When I was a Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN is another memoir that was assigned by my lovely english teacher Mrs. Mayo. I finished the memoir in two days and that makes me proud because I have never read a book in two days. The story is seen through the eyes of Esmeralda. She is telling her life story from childood to her teen-age years. The memoir is confusing at first but when I got deep into the story I got a better understanding of it.
The memoir opens with Esmeralda telling us about her childhood. At the beginning of the story, Esmeralda lives with her parents and her two younger sisters. She even has a nickname NEGI. Throughout her childhood, Esmeralda is both happy and unhappy. Happy because she experiences many things like living in the city, listenning to soap operas on the radio dreaming about boys. She also has some sexual experiences, especially with a boy that lived near her house. She is also unhappy because she lives in a dysfunctionnal home. Her parents fight all the time. However, they keep having children. When Esmeralda reaches her teen-years, she comes to America with her mother and her younger sibblings. In America, Negi goes through many things until she finally reach stability.
As the oldest daughter, Negi had many responsibilites. She had to take care of her younger sibblings when her parents worked. She was also the one of the first child to come to America. Eventhough she was left in charge of her brothers and sisters, she was not able to handle that big responsability. Her younger sibblings didn't always listen to her.
"Papi, what's a jamona"?
"Papi, what's an imperialist", Esmeralda would always ask her father questions, her father would always give her some kind of answers. Esmeralda's father can be symbolized as Esmeralda's source of answers. As you can see, WHEN I WAS A PUERTO RICAN by Esmeralda Santiago is a very interesting story that reveals the way a young girl approaches life. The memoir is a mystery at first, but as you go along with the reading, you solve that mystery.
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