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When I Was Puerto Rican

by Esmeralda Santiago (Goodreads Author)

3.94 of 5 stars 3.94 · rating details · 4,227 ratings · 318 reviews

Selling over 16,000 copies in hardcover, this triumphant coming-of-age memoir is now available in paperback editions in both English and Spanish. In the tradition of Black Ice, Santiago writes lyrically of her childhood on her native island and of her bewildering years of transition in New York City.

Paperback, 274 pages

Published October 11th 1994 by Vintage (first published September 20th 1993)

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Nov 09, 2008 Kerry rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who enjoys the story of a remarkable woman.

Shelves: 08-09, kerry-s-books

When I Was Puerto Rican is the memoir of Esmeralda Santiago, and her journey from a poor young girl living in rural Puerto Rico, to a successful writer based in New York City.
Her story begins in a tin house in Macun. Esmeralda, affectionately called Negi-a shortened version of negra, the Spanish word for black, is the eldest of three children. She has two younger sisters, Delsa and Norma. Her father is a hardworking man, who spends hours of his day outside the home. Negi's mother also works tire...more When I Was Puerto Rican is the memoir of Esmeralda Santiago, and her journey from a poor young girl living in rural Puerto Rico, to a successful writer based in New York City.
Her story begins in a tin house in Macun. Esmeralda, affectionately called Negi-a shortened version of negra, the Spanish word for black, is the eldest of three children. She has two younger sisters, Delsa and Norma. Her father is a hardworking man, who spends hours of his day outside the home. Negi's mother also works tirelessly, in and outside the home, and is often found running after the younger girls.
Negi at times finds it hard to enjoy life, because of her parents constant bickering. During one of their arguments, Negi overhears her parents discussing a woman named Provi and her daughter Margie. When she asks her father about them, she learns that Margie is her older sister. Negi is excited by the news, but when she continues to ask her mother, she orders her never to discuss neither Provi nor Margie again.
The family moves to Santruce,a suburb of San Juan, because of the father's unsteady job. Shortly after the move, her mother becomes pregnant. Negi, being the eldest of the bunch, is called upon to take responsibility for the younger ones.
They later move back to Macun. During this time, Negi stays with her grandmother. She learns to crochet, and attends her first church service. When she returns home, an enormous hurricane sweeps through Macun. The family's home loses electricity, and there are some major structural damages. Because of this, Negi's mother is forced to get a job to pay for the damages, which leaves Negi to watch after the children. However, the children are not well-behaved, and as a result, Negi's youngest brother, Raymond, gets his foot caught in a bicycle chain.
Negi's mother travels to New York to see a specialist about Raymond's foot. She finds New York to be a place full of opportunities. Negi, her mother, and her two youngest siblings travel to New York, while the rest of the family stay in Puerto Rico until there is enough money to fly them to New York.
The first winter in New York, Negi's mother falls in love with a man named Francisco. They decide to move in with him. Soon after, Francisco learns he has cancer, and at the same time, Negi's mother finds out that she is once again pregnant. Francisco, after fighting the cancer for many months, dies in the hospital.
Years later, after Negi's family have all come over from Puerto Rico, she decides that she would like to be on television. She attends the Performing Arts School, and then Harvard, where she graduates with highest honors.
Esmeralda Santiago is a remarkable woman, who has written and published many memoirs on her life in Puerto Rico. I truly enjoyed her story of determination, struggle, and triumph.

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Oct 18, 2007 Yvette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, latin

This story was wonderful. I love how Esmeralda makes us see life through the eyes of that little girl she once was. Her words are so beautifully descriptive – they took me to the many places she lived and to the era. I also like how honest she was about her parents. She was able to show their tender and loving side as well as their human side, people who made mistakes, even with their children. Many times we forget that our parents are someone other than our mom and our dad.

