When I Was Puerto Rican is an autobiography about the author, Esmeralda Santiago, and her experience growing up in Puerto Rico and the cultural, emotional, and environmental changes she went through moving to New York. The story is set in Macun, Puerto Rico, a rural farm land where she grew up and experienced changes such as parental separation, poverty, and favoritism. Esmeralda experienced her mother’s favoritism of her younger siblings throughout her earlier childhood years, and it affected her greatly in how the story of her life progressed.
The cultural shock began when she moved to San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico, where she begun to adapt to things like wearing shoes, going to school, and many other things she didn’t have back in Macun. Back at home, she was Mami’s daughter Negi, but in San Juan, she was considered a jibara, which is a Puerto Rican country dweller, proud of their independence from the city life. Her father and mother had a difficult relationship that led her mother to move to San Juan. San Juan taught Esmeralda many things about life, from embracing her jibara roots, making new friends, and exploring her teenage curiosities. Right when Esmeralda adapts to the city life, Mami decides to make the next move and leave to Brooklyn, New York City, where Esmeralda begins a new journey of self-exploration. She discovers her love for acting and writing and takes us on a journey to how she navigated her brand new lifestyle in the streets of New York.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, so much so that I couldn’t put it down! This book is easy to read, and it gives you a new perspective on what life could be like outside of the country. Reading Esmeralda’s personal story made me think about how much I have in life and how little she had but how moving her life story became. She survived poverty, abuse, moving to different towns, and yet her story was the one thing that carried her through it all and I believe that to be heroic. This is worth the read, and I highly recommend this book.
Get the book! Check out When I Was Puerto Rican at BMCC’s Library, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, or the Queens Public Library in both English and Spanish.
About the author Meet A, short for Adri, a multi-talented artist from NYC bringing you the most honest, heartfelt reviews about books that have changed the world. Born and raised in Queens, A fosters an environment for creativity in her everyday life. She consistently surprises herself and others with her unique abilities in connecting with people through music, art, poetry, and life’s unimaginable experiences.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
