Note: The House on Mango Street is divided into 44 separately titled sections averaging about two-and-one-half pages each. Each of these sections might stand alone; together they work as a novel. These critical commentaries refer to the sections as "chapters" and consider them in numbered groups for the sake of convenience.
In the first chapter, the speaker reveals a little about her family and her life. She talks about the house she lives in and about some of the other places she has lived. The family has moved numerous times and, at the same time, has been growing, until now there are four children: the speaker has two brothers (Carlos and Kiki) and one sister (Nenny), besides her two parents. The speaker was ashamed of the last place they lived. This new house is small, with crumbling bricks, small windows, a small backyard, and no front yard, but it has three bedrooms and the speaker's parents own it.
In "Hairs," the speaker describes how everyone in her family has different kinds of hair, and how her mother's hair smells comfortably like bread before it's baked.
Carlos and Kiki, the two boys, play together outside but can't be seen talking to girls, the speaker tells us in "Boys & Girls." She herself has to watch out that her sister doesn't get into trouble, but Nenny is not the "best friend" she wants or would choose. Someday, though, she will have a best friend.
Then, in "My Name," she tells us who she is: Esperanza, which in English translates to hope; it was also the name of her great-grandmother, a strong woman who suffered because her culture did not like strong women. Esperanza doesn't like her name, but at least it is better than her sister's — Magdalena — and sounds better in Spanish than in English. But her sister's name has a nickname — Nenny — whereas her own does not.
