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Following the enchanting story recounted in When I Was Puerto Rican
of the author's emergence from the barrios of Brooklyn to the
prestigious Performing Arts High School in Manhattan, Esmeralda
Santiago delivers the tale of her young adulthood, where she
continually strives to find a balance between becoming American and
staying Puerto Rican. While translating for her mother Mami at the
welfare office in the morning, starring as Cleopatra at New York's
prestigious Performing Arts High School in the afternoons, and
dancing salsa all night, she begins to defy her mother's protective
rules, only to find that independence brings new dangers and
dilemmas.
Esmeralda Santiago's story begins in rural Puerto Rico, where her
childhood was full of both tenderness and domestic strife, tropical
sounds and sights as well as poverty. Growing up, she learned the
proper way to eat a guava, the sound of 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. As she enters school we see the clash, both hilarious and
fierce, of Puerto Rican and Yankee culture. 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 take on a new identity. In this first
volume of her much-praised, bestselling trilogy, Santiago
brilliantly recreates the idyllic landscape and tumultuous family
life of her earliest years and her tremendous journey from the
barrio to Brooklyn, from translating for her mother at the welfare
office to high honors at Harvard.
La historia de Esmeralda Santiago comienza en la parte rural de
Puerto Rico, donde sus padres y siete hermanos, en continuas luchas
los unos con los otros, vivian una vida alborotada pero llena de
amor y ternura. De nina, Esmeralda aprendio a apreciar como se come
una guayaba,
a distinguir la cancion del coqui, a identificar los ingredientes
en las morcillas y a ayudar a que el alma de un bebe muerto subiera
al Cielo. Pero precisamente cuando Esmeralda parecia haberlo
aprendido todo sobre su cultura, la llevaron a Nueva York, donde
las reglas --y el idioma-- eran no solo diferentes, sino tambien
desconcertantes. Como Esmeralda supero la adversidad, se gano
entrada a la Performing Arts High School y despues continuo a
Harvard, de donde se graduo con altos honores, es el relato de la
tremenda trayectoria de una mujer verdaderamente extraordinaria.
A marvelous new anthology from the editors of Las Christmas in which our most admired Latino authors share memories of their mothers.
The women lovingly portrayed in Las Mamis represent a cross section of Latino life and culture. They come from rich families in the big cities of Latin America, from rural immigrant families, and from the worlds in between-and they share an extraordinary inner strength, often maintained against incredible odds. Pressed by conflicting cultural expectations, circumstance, and religion, they have managed the challenges of motherhood, leaving enduring legacies for their children. Now, in these vivid, poignant, and sometimes hilarious reminiscences-all of them infused with distinct sabor latino-Las Mamis celebrates the universality of family love and the special bond between mothers and children.
Contributors include: Esmeralda Santiago, Piri Thomas, Marjorie Agosin, Junot Diaz, Alba Ambert, Liz Balmaseda, Mandalit del Barco, Gioconda Belli, Maria Escandon, Dagoberto Gilb, Francisco Goldman, Jaime Manrique, Gustavo Perez-Firmat, Ilan Stavans
Enthralled admirers of Esmeralda Santiago's memoirs of her
childhood have yearned to read more. Now, in "The Turkish Lover,"
Esmeralda finally breaks out of the monumental struggle with her
powerful mother, only to elope into the spell of an exotic love
affair. At the heart of the story is Esmeralda's relationship with
"the Turk," a passion that gradually becomes a prison out of which
she must emerge to become herself. The expansive humanity, earthy
humor, and psychological courage that made Esmeralda's first two
books so successful are on full display again in "The Turkish
Lover,"
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