I am in awe that thi...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Gabriel Joseph rated it 4 of 5 stars

My coworker once called me a Jibaro because I have family who live in Aibonito, Puerto Rico. Actually at this very moment, my parents who retired, now live there. I remember that beautiful island. Surviving a hurricane, eating mangos, guavas, arroz con gandules, tostones, getting slapped for being a wild child and just being a child growing up on the pearl of the carribean. I enjoyed this book very much, even though my opinion may be biased. Reading this made me greatful for the childhood of whi...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Purlewe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: immigrant-stories

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. So last nite was the last nite of book club. We read When I was Puerto Rican and it was delish. I really loved it. But frankly, I loved ALL the books. And while it sounds silly.. I find that if I don't love a book I don't finish it instead of finishing it and then telling everyone I hated it.

It was interesting the way people discuss books tho. One woman who said this book was impossibly sad. Really? I didn't feel that way (incredibly neither did anyone else) and she said there was just so much p...more So last nite was the last nite of book club. We read When I was Puerto Rican and it was delish. I really loved it. But frankly, I loved ALL the books. And while it sounds silly.. I find that if I don't love a book I don't finish it instead of finishing it and then telling everyone I hated it.

It was interesting the way people discuss books tho. One woman who said this book was impossibly sad. Really? I didn't feel that way (incredibly neither did anyone else) and she said there was just so much poverty of course it was sad. The author didn't portray it as sadness.. in fact the author portrayed it as a fact of life. Food was scarce, times were hard. the end. And frankly the fact that she did have such fun shows that things do not have to be ideal to have fun. To find the book sad was a mystery to me.

I did not go to the last club b'c of the fire alarms and lack of sleep. I really loved Funny in Farsi. Glad I didn't go. NO ONE liked the book but me it sounds like. One woman said it was b'c she was writing for a white audience. WHAT? I have met people who are funny in a self depracting way and they are FUNNY. They are not doing it for the audience they are doing it b'c that is what they know how to do best. Funny in Farsi was funny b'c she told stories that are real and frankly that is why they are humourous. I know folks who write like that and I laugh out loud every time.

Everyone liked Puerto Rican tho. They felt it was the "most literary" um. what? I find that any published book that isn't supposed to be trash (and yes I read treash too) literary. It it ain't scribbles in the bathrom it seems to me to be a book.. then it is literature. Sometimes not good literature, but there you have it. I liked that the author was very visual. She described things in a way that I could relate to b'c I am a very visual person. Most people no adays are visual.. hence why I think most people liked it.

I was sad that there were very few people there last nite. 10 people? we started out with like 40. I know it was raining.. and frankly the people who came except 2 were people who got on my very last nerve. But really? only 1/4 of the folks showed up. I loved all the books tho and plan on continuing to read what is now called "creative non-fiction" It was sometimes is called memoire, but since Angela's Ashes it blends non-fiction and biography together.(less)

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Jul 25, 2012 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

A beguiling record of a tremendous journey, epic in its own way, from childhood in a vibrant Puerto Rican barrio to triumph at Harvard, with a defining pause in a drab Brooklyn along the way. Now a filmmaker with her own company, Santiago, eldest of 11 children, was born in a rural barrio. Her parents--the beautiful, ambitious Mami and the frustrated artist Papi--weren't married, a source of constant family tension in her childhood. Meanwhile, the family lived in a house made of rippled metal sh...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, non-fiction, poverty, puerto-rico

I initially read an excerpt of this book in the composition text I was using at Globe University. I enjoyed the except enough to order the book and I was not disappointed.

Esmerelda Santiago was born in Puerto Rico and spent the first twelve years of her life there. Her family life was somewhat chaotic and they moved frequently - from a very rustic life in the country without electricity or running water to various homes in the outskirts of San Juan. The family had seven children in those 12 yea...more

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Nov 21, 2011 Mary S. added it

When I was puerto rican by esmeralda santiago was a memoir about a young girl named Negi who lives in macun with her mother father and her sibilings. Her parents had a bad relasionship and would argue because of her mom. What attracted me to the book was how big of a heart Negi has struggling to help her mom with her brothers. Which is something common because its always the oldest who help take care of her sibilings.

