Books › When I was Puerto Rican
When I was Puerto Rican
First published 1993 · 298 pages
A deeply sensory journey through the vibrant, bittersweet memories of childhood and the disorienting, transformative leap into a new culture.
What it feels like
Reading this memoir feels like stepping into a sun-drenched, humid afternoon filled with the scent of ripe guavas and the sound of coquís, only to be suddenly transported to the cold, concrete reality of Brooklyn. The narrative moves at a steady, reflective pace, wrapping the reader in a deeply sensory and nostalgic atmosphere that is as vibrant as it is bittersweet. The prose is lyrical and observant, capturing the raw confusion of childhood and the sharp sting of cultural displacement with equal grace. It is a story of resilience and shifting identities, tracing a poignant emotional arc from innocence to hard-won self-awareness. This book will deeply resonate with anyone who loves evocative coming-of-age stories that explore the messy, beautiful ties of family and the complex journey of finding where you belong.
- Mood
- sensory
- nostalgic
- vibrant
- bittersweet
- Tone
- reflective
- observant
- earnest
- resilient
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- cultural displacement · coming-of-age · mother-daughter dynamics · assimilation · loss of innocence
- The writing
- Lyrical and deeply sensory, the writing grounds complex emotional shifts in the vivid tastes, sounds, and textures of memory.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from the vibrant, confusing warmth of a tumultuous childhood to the disorienting shock of migration, culminating in a hard-won sense of self-discovery.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave evocative, coming-of-age memoirs that explore the intersection of complicated family dynamics and cultural identity.
Content notes
- poverty
- domestic strife
- racism
- childhood illness
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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