When I Was Puerto Rican is a poetic memoir of one woman's childhood in Puerto Rico. I grew up in Montana so I could relate to her love of nature and enjoyed how she listened to the natural world as well as the multiple voices of her ever-growing eleven sibling family. The poems/songs written in Spanish were some of my favorite passages; these often connected to Esmeralda's experiences with nature or musing on life and spiced up my reading pleasure. Reading this novel simultaneously kindled my interest in Puerto Rico and caused my dismay as I read once again about the machismo of Latin men.
The main character and author Esmeralda Santiago is uprooted from her homeland and transported by and with her mother to New York City where we see the colorful world of Brooklyn through her eyes as she struggles to understand her often fierce mother, learn English and make her way in an utterly different and often condescending culture.
The main character and author Esmeralda Santiago is uprooted from her homeland and transported by and with her mother to New York City where we see the colorful world of Brooklyn through her eyes as she struggles to understand her often fierce mother, learn English and make her way in an utterly different and often condescending culture.