Cuando era Puertorriquena: When I was Puerto Rican

Escrito por Esmeralda Santiago

Narrado por Esmeralda Santiago

La historia de Esmeralda Santiago comienza en la parte rural de Puerto Rico, donde sus padres y siete hermanos, en continuas luchas los unos con los otros, vivian una vida alborotada pero llena de amor y ternura. De nina, Esmeralda aprendio a apreciar como se come una guayaba, a distinguir la cancion del coqui, a identificar los ingredientes en las morcillas y a ayudar a que el alma de un bebe muerto subiero al cielo. Pero precisamente cuando Esmeralda parecia haberlo aprendido todo sobre su cultura, la llevaron a Nueva York, donde las reglas-y el idioma-eran no solo diferentes, sino tambien desconcertantes. Como Esmeralda supero la adversidad, se gano entrada a la Performing Arts High School y despues continuo a Harvard, de donde se graduo con altos honores, es el realto de la tremenda trayectoria de una mujer verdaderamente extraordinaria.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 30 sept 2007
• ISBN: 9781440797569

Esmeralda Santiago

Esmeralda Santiago is the author of three groundbreaking memoirs: When I was Puerto Rican, Almost a Woman (which she adapted into a Peabody Award–winning movie for PBS Masterpiece), and The Turkish Lover. Her fiction includes the novels América's Dream (also made into a film) and Conquistadora, and a children's book, A Doll for Navidades. Esmeralda is passionate about the artistic development of young people and has traveled the world as a public speaker encouraging literacy, memoir writing, and storytelling. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages.

Comentarios para Cuando era Puertorriquena

[booklover217 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

"Con la musica por dentro"...with the music inside...perfectly describes Negi the main protagonist in Esmeralda's Santiago's memoir When I Was Puerto Rican. I read this one with as a buddy read with @idleutopia_reads and some other awesome bookstagrammers and it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

From the moment I started reading this I knew that Negi and I shared the same spirit: the spirit of a fighter, one who questions everything, one who challenges authority and makes her own rules and her own space in an uber masculine world that seeks to break you. No matter what tragedy happened, she just pushed through and it fueled her determination to save herself from her circumstances. My mother used to tell me I had " la musica por dentro" and I never understood what it meant. All I knew was that I was sensitive to people's pain but I was also a rebel who could not be tamed or silenced.

There are books that come into your life that give you glimpses of your younger self, your journey, your homeland and more importantly your beloved culture and ancestry. Representation in books is far and in between but this one spoke to me deeply on a visceral level. It transported me to Puerto Rico and places that I loved to visit as little girl. It brought back memories of my grandparents and it also gave me snippets of what my mother's life was like when she first moved to NYC. I gave me some new history about my neighborhood and made me feel more connected to my Puerto Rican roots. It gave me new insight into my own parents' experiences and it provided validation for their own migration stories.

This book touched me in so many ways that I can't help but cry and smile at the same time. The little girl in me that was just like Negi has found reconciliation and newfound pride in the pages. Negi's story is one that I will revisit over and over because it reminded me that the undying fire that lives inside of me burns for a reason. I am reminded who I fight for every day. Thank you Esmeralda Santiago for sharing your life with the world. I am forever grateful.

[lisamaria_c · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I loved this book beyond reason, but I admit for very personal reasons. This certainly resonated with me in ways someone without a Puerto Rican background wouldn't share, although that doesn't mean they wouldn't appreciate it. Just that my response to it was so personal I'm aware I didn't have an objective response to it at all. It was hard to see Esmeralda Santiago when I was constantly thinking of my own family and what we shared in our experiences and attitudes and background and what we didn't. I guess this is to me what A Tree Grows in Brooklyn might be for someone with an Irish background--not that I didn't love that book as a teen myself. But I've found few works about the Hispanic American experience that I could identify with and like. (I despised the celebrated House on Mango Street by Cisneros for instance.)

