In 1984, Sandra Cisneros published a collection of forty four vignettes titled The House on Mango Street. This Bildungsroman narrates the experiences of growing up in a Hispanic-American neighborhood in Chicago through the eyes of Esperanza Cordero, a fictionalized adolescent girl who is transitioni...
Introduction A common contemporary feature across many affluent countries with highly developed economies is the persistence of urban underclass neighborhoods. This phenomenon presents many national and local characteristics, nonetheless a number of common salient features can be pointed out: high unemployment, substance abuse and dependency, widespread delinquency with high incidence of violent crime, low public trust, ethnic polarization, social exclusion, higher than average mortality and morbidity rates, lack of educational qualifications, high rates of teenage pregnancy and single parent ...
