When I Was Puerto Rican is a memoir written by Esmeralda Santiago. She writes of her childhood life in Puerto Rico and how she lived in primordial conditions. Santiago paints a vivid picture of her early life which creates unforgettable memories of her childhood. The author talks about her life from her rural home in Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, and to her graduation in Harvard University. The memoir details the struggles and freedoms of a young woman in a foreign land with a foreign culture.
In her memoir, Santiago reveals the history of her life and her family in the Puerto Rican Island. She was the first born to her parents, even though she said her father had an older daughter she has never seen. Santiago tells how her parents’ relationship was on the rocks because her mother suspected her dad was unfaithful (Santiago 107). During all this, her younger brother Raymond is badly injured in a bicycle accident. After this incident, Santiago moves with her mother to New York to find better care for Raymond. In addition, Santiago explains how they were eleven in their family, yet their parents were not married. The history of her family was that of tension and sadness. Santiago reveals a life full of joy, sorrow, laughter, and pain. Esmeralda Santiago entwines her childhood memories and her experiences together with her family in order to communicate her life as Puerto Rican.
Santiago depicts the importance of culture and customs in her memoir. Esmeralda was comfortable while growing up in Puerto Rican countryside, despite the poverty. Puerto Rico was full of rituals and customs, but this culture brought joy to her family before she moved to New York City. For Santiago, her culture and customs were important to her, in fact, she faced difficulties while trying to adapt a new culture, customs, and language. Santiago’s family honored their culture despite the fact that they were away from their country.
Santiago’s memoir, When I Was Puerto Rican was written when Puerto Rico was experiencing a historical situation. It was during the great Puerto Rican migration after the Second World War. During this migration, many Puerto Rican’s migrated to the United States and found themselves wrapped in two worlds. Most Puerto Ricans left the Island and migrated to the United States and established themselves there. In addition, the families lacked economic needs during this era because of the repercussions of the Second World War (Coleman 143). The country was in a state of political, and economic strains.
In the memoir, family is depicted as an institution full of ups and downs. Just like other families, Santiago’s family was full of tension and pain, and that is why her mother left the father because of his infidelity. Santiago tries to shoe machismo in her memoir through her father’s life. She does not precisely tell what her father does, but she explains that, he could not even show up at home at times. Santiago’s recollection of her father shows that he was a machismo, who had no concern of his wife and children. Santiago writes her mother’s words, "you haven’t given me money for this week’s grocery" (Santiago 67). Santiago’s father never looked after his family; it was her mother who did everything and made sure the family is okay. Women in Puerto Rico were marginalized while the time Santiago was a child. In addition, the families in Puerto Rico at that time were facing economic problems and struggles between two cultures, the Puerto Rican and the American culture. Moreover, the family in Santiago’s memoir experienced separation, segregation, migration, and assimilation.
Santiago’s voice captures the events and environment around her during her childhood and her struggles in a new country. Santiago creates a vivid world in her memoir as experienced in her eyes. Santiago describes the sweet and sour side, the pleasures and pains the Puerto Ricans experienced while away from their homeland. She shifts languages from Spanish to English in order to show how her life has changed, and that she lives in two worlds with contrasting cultures. Esmeralda Santiago presents real and marginalized people who experienced difficulties during the great migration in the early 1960s (Coleman 203). Negi as Santiago was known, talks of her experiences from her childhood, and how they shaped her into what she became in the future.
When I Was Puerto Rican memoir contributes in retelling Puerto Rican history after the Second World War and the happening of the Great Migration. Santiago’s work is a masterpiece that highlights her life as a Puerto Rican and an American. Santiago reels the history of the Puerto Rico Island after the Second World War and the Great Migration which landed many of them in the United States. Santiago’s memoir can be used to as a considerable source in the study and understanding of Puerto Rico’s history. When I Was Puerto Rican captures the Puerto Rican culture, as it blends with the American culture. Santiago does an excellent work in explaining how life was like after the Second World War, and how cultures can clash. In addition, she writes about the families in Puerto Rico, how they struggled economically, and their immediate movement to the United States.
Works Cited
Coleman, Monica A. Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology. Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press, 2008. Print.
Santiago, Esmeralda. When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2006. Print.
