When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir by Esmeralda Santiago Paperback Book

Details

Rent When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir

Author: Esmeralda Santiago

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Published: Jan 1993

Genre: Biography & Autobiography - Women

Retail Price: $19.99

Pages: 288

Synopsis

The American story of immigration, this time with a unique Latin flavor.' (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs in the mango groves at night, the taste of the delectable sausage called morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. When her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually take on a new identity.

In this first volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Santiago brilliantly recreates the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family life of her earliest years and her tremendous journey from the barrio to Brooklyn, from translating for her mother at the welfare office to high honors at Harvard.

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Reviews

BookLender review by merri on 2007-07-16 04:13:30

i had to read this in high school for english class, and i loved it. it was so well-written that even now, years later, i remember being completely engaged in the book.