Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros

Awful Grandmother's grandmother wove the rebozo using skills rarely found in modern days. These Mexican shawls range in quality, from the utilitarian style of rough, un-dyed cotton the poorest women carry their infants in, to the finest threads of silk. "Caramelo describes one of the latter variety, the word defining the golden tan flecked with black and white that brings to mind the sweet of the same name" (Randall, n.p.). The word caramelo takes on a deeper meaning in the story, symbolic of more than just the shawl, just as the shawl becomes a symbol as well.

Candelaria, the laundry girl in Awful Grandmother's house in Mexico City, is the first person Lala sees "with skin the color of a caramelo" (Cisneros 34). She describes it as "burnt-milk candy" (Cisneros 34), the way she describes other people's skin in rich colorful language: "the coffee-with-too-much-milk color like me, [...] the fried-tortilla color of the washerwoman [...]" (Cisneros 34). Though L

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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 902
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)