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Sandra Cisneros

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ANN ARBOR—The kaleidoscope of U.S. Latino identity includes people from 20 countries, different ethnicities, religions, distinct accents, and who speak a mix of Spanish Portuguese and English.

This complexity will be explored in the University of Michigan keynote address for Hispanic Heritage Month by writer and poet Sandra Cisneros, ” Why I’m Not Hispanic. “

Cisneros, 52, will speak at Rackham Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28. She explains the provocative title of her talk: ” It is Hispanic Heritage Month, but I have never self-identified as Hispanic. “

Author of the landmark novel ” The House on Mango Street” (1983) that sold more than two million copies, Cisneros also will share a very personal dialogue with U-M Professor of Anthropology and Women’s Studies Ruth Behar. “Talking In Our Pajamas: A Conversation Between Sandra Cisneros and Ruth Behar” will be 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sept. 29 at 3512 Haven Hall.

The writer is now working on a book called ” Writing in My Pajamas,” devoted to how she teaches writing: Students can find their voice by imagining they are in their pajamas ” talking to someone who they know so well, they wouldn’t have to excuse themselves and get dressed,” Cisneros said.

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Ruth Behar

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Behar, also a poet and author, looks ” for creative ways to discuss and share ideas. Having a conversation with Sandra in pajamas will allow an audience to listen in as we talk about writing, reading, and a range of issues, just as we do during our periodic phone conversations, which usually begin at midnight and last until 4 or 5 in the morning. “

Cisneros and Behar met and became friends at the University of Michigan when Cisneros was a visiting professor 15 years ago. Behar had just returned to Ann Arbor from her research in Mexico and Cisneros set up a ” Day of the Dead” altar in the American Culture Program office, which is still a tradition to this day. The Day of the Dead (D