62 pages • 2 hours read
Esmeralda SantiagoWhen I Was Puerto Rican
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 2
Reading Check
1. What fruit does Santiago write about at length in the book’s prologue?
2. What is Santiago’s childhood nickname?
3. What is the new baby’s name?
4. Where does Mami tell the children they are moving at the end of Chapter 2?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do Santiago and her mother differ in their opinions of country life?
2. Why is Santiago critical of her mother’s response after Santiago and her sister accidentally frighten a hen?
3. Why is Santiago’s mother angry with Santiago’s father when he returns home from being gone for several days?
4. What does Santiago’s father reveal about Margie?
Paired Resource
“In Pink, Florals and Short Shorts, Bad Bunny Champions a New Masculinity”
- This CNN article explores the ways in which Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny challenges traditional ideas about masculinity.
- This resource relates to the themes of Womanhood and Labels and Stereotypes.
- What traditional Puerto Rican ideas about masculinity and femininity does Santiago begin to absorb during her earliest childhood? How does the Bad Bunny example demonstrate that some things about these traditional ideas have changed or are changing?
