62 pages • 2 hours read
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The memoir When I Was Puerto Rican recounts author Esmeralda Santiago’s early years. It is the first of her three memoirs chronicling her childhood in Puerto Rico to her eventual residence in the United States. It is a coming of age story, but mines richer material than that. Questions of identity—national identity, hereditary identity, familial identity, female identity, spiritual identity, and semantic labels—underpin the stories Santiago tells.
The book begins in Puerto Rico, when Esmeralda is six years old. Esmeralda introduces the reader to her parents and her perpetually growing list of siblings—by the end of the book she is one of 11 children. Her parents, whom she refers to as Mami and Papi, have a rocky relationship. There are hints that Papi has been unfaithful and he does not spend as much time at home as his children would like. The first third of the book shows Esmeralda’s growing awareness that the problems in her parents’ relationship have implications for anyone who chooses to marry. But it is Mami’s situation that prompts her to ask herself the biggest questions about what she, and women, owe themselves.
As the book progresses, Esmeralda grapples with typical childhood issues: bullying, puberty, mortality, and romance.
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