the anti-poetics of Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, the rage of Malcolm X.” She explains that she found herself at home in the literature. Cisneros gives us a new definition to the word “home” where it’s not a physical place where we sleep and spend most of our time in, but instead a place that makes you feel the most comfortable, and more you.

 

In my case, I feel that I feel most “at home”, at home. I enjoy my privacy at home and that’s the place I feel safest and comfortable. I feel as if you can’t really be comfortable anywhere else if there are people around. When I am home, I can behave however I want (other than the nagging of my mom), dress how I want, eat as much as I want, and sleep as much as I want. This quarantine was a blessing for me when it comes to spending time at home. Of course it gets suffocating not being able to go outside, but I was able to be so comfortable the past months. One other place I am the most me is when I am underwater in a cold pool or ocean. In the water, everything is calm and quiet. It makes it feel like reality is stopped and you can express yourself. Even though things you can do underwater is pretty limited, it makes me happy.