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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.
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.
América Gonzalez is a hotel housekeeper on an island off the coast of Puerto Rico, cleaning up after wealthy foreigners who don't look her In the eye. Her alcoholic mother resents her; her married boyfriend, Correa, beats her; and their fourteen-year-old daughter thinks life would be better anywhere but with América. So when América is offered the chance to work as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a family in Westchester County, New York, she takes it as a sign that a door to escape has been opened. Yet even as América revels in the comparative luxury of her new life, daring to care about a man other than Correa, she is faced with dramatic proof that no matter what she does, she can't get away from her past.
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 simultaneous Spanish-language edition, originally translated for Vintage by Nina Torres-Vidal
In her new memior, the acclaimed author of When I Was Puerto Rican continues the riveting chronicle of her life.
"Negi," as Santiago's family affectionately calls her, leaves rural Macun in 1961 to live in a three-bedroom tenement apartment with seven siblings, and inquisitive grandmother, and a strict mother who won't allow her to date. At thirteen, Negi yearns for her own bed, for privacy, and 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, and dancing salsa all night, she also seeks to find balance between being an American and Puerto Rican. When Negi defies her mother by going on a series of dates, she finds that independence brings challenges.
At once a universally poignant coming-of-age tale and a heartfelt immigrant's story, Almost a Woman is Santiago's triumphant journey into womanhood.
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