The story is viewed by Negi's point of view and she expresses her feelings. Th...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Bookworm rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had to read this book for school as a summer reading. Living in Puerto Rico, this is supposed to teach us the value of our country or something like that but I just hated it. The author has great talent though. Especially with her descriptions. And there were some quotes that really stood out for me. Anyway, the book itself was just boring and there was barely any plot. It's the content of the book that bothers me. It's not that it's bad, it's just not my type of genre. Another thing I really...more

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Dec 17, 2010 Elona Myftaraj rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Elona Myftaraj

The book cuando era puertorriquena took place in two kinds of communities a rural neighborhood in Macún, Puerto Rico, and the urban culture in Brooklyn. The story was about a young girl named Negi. Negi was the main character and the narrator of the book she started explaining her life in Macún it seamed to be more on the traditional side as to when she moved to Brooklyn; a more modern and carefree world. While in Macun she described her life as very challenging, she had a lot of r...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Jasmine rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: My mother

Recommended to Jasmine by: LACS 256, Professor Barnett

I really wanted to read this novel because I felt that it could teach me more about what it means to be a Puerto Rican. I read this novel from the perspective of a second generation Puerto Rican, who has never been to Puerto Rico as an adult. The perspective I read this novel from greatly impacted what I got out of this novel. What struck me more than anything about this novel was how much I could relate to Esmeralda Santiago. She, like myself, had a father who eventually faded out of her life....more

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Jan 21, 2010 Rinchen added it

To be completely truthful, I picked this book out of the shelf randomly because I didn't have my book on me during advisory and in the beginning I thought that I would just skim the book around and reads parts of it. then when i started reading it i was actually drawn into it because i noticed that Esmeralda santiago had the writing style that i loved, like the styles of Walter Dean Myers or Sharon Draper. It had the feeling of feeling sorry for this character because of all the negatives in the...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Nshslibrary rated it 3 of 5 stars

The Book When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, is about Esmeralda becoming an American. She was born in Puerto Rico and lived there for a while, but then her family moved to America. The book is about her transition from Puerto Rico to America and what she does in both places. She started off in the barrio (not so wealthy neighborhood) then to Brooklyn, NY, and then becoming a student at Harvard. I liked this book because it was entertaining, I didn’t get bored while reading it. I also...more

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Dec 09, 2011 Lori rated it 3 of 5 stars

A refreshing reality check for anyone who's only brush with the Puerto Rican cultural/immigration experience comes from having seen "West Side Story".

My parents were born in Puerto Rico around the same time as the author, so when I happened upon this book on a dusty shelf in a thrift store, I bought it to read and pass along to them. When I handed it to my father, he (typically) said he didn't need to read it - he'd lived it. He'd grown up poor, oldest of 7 kids, in the area of Carolina. So many...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The marvelous parts about this book describe lifestyle, culture, and settings so vividly that I entirely immersed myself into Santiago's world and experienced Puerto Rico and Brooklyn along with her. I wanted to look up the dishes she ate in the book and cook them myself and wanted to go sit under a mango tree and carve something out of an avocado pit.

The episodes tracing Negi's coming of age are really well written and very observant. But in my opinion, Santiago mixes retrospective insights wi...more The marvelous parts about this book describe lifestyle, culture, and settings so vividly that I entirely immersed myself into Santiago's world and experienced Puerto Rico and Brooklyn along with her. I wanted to look up the dishes she ate in the book and cook them myself and wanted to go sit under a mango tree and carve something out of an avocado pit.