In a lot of ways mind you Santiago and I are very different--you could say her experience is much closer to the experience of my mother than myself. It was my mother and her family that was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I'm a native New Yorker who has only spent a few brief vacations in Puerto Rico, the longest one entire summer when I was a child, even if it was an indelible experience. But when Santiago spoke of the morivivi plant and the coquis (tree frogs) and mango and coconut trees, it sure brought back memories of that magical summer. Nor did I grow up in Hispanic neighborhoods or close to our extended family--but in integrated neighborhoods and buildings. So there are times I think growing up I didn't have a full context for things that Santiago illuminated. For instance, I have called my aunt "Titi" for as long as I can remember. I thought it was my word for her. As it turns out it's what Santiago called her aunts as well. Mind you, I have to admit feeling a bit disappointed in that... And "jibaro"--it was funny how different our families saw the word. She translated it as "country person" and mostly took pride in it as an identity. In my family it was disparaging--the Puerto Rican equivalent of hillbilly or redneck and used as a comment on bad taste or a display of ignorance or "low class" behavior. And we never, ever used the word "gringo" in our household so when I first heard the word, I thought of it as something Mexicans said of Americans--not Puerto Ricans. I think that reflects another difference between us and our families. Santiago expressed at times an ambivalence, a resentment of how moving to the American mainland made her a "hybrid." My family never looked back. Not that they ever forgot where they came from or were ashamed of being Puerto Ricans--but above all we were proud of being Americans, and the opportunities that opened to us, and happy to adapt and assimilate. Well, mostly--goodness knows my aunt is not to be separated from her Puerto Rican foods or cooking. She wouldn't, like Santiago, express any ambivalence about grabbing a guava... (or avocado, mango, bacaloa, or ugh pig feet.)

I'd add that even if my reaction to this felt so personal, I couldn't help but note this was "objectively" a good read. Santiago's a good, good writer. This is a memoir that read like a novel--one of those works of "creative non-fiction" I feel somewhat ambivalent usually but was fine with here. I'd add that for all I compared this to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and is a coming of age story that follows Santiago from about ten to fourteen years old, I wouldn't call this a Young Adult work. It's frank in sexual content for one--not G-rated, I'd call this PG-13 at least--you'll even learn some Spanish curse words (if you didn't already know them)--so keep that in mind.

[psychedelicmicrobus · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

A beautifully written memoir. I like Ms. Santiago's style- it's very everyday and conversational. It reminds me of listening to my father-in-law's stories of growing up in Puerto Rico as a young boy. As another reviewer pointed out, very few lives naturally have the story arc that a well-crafted novel would generally have, so the memoir is episodic and a little scatter-brained, but I think that this is not a bad thing. I think it fits, seeing as how this is a book about the first thirteen or fourteen years of Ms. Santiago's life, and many people do not have solid memories of their childhood- my memories of my own childhood are also scattered. I tend to only remember the really big, earth-shaking things. That seems to be true for a lot of people. Memories in general tend to be staccato bursts, and I think this is a memoir that illustrates that perfectly. It's honest, written conversationally, and casual, like a favorite auntie telling stories. It is not pretentious. It's not written with lots of gigantic words to impress the reader. It's very down-to-earth, and it's wonderful.

[mamibunny · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

I love this book & story. It really was a bit of an eye-opener to what it was like growing up Hispanic during that era.

[allison7sivak · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A very sensory book. Santiago layers themes with stories and recurring images that deepened my pleasure in and feeling for this book. Very physical use of detail, and a successful and authoritative writing of the child's experiences while keeping the woman's reflection on her experiences. Beautiful.

[janique_1 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Esmeralda Santiago's story begin in rural Puerto Rico where her warring parents and seven siblings led a life of uproar but one full of love and tenderness as well.Growing up Esmeralda learned the proper way to eat a guava the sound of the 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.

[athene1_1 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Moving. Fast read.

[ericakline · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Growing up in Puerto Rico. Good, interesting slice-of-life.