在世界各國以英文書寫而形成「新英文文學」的同時，美國文學也出現了少數族裔作家，以多種語言和多種文化的優勢，挑戰白人主流作家的霸權。他們以非裔、亞裔、和拉美裔爲主，因身爲新移民和少數族群而共有「錯置」和「疏離」的特色，爲美國文學注入了新血。這些作家共有多種語言與多種文化的特性，在一個以白人爲主的國家，代表了「非白人」的少數人口。在一九八零年代崛起的拉美裔－尤其是墨裔－的女性作家中，以珊卓拉•西斯內羅絲最爲出色。她在一九八四年所出版的第一本小說《芒果街之屋》於次年贏得「前哥倫布美國圖書獎」。這本自傳性的小說以第一人稱敘述法記敘一個青春期的少女在拉丁區成長及追求認同的故事。敘述者愛思普藍紗•寇得羅藉著四十四篇半頁至五頁長的短文，回溯她青澀的青春期，在貧窮、種族歧視、和性別壓制的框架下呈現三個主題：她想擁有一棟好屋子、她想成爲一個作家、以及她對身份認同的追尋。這三個主題其實是互相關連的；換言之，愛思普藍紗必須突破種族與性別之雙重少數的限制和禁錮，成爲作家，並找到她要的屋子，完成身份認同。作者西斯內羅絲以介於詩與小說之間的混合文類寫這本女性成長小說，也是所謂的藝術家成長小說，以鞋子和屋子等意象探討語言、文化差異、種族與性別歧視等重要議題，塑造了敘述者的主體性，也成功地爲處鈴邊緣地位的墨裔女性說出了悲傷且流離的命運。

A very striking phenomenon, related to the birth of the so-called "new literatures in English" of the post-colonial period, in the second half of the 20th century in the United States, is the hegemony of writers from the mainstream being sharply challenged from the exciting writing done by "minority" or "ethnic" writers, whether they are Asian, African, Latino or Chicano. What these writers have in common are their multilinguality and their multiculturalism. They represent a "nonwhite" minority population in a largely white country. Sandra Cisneros, a most prominent representative of Chicana Literature, is a native of the Midwest, Chicago, where she grew up among Puerto Ricans. She wrote many poems and short prose pieces that appeared in magazines and anthologies before the publication in 1983 of The House on Mango Street, a work she completed as a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and won the Before Columbus American Book Award in 1985. It is dedicated: "A las Mujeres/To the Women", and it contains forty-four vignettes ranging from one paragraph to five pages. Through these brief lyrical narratives, the narrator, a girl named Esperanza, recounts her growth from puberty to adolescence within the sociopolitical frame of poverty, racial discrimination, and gender subjugation. The book's action is propelled by three major themes: the girl's desire to find a suitable house, to find her identity, and to become a writer. These themes are inextricably interrelated, and the resolution of the themes of house and identity is to be achieved by her role as writer.