The episodes tracing Negi's coming of age are really well written and very observant. But in my opinion, Santiago mixes retrospective insights with the voice of the child so much that she seems to claim that the child Negi herself realized at age ten or eleven that she wanted to play the piano because her hands always seemed to year for action. Many of the insights that children undoubtedly harbor in their subconscious are expressed in this book in a way that suggests that Negi unbelievably precociously self-analyzed herself like a very astute adult. This is, of course, one of the hardest things about trying to write from the perspective of one's own earlier self. Who keeps a perfect timeline of one's insights of self-analysis? One tends to imbue on'e earlier self with knowledge one did not have at the time. After all, many mistakes, many bad decisions would never happen if one had been able to make them with hindsight's knowledge already accessible.

Besides this timeline problem, the episodic nature of the book was a little exhausting to me though I wonder how else one could possibly trace one's own growing up. After all, my life appears just as fragmented to me now. We remember close-ups of moments, and in retrospect they are tied together by themes or similar insights, by setting or people instead of by the passage of time.

Overall, the book did exactly what earned it a spot on my bookshelf--make me aware of some of the difficulties of memoir writing, the problems of first person narrative, etc. And it was quite enjoyable to travel to Puerto Rico and learn a bit of another culture and another life in the process.(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

We read this book in my Women in Literature class and we've focused a lot on coming-of-age, immigrant stories. I guess I'm not burnt out yet because I liked this one too. In contrast to some of the others we've read, this one has an interesting father/daughter dynamic as well as incidents where we can actually see the innocence and purity of childhood (though they may be few and far in between). It's not as dark and heartbreaking as say, Bastard out of Carolina, though still heartbreaking don't...more

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Mar 15, 2010 Helen rated it 5 of 5 stars

“ When I was Puerto Rican” is a memoir about the life of Esmeralda Santiago. She’s born in Puerto Rico and every two years her mother has a child born. This is important because it the story it will state that when she’s at work her co-workers would laugh at her because of her siblings.
Esmeralda Santiago’s nice and friendly. Her mother is a very strict mother and Esmeralda doesn’t like this. Her mom is to overprotective. An example to prove this is because in the story one time she had to go to...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Kevyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: senior-year-books

When I Was Puerto Rican is about a young Puerto Rican Girl named Esmeralda. She is born in Puerto Rico and early in her life she learns her family's Puerto Rican traditions. But then "out of the blue" her family brings her to New York City where she is emmersed in a completely new culture and new language. Although this book is about being hispanic, i don't relate to it. I've only been to Puerto Rico once and the younger people in my family are assimilated into the culture of New York. In a way,...more

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Oct 02, 2009 Tara Chevrestt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, memoir

I enjoyed this memoir. It was honest. Esmeralda talks of her childhood, and unlike some memoirs does not portray herself to be anything but what she was. There were times she was a spoiled brat, times she embarassed herself, times she was scared. She lays it all out there. The memoir covers her childhood from I'm guessing 5 or so till age 14 or 15. I was not clear on what age she was when or what year it was at the time. That would be my only complaint. I felt as tho I was really getting to know...more

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Jul 21, 2007 Mellisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

First book I've read that accurately captures what it's like to move from the Caribbean to the East Coast. I nearly jumped out of my chair shouting 'Say is sister, that's exactly what it was like!' while reading her description of driving from the airport to her new home in the States.

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Sep 17, 2011 Catherine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, immigration

Esmerelda, nicknamed Negi, writes about her upbringing in Puerto Rico as the oldest child in a large family. Although loving when he was present, her father always placed his own wishes above his obligations to his family, frequently leaving for weeks or months. Her mother, frustrated by poverty and overwhelming responsibilities, alternated between abuse and tenderness, but was the only truly reliable person in Negi’s life.

Most of the book describes the vivid memories of her life and family in...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Michael-Ann Cerniglia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: latin-america

I would give this three and a half stars if I could: three for me as a personal reader but four for use in a high school social studies or English class.

It is a good book and had some beautiful phrasing but, overall, it lacked the complexity i look for in a novel. It is a coming-of-age story that speaks from the author's perspective, in her youth and young adult life. The book was fairly straightforward in stating its intentions and left little room for contemplation of meaning or misinterpretat...more

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May 03, 2012 Karolina rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 17, 2007 Laura Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: youngadult

A beautifully written, first-hand account of the triumphs and struggles of a Puerto Rican girl growing up in Puerto Rico and then America. This story speaks to the universal themes of coming-of-age in any culture. Wonderful!

