"When I was Puerto Rican" Is a Must Read

When I was Puerto Rican by Kasandra Ortiz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Now this blog is called "Brains, Beauty, and Bods". We covered the "beauty" last week (by the way winged liner picture to come), now this week it's all about using our noggins. And what better way to do that then to dive into a great book.

This book especially hits home for me as a Puerto Rican woman with my mother having been born in the Bronx and being raised in Puerto Rico. Kind of the opposite of what happens in this book. The book is a coming-of-age story about the author, Esmeralda Santiago's life. As a girl she is born and raised in the "campo" (countryside) of Puerto Rico with her mom, dad, and 8 siblings. But just as she enters her teen years her mom leaves her dad and they moved to Brooklyn, New York. She talks about the differences between the two places and how that move had changed her forever. “For me, the person I was becoming when we left was erased, and another one was created.” 

Just like my mom, Esmeralda has to learn English and is both intrigued and scared of the big city when she moves. Violence was a new thing for her considering she came from a very small town. Then obviously eventually after a tough upbringing growing up poor in New York, she learns English and becomes a writer.

To me this book is a type of gumbo of all the people in my family's stories. They tell me about moving, learning English, and how still everything is so different to them. As a kid I would spend summers in Puerto Rico with my grandfather and I could see why they were so shell shocked. But at the end of the day the American way of life was MY way of life and they had just learned it and embraced it.

This book also really resonates with me on a different level. It's now 2015 and for Hispanics racism is nearly obsolete (doesn't mean it doesn't happen sometimes). But that doesn't mean that sometimes we don't feel different. In the book Santiago describes things using the fruits of the island and the salsa music that seems to run through our veins. I think about those things sometimes and they don't really resonate with others who may not be Hispanic because they don't relate. Even now in the United States there are many Hispanic children that don't speak Spanish and don't relate to the island the way that I do because they've never experienced it for themselves. So it becomes hard to live everyday life and incorporate both cultures.

But this book has really opened my eyes. Honestly it proved to me that I was just as Puerto Rican as anyone born on the island. I speak Spanish, I love Spanish food, and salsa definitely runs through my veins. But the best part is is that I also speak English, and love burgers, and can appreciate English music. No one ever said I have to choose.

But you should CHOOSE to read this book (even if you are not Hispanic). Just the way Santiago tells her story is enthralling and the descriptions she makes will forever stay with me. It's a page turner all the way just about someone's life. It's the story that has been lived by so many people but it allows you to walk in her shoes and understand what it means to be uprooted. But it also gives readers a clear understanding of what the American dream is to others. It was a great read and I highly suggest it!