When I Was Puerto Rican: A Memoir (A Merloyd Lawrence Book) - Softcover

Santiago, Esmeralda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0306814528 ISBN 13: 9780306814525

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

One of "The Best Memoirs of a Generation" (Oprah's Book Club): a young woman's journey from the mango groves and barrios of Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, and eventually on to Harvard

In a childhood full of tropical beauty and domestic strife, poverty and tenderness, Esmeralda Santiago learned the proper way to eat a guava, the sound of tree frogs, the taste of morcilla, and the formula for ushering a dead baby's soul to heaven. But when her mother, Mami, a force of nature, takes off to New York with her seven, soon to be eleven children, Esmeralda, the oldest, must learn new rules, a new language, and eventually a new identity. In the first of her three acclaimed memoirs, Esmeralda brilliantly recreates her tremendous journey from the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family life of her earliest years, to translating for her mother at the welfare office, and to high honors at Harvard.

About this title

About the Author

Esmeralda Santiago is the author of two memoirs, When I Was Puerto Rican and The Turkish Lover, and the novel Conquistadora. A resident of Westchester County, New York, she is married to filmmaker Frank Cantor and is the mother of two adult children, jazz guitarists Lucas and Ila.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0306814528
• ISBN 13: 9780306814525
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278