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Apr 28, 2012 Val Wilkerson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-books-read

Loved the book, just ordered another book by Esmeralda Santiago. This story was about a young
Puerto Rican girl named Negi, the oldest child in the family, and her trials and tribulations
growing up in a poor neighborhood, with a father who did not always come home, and she was forced
to watch the younger kids while mom worked. But the love she had for her mom and her dad was
beautiful, and the aunties in the neighborhood (who doesn't love aunties!). She ends up moving
to New York with her mother, on...more

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Apr 29, 2010 Lora rated it 5 of 5 stars

"When I Was Puerto Rican" was an assignment for my Latin American class, but it was so much more than just another assignment! It opened my eyes to another world that I've never known before. After reading this I feel so blessed and priviledged! It is a sweet and powerful story about a young girl that is faced with so many life changes; way more than a little girl should ever face. This is Esmeralda's personal memoir from her childhood living in poverty in Puerto Rico. It is also her story of he...more

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Jul 11, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars

Overall this story is OK. Not great, but OK. I like the Memoir style in general, but it falls flat in many spots. Basically, it was too much action on about 6 pages and not enough on the other 264. In addition, I hate pointless crudeness, and 4 of the pages were pointlessly crude--not the good pages, just part of the 264 that were filled with endless description.

The author enjoys detailed description, which doesn't translate into great writing for me. I get sick of hearing about all the differen...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Megan rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. Esmeralda Santiago, also known as Negi, starts out a poor girl in Puerto Rico. She has 2 younger siblings, a mother, and a father. As the book continues, Esmeralda becomes the woman she is today. With some new additions to the family, and new additions to Santiago's personality, Negi changes the life of her own, and those that read her life story.

Santiago was extremely descriptive. I admit, there were certain bumps in the road, like the beginning, where it was difficult...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Kaitlin Mooney rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Engulfing. I bought it as a present I bought for my mother because the book mirrors much of her life as a child born in Puerto Rico moving to NYC. However, as it goes with most books I buy as presents, my desire to read it myself becomes overpowering and I have to find some way to finish it, without creasing the cover, in the days before I have to give it away. Esmeralda Santiago is a born story teller, you are right there with her as she describes everything and everyone around her. The way she...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography, by-poc, nonfiction

This is a nicely written memoir of the author's childhood in the Puerto Rico of the 1950s—Santiago can write vividly and lucidly. Unfortunately, the subject matter seemed to hamper the book a little—no one's life has a narrative arc the way that a novel does, so things are of necessity somewhat episodic, and as she is a young child for most of the book, her experiences are mostly passive ones, caused by the actions of other people. I was also a little irked by the narrative device of scattering...more

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May 01, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This book is an autobiography of growing up in rural Puerto Rico and then being transplanted to New York. It was a pretty enjoyable story, and I don't know that I've read anything from or about Puerto Rico before, so I'm glad I read it. I did feel like it ended a bit abruptly, though. I guess that's a trick to make me read the sequel, Almost a Woman. I didn't like it SO MUCH that I am going to run out for the sequel, but I probably wouldn't mind reading it eventually. It sounds like she had an i...more

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About Esmeralda Santiago

Esmeralda Santiago (born 1948 in San Juan, Puerto Rico). Is a renowned Puerto Rican author In 1961, she came to the United States when she was thirteen years old, the eldest in a family that would eventually include eleven children. Ms. Santiago attended New York City's Performing Arts High School, where she majored in drama and dance. After eight years of part-time study at community colleges, sh...more

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“For me, the person I was becoming when we left was erased, and another one was created.” — 16 people liked it

“What doesn't kill you, makes you fat.” — 11 people liked it

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