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

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(as of Jul 20, 2025 10:01:03 UTC – Details)


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.
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grand Central Publishing
Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 28, 2006
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 278 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306814528
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0306814525
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.81 x 8.25 inches
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1020L
Best Sellers Rank: #40,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #8 in Hispanic American Demographic Studies #420 in Women’s Biographies #799 in Memoirs (Books)