62 pages • 2-hour read
When I Was Puerto Rican
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Symbols & Motifs
Food
Beginning with the guava fruit from the prologue, food plays a central role in When I Was Puerto Rican. The guava symbolizes the end of Esmeralda’s childhood, but it is far from the only food mentioned throughout the book. In this book, food is used beyond grounding the reader in sensory details. Tiga Generosa only feeds the children oatmeal, which makes them groan, since they are used to spicy, juicy foods. Esmeralda’s parents briefly start a food truck, which quickly fails.
Food is also used as a symbol for culture. Family food is a comfort. Unfamiliar food can be a repellant part of a new location. When Esmeralda is at El Mangle, with the open sewage and the lagoon, she finds that she has developed a horror of dirty food and is often anxious to eat anything that has been near the filthy water.
Music, Reading, and the Humanities
Early in the book, Esmeralda is captivated by the country music of the jibaras. Later she begins piano lessons, which she enjoys until her teacher is sexual inappropriate with her. Later, when her guidance counselor asks her what she wants to be when she grows up, she cannot think of anything. She later realizes that she is drawn to art. Books are a favorite hobby of hers, and she thinks she would enjoy acting. It is her audition that leads her to think about herself and her goals more deeply. Art is, for Esmeralda, a way of expressing things that were previously inexpressible.
Lust and Machismo
Sexual desire is presented as a rampant force of nature when it comes to men. They can’t control it and it becomes the responsibility of women not to enflame men to the point where they lose control. There is a strong undercurrent of machismo, or a sense of manly self-reliance and pride common in Spanish-influenced cultures. This cultural touchstone is particularly destructive to the women who experience it. There is a suggestion that women in the book are so beset by male desire that they have to devote huge portions of their energy into deflecting it (or protecting their men from the grasp of the putas). Until Mami becomes Francisco’s girlfriend, there is really no portrayal of a mutually satisfying relationship between any of the couples.
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