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1. Spend some time clicking around "The Distorted Barbie" site. What was your view of Barbie dolls before you visited this site? Did any of this web content make you think of Barbies in a different way? Did the site make you think of "Barbie-Q" in a different way?


2. Read this brief history of the Maxwell Street Market. Notice that the story was written in 1991. What has happened to the market since then? Does this help you ground the story in a place and time?


3. Interested in putting Sandra Cisneros into a cultural context? These notes discuss the author and other Latina writers, including Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez, and Laura Esquivel. Which of these authors have you heard or read of before? Which do you think Cisneros shares the most in common with and why? What are the benefits of studying Cisneros in the context of other Latina writers? What are the drawbacks?