Esmeralda Santiago

"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,...

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.

"A powerful novel of family, race, faith, sex, and disaster that moves between Puerto Rico and The Bronx, revealing the lives and loves of five women and the secret that binds them together"-- They refer to themselves as "las Madres," a close-knit group of women who, with their daughters, have created a family based on friendship and blood ties.Their story begins in Puerto Rico in 1975 when fifteen-year-old Luz, the tallest girl in her dance academy...

"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.

En su nueva memoria, la aclamada autora de Cuando era puertorriquena (CE021) continua su cautivante cronica describiendo su salida de los barrios de Brooklyn a los teatros de Manhattan. "Negi," como carinosamente la llama su familia, deja Macun, un campo de Puerto Rico, en 1961 para vivir en un apartamento de tres habitaciones en un proyecto de viviendas, con siete hermanas y hermanos pequenos, una abuela preguntona, y una mama estricta que no la...

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 subiero al cielo. Pero precisamente cuando Esmeralda...