When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book)

by Esmeralda Santiago

Book Overview

One of "The Best Memoirs of a Generation" (Oprah's Book Club): a young woman's journey from the mango groves and barrios of Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, and eventually on to Harvard In a childhood full of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0306814528
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 278 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Great book!

The book was amazing, I couldn’t put it down! Highly recommend :)

My new favorite book! Can’t wait to read her other works!

This is an honest heartwarming and heartbreaking story about the childhood of Esmeralda Santiago. This book will have you on your toes because this author has a way of writing that toys with the readers’ heart. She is true to herself from start to finish, a lovely story.

Gift for my Puerto Rican mother....

I intend to read the book myself as well, but she couldn't get enough of it. She finished it in a couple of days! She is Puerto Rican (as is the author of the book) and was amazed at the similarities between her upbringing and that of the author. She doesn't even live in the same geographical area of the US that the author does, but still the cultural similarities remain. She loved it and is already looking into the author's other works.

Santiago dazzles in devastating, illuminating ethnic memoir

One of the most difficult challenges facing a memoirist is the task of making her particular story resonate with universal truths. Esmeralda Santiago's "When I Was Puerto Rican" is a stunning success; it not only captures the dynamics of identity creation, does so in the context of ethnic, class and geographic tensions. Santiago's coming-of-age saga encompasses an incipient awareness of her unique status as an oldest daughter, conflicted thinker and anguished observer of family disintegration. That she writes without a drop of self-pity is remarkable given the abundance of sadness and betrayal which swirl in her story.For much of her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early adolescence in New York City, Santiago lives a dual life. Possessed of a "stubborn pride," her "frightened self hid" behind a false veneer of acceptance that "everything was all right." At once proud and ashamed of her rural "jibaro" identity, Santiago grapples with exactly who and what she is. In this respect, "When I Was Puerto Rican" reverberates with the near-universal dynamic of identity creation, hidden shame at life's circumstances and constant questioning of how and why families created such tortured environments in which children evolve.Plaguing Santiago is the ambiguous, tormented relationship between her mother and father. Exposed equally to the sounds of lovemaking and arguments, Santiago can neither be surprised that her parents never wed or the constant absence of her hard-working, poetic but irresponsible father. Eventually, the pressures of this quasi-marital status between Mami and Papi erupt, and Santiago saves her best writing for its description. As her mother and father savage each other in verbal warfare, "they growled words that made no sense." Their fighting echoes "all the hurts and insults, the dinners gone to waste, the women, the abandonments." As Santiago "crouched against the wall," she witnesses her parents "disfigure" themselves with anger. "In their passion Mami and Papi had forgotten" their children. They were real "only to one another." Santiago and her siblings cower in a corner, "afraid that if we left them, they might eat each other."This authentic voice carries throughout the memoir as the author explores the various influences of her own existence. Nicknamed "Negi" by her parents due to her dark complexion, Santiago is acutely aware of her ethnicity and is perplexed upon her move to New York that people who look like her (African-Americans) have deep, unfounded suspicions about her and her people. As a Puerto Rican, she develops ambivalence about the United States and the American presence not only on her native island, but in her heart as well. How American will she become? At what cost? These are the same questions millions of immigrants have asked themselves as they immerse themselves in their new land. But how can she be "new" when Puerto Rico is and has been America for all of her life.Though "When I Was Puerto R

When I was Puerto Rican

When I Was Puerto Rican Random House Inc., 1998, 270 pp., $12.00 Esmeralda Santiago ISBN 0-679-75676-0 The powerful book When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago is a tribute to Santiago's homeland, Puerto Rico because it has to do a lot with the authors experiences growing up. The book tells the story of a young Puerto Rican girl named Negi. Negi is a typical girl who has to deal with a typical situation: moving. What's not so typical is that it's not to another town, it's to another country: the United States of America. Moving from Puerto Rico to the United States is hard for Negi, but moving from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, New York is even harder. Since Brooklyn is so dangerous, Negi can only go to and from school and can't go out. This makes her angry at times because in Puerto Rico, she could go out all the time, which makes her argue with her mom a lot. Her mother is pretty strict and has a bad temper, but she loves her children more than anything. Negi's father has a good relationship with her because he is the kind of father that gives good advice and is wise. There isn't much to say about her annoying sisters Delsa and Norma except that they are typical sisters and bother her very much. Negi's sisters are a lot like my siblings, and that helped me relate somewhat to the book. She also has to deal with learning how to speak English like Americans do, which can get frustrating at times. Have you ever been in a situation like that? If you have, then you know that it isn't always the best thing that can happen to you. Negi has some trouble with this change because it is such a big difference to the way that she was living before. She even asks her father at one point, "If we eat all that American food they give us, will we become Americanos?" She has some trouble understanding the American culture because things are done very differently than in Puerto Rico. She is trying to find herself in a whole new world. Negi has to really mature in America, because things aren't all fun and games anymore. Life is serious, and she needs to be too. She not only has to mature, but she also has to become a woman, a much more difficult task. Not to mention she has to become an "American," whatever that means. It's basically a story about fitting in this new American life and dealing with issues that women have to deal with. In the end, Negi deals with having to accept the fact that things just have to happen a certain way sometimes. This realistic fiction book is honestly and beautifully written, and because of that I recommend this book to mature, respectful readers. This book really caught my attention and left me feeling like I had to keep on reading to find out what was going to happen. I felt like I was the character in the story. I think it is a marvelous book that I easily related to and I think many others will as well. At first, it is challenging, but it just gets better and better, so if

A reveling stream of E.S.'s thoughts, arnieworld@hotmail.com

I give 5 stars, not because I was necessarily challenged in weighty intellectual "profundities" (as one of the critics above states), but simply because the quality of story-telling (at least in the Spanish version) is insurpassable. I was able to see right into the heart of Esmeralda's thinking. She was almost always eloquent beyond her years; at first I thought that this wasn't accurate for a girl of her age; but in retrospect, I think that the author knew this beforehand and realizes that her character is indeed representative of the many children or tíneyers who are absolutely brilliant but are perceived to be not so bright because of a spoken language. I would like to find out if this was a subtility that she wanted to communicate.With that said, my favorite aspect of Esmeralda's eloquent subtilities is her honest, authentic anger towards haughty and egotistical people. I believe that E. Santiago was intending also to disfrazel the machista haughtiness that existed in Po'rico. I wanted to reach into the story and punch her Papi in the face. What a pig! I grieves me to think that such a man really existed! Another thing, the move to New York, wonderfully contrasted with Macún - and the innocence of perceiving the jews, italians and blacks throught the eyes of a sweet girl with no prejudices - a brilliant girl indeed! How was she able to dislodge herself from all of the enticements of having prejudices so quickly formed? The best part of the entire novel - a definite tear-jerker - is the rapid dénouement punched at me (the first sentence of the epilogue). I didn't expect it; it had sort of a Great Expectations twist there at the end; if there were ever a movie based on this story, I think that that would be the brilliant finish of the story. The human spirit inside of each of us hopes and believes: "Un día de estos, un día de estos." We all relate so well with Esmeralda that I strongly suggest that this book be included in ethnic-american/hispanoamerican classes and reading circles. This is a must. It's already been successful at Pittsburg State University (KS) with Greg Brown and Dr. Edmée Fernández; try it.

Boricua hasta el fin...

I highly recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate the story of a young woman's physical, emotional and personal migration cycle. The book provides wonderful insight and detail regarding the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico as well as the trials and tribulations involved in moving to another place (especially the US), losing a father, learning a new language and exploring new things. Read it, you'll love it.