Sandra Cisneros grew up primarily in Chicago, Illinois, particularly in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side of the city. Her family frequently moved back and forth between Chicago and Mexico during her childhood, which led to a somewhat unstable living situation and multiple relocations. Despite this, Cisneros spent most of her youth in Chicago, where she was raised in a predominantly Latino community that later inspired much of her writing, including her famous novel The House on Mango Street