Esmeralda Santiago

"[The author's] story begins 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. But just when Esmeralda seemed to have learned everything,...

America as seen through the eyes of a Puerto Rican maid. She is America Gonzalez, brought over by a Westchester, New York, couple who met her in a hotel in Puerto Rico where she was a cleaner. A novel filled with insights and observations by the author of When I Was Puerto Rican.

"Negi," as the author's family affectionately calls her, leaves rural Macun in 1961 to live in a three-bedroom tenement apartment with seven siblings, an inquisitive grandmother, & a strict mother who won't allow her to date. At thirteen, Negi yearns for her own bed, privacy, & her father, who remains in Puerto Rico. Translating for Mami at the welfare office in the morning, starring as Cleopatra at New York's Performing Arts High School in the afternoon,...

"Author's third novel and a long-awaited sequel to her first autobiographical novel, Cuando era puertorriqueña. She continues to chronicle her life as she leaves her childhood behind and enters adult life where her American values increasingly clash with those of her Puerto Rican parents. Most of all, this novel helps understand how Esmeralda Santiago, the writer, was formed and became a writer"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

At age thirteen, Esmeralda, is the oldest child of six. She shoulders the responsibility of learning English as her mother's interpreter and guide through the challenges of their new life in America. Mami is the passionate and beautiful mother who moves the family to the U.S. seeking medical care for her son's chronically infected foot. Tata, Esmeralda's stoical grandmother, is the matriarch of the American ranch